Deploy and Host 0colors on Railway

0colors is a self-hosted, open-source design-tokens canvas. Build a complete color system visually on an infinite canvas, derive themes and semantic tokens automatically, and export to CSS variables, Tailwind config, DTCG JSON, or Figma variables. Multi-user with invite-based collaboration. No third-party cloud, no telemetry, no SaaS account required.

About Hosting 0colors

This template provisions everything 0colors needs in a single Railway project: one application service (a Hono backend that serves both the JSON API on /api/* and the built React SPA on /) and a Railway-managed Postgres plugin, wired automatically via ${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}}. One service, one domain, no CORS surface. Schema migrations run idempotently as a pre-deploy command, so updates from the upstream repo apply safely without operator intervention. First boot creates your admin account from the ADMIN_EMAIL and ADMIN_PASSWORD you supply at deploy time; from then on you invite collaborators directly from inside the app.

Common Use Cases

• Design-system teams maintaining a single source of truth for color tokens across product surfaces -Studios building token libraries collaboratively for client work and handing off CSS / Tailwind / DTCG / Figma exports -Solo designers who want their tokens on their own infrastructure instead of a third-party SaaS

Dependencies for 0colors Hosting

-A Railway-managed PostgreSQL plugin (provisioned by this template) -A Node.js 20+ runtime (provisioned automatically by the included Dockerfile) -(Optional) An Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenRouter API key — only required if you want AI-assisted color and token generation. Each provider is independent; leave the others unset.

Deployment Dependencies

https://github.com/Withso/0colors https://docs.railway.com/databases/postgresql https://docs.railway.com/deployments/pre-deploy-command

Implementation Details

-The Hono backend serves the built React SPA from packages/backend/dist/public/ and the JSON API from /api/*. SPA client routes fall back to index.html so deep links survive hard refresh and direct navigation.

-Schema migrations run as the pre-deploy command (node packages/backend/dist/cli/migrate.js) in a separate container; failures abort the deploy cleanly without taking the running version down. Migrations are idempotent (CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS, ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS) so re-running on every deploy is safe.

-Authentication is fully local: bcrypt-hashed passwords, HttpOnly session cookies, server-side session revocation, and invite tokens with a 7-day expiry. No third-party identity provider, no email service required.

Why Deploy 0colors on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying 0colors on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.