Railway
All agents

Aider + Railway

Aider is a terminal-based AI pair programmer that works with any LLM. It edits code directly in your git repository and can automatically commit changes. Combined with Railway CLI, Aider can manage your entire development and deployment workflow.

Quick start

1

Install Aider

Install Aider via pip

pip install aider-chat
2

Install Railway CLI

Install Railway CLI and authenticate

npm install -g @railway/cli && railway login
3

Start Aider in your project

Launch Aider in your git repository

cd your-project && aider
4

Deploy a Flask app with MongoDB

Aider creates configs, auto-commits, and deploys via /run railway up. Get a live URL instantly

Add a Dockerfile and deploy this Flask app to Railway with MongoDB

Environment variables

VariableDescription
OPENAI_API_KEY
OpenAI API key (or other LLM provider)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
Anthropic API key if using Claude

Example prompts

/run railway up to deploy this Flask app

Add a MongoDB database and update my connection code

Fix the error shown in /run railway logs

Create a railway.toml with build caching enabled

Set up environment variables and auto-commit the .env.example

Add a /health endpoint and configure Railway to use it

Create a Celery worker service with Redis broker on Railway

Deploy Directus CMS with Postgres and S3-compatible storage

Set up a Django app with Postgres, Redis, and Celery on Railway

Create an ML inference API with model files on persistent volume

Common workflows

1Deploy a SQLite volume

  1. Ask Aider to configure SQLite with persistent volume
  2. Aider creates the volume configuration
  3. Aider updates your code to use the volume path
  4. Aider commits and deploys with /run railway up

2Code and deploy

  1. Make changes with Aider
  2. Aider commits changes automatically
  3. Run railway up to deploy
  4. Aider can help debug using railway logs

3Git-based deployment

  1. Make code changes with Aider
  2. Aider auto-commits with descriptive messages
  3. Push with /git push
  4. Railway autodeploys from the push

4Debug and fix

  1. Run /run railway logs to see errors
  2. Share logs with Aider for analysis
  3. Aider suggests and implements fixes
  4. Aider commits fixes and redeploys

Tips for success

  • Aider's auto-commit works well with Railway's git integration
  • Use /run railway up within Aider to deploy
  • Aider can generate railway.toml configurations

Code snippets

Deploy with Aider
bash
# Inside Aider, run:
/run railway login
/run railway link
/run railway up

Frequently asked questions

How do I deploy to Railway from Aider?

Use /run railway up in Aider to deploy. Aider can also auto-commit changes, and with GitHub autodeploys enabled, each commit triggers a Railway deployment.

Can Aider create Railway configuration files?

Yes! Ask Aider to create a railway.toml and it will generate the configuration with proper build and deploy settings for your project.

How do I fix Railway deployment errors using Aider?

Run /run railway logs to see errors, then share the output with Aider. It will analyze the issue, fix your code, and auto-commit the fix.

Troubleshooting

Issue:

Aider's /run command fails with Railway CLI

Solution:

Ensure Railway CLI is installed globally and in your PATH. Try running railway directly in terminal first.

Issue:

Auto-commits not triggering Railway deploys

Solution:

Make sure GitHub autodeploys are enabled in Railway dashboard and connected to the correct branch.

Issue:

Aider can't find railway.toml

Solution:

Add railway.toml to your git repository root. Use /add railway.toml to include it in Aider's context.

Community resources

Ready to deploy with Aider?

Get started in minutes. Railway handles the infrastructure.