Deploy and Host Lens on Railway

Lens is an interactive 3D optical lens learning application designed to visualize and experiment with optical behaviors in a web browser. Built using Fable 5, it provides real-time 3D rendering and simulation tools for students, educators, and physics enthusiasts looking to explore lens properties dynamically.

About Hosting Lens

Deploying Lens on Railway provisions a lightweight web service optimized for serving static assets and rendering interactive 3D web applications. Railway automates the deployment pipeline directly from the GitHub repository, handling build operations, dependency resolution, and asset hosting without manual server configuration.

Because Lens runs purely on the client side, it requires no persistent storage volumes or external database services. Railway provisions the application with automatic HTTPS certificates, built-in edge networking, and zero-downtime deployments. Custom domain routing and global CDN distribution can be configured through Railway's service settings. Scaling can be handled seamlessly within the Railway platform by adjusting service memory or CPU allocations as incoming traffic grows.

Common Use Cases

Physics and optics interactive educational demonstrations in classrooms.
Self-paced learning tool for students studying 3D optics, focal lengths, and light refraction.
Open-source reference template for interactive 3D web applications built with Fable 5.

Dependencies for Lens Hosting

Dependency	Type	Description
Node.js / npm	Runtime / Build	Required for package management and building static frontend assets.

Deployment Dependencies

Implementation Details

Docker

The repository does not contain a pre-built Dockerfile or Docker image configuration. Railway will automatically detect the Node.js project environment using its default Nixpacks builder to install dependencies and assemble static assets.

Public Networking

Proxy Type	Target Port	Notes
HTTP Proxy	3000 / 8080	Default web server entry port assigned by Railway runtime environment.

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
`PORT`	Optional	Defines the HTTP port on which the web application listens. Automatically injected by Railway.

PORT=8080

Persistent Storage

Persistent storage is not required for Lens. The application operates as a stateless web frontend without local data persistence needs.

Database

No database service is required for hosting this application.

Build & Start

Railway automatically detects package settings via package.json. No custom build or start commands are required unless overridden in Railway's service settings.

Accessing the Application

Open your project in the Railway Dashboard.
Select the Lens service.
Navigate to Settings → Networking.
Click Generate Domain to assign a public Railway URL.
Access the interactive 3D application via the generated HTTPS link. No default login credentials or administrative setups are required.

Why Deploy Lens on Railway?

Railway provides a developer-friendly platform that simplifies infrastructure management, allowing you to focus on building applications rather than managing servers. With features like automatic deployments, built-in databases, and seamless environment variable management, Railway streamlines the process of taking applications from code to production.