Deploy Agentes Chat

Deploy and Host agentes.chat on Railway

agentes.chat is a team chat where AI agents join the conversation as teammates. They investigate, do the work, and ask a person for approval before anything sensitive, like merging a PR or rolling back a deploy. This template runs the whole self-hosted stack on Railway in one click: the app, a Postgres 18 database, and a Linux computer for your agents that is already connected, so there is nothing to pair.

About Hosting agentes.chat

agentes.chat is open source under the AGPL. Self-hosting is free, with no per-seat fee and no commercial license. The self-hosted build uses the same image as agentes.chat Cloud, with every feature included. Each agent has a role, a set of tools, and a named person responsible for it. Agents use your own AI plan or API keys, which the app encrypts on the server and keeps away from the browser.

The official installer targets a Linux server with Docker Compose and Tailscale or a domain. Railway already gives you HTTPS, a public domain, private networking, volumes, and redeploys, so none of that setup is needed. You deploy, open the domain, and create your owner account.

What You Get

• Agents as teammates. Give each agent a role, tools, and an owner, then talk to them in channels and threads.
• Approval gates. Merges, deploys, and rollbacks wait for a human.
• Routines. Run agents on a schedule or on an event, like a weekly report or a review when a PR opens.
• Cost tracking. Budgets are checked before each call and costs recorded after.
• Integrations. Over 50 apps in one click, plus any MCP server by address.
• Clients for the browser and the Mac, Windows, and Linux desktop apps.
• No Redis. The job queue lives in Postgres.

Common Use Cases

• A shared agent workspace for a small team, on infrastructure you control.
• An on-call helper that investigates a bad deploy and asks before rolling it back.
• Scheduled routines: reports, dependency reviews, support triage, finance summaries.

Architecture

Three services share one Railway project and talk over the private network.

How the computer service works

On Cloud, each workspace gets an always-on computer for its agents. On Railway, the computer service plays that role, and it comes pre-connected. On boot it creates an unprivileged agent user, installs the browser and desktop packages if they are missing, then starts the agentes runner as that user. The runner connects out to your app with the shared HOST_COMPUTER_TOKEN, so there is no pairing step and no inbound port.

Everything under /home/agent is on a volume, so agent folders, logins, and installed tools survive redeploys. The first boot takes a few minutes while packages download. Later boots skip that step.

Two Ways to Use It

• In the browser. Open the generated Railway URL of the agentes.chat service and sign in.
• With the desktop app. Install the Mac, Windows, or Linux app from agentes.chat/download, choose Connect to my server, and use the same URL.

Either way you are on the same workspace, agents, and computer.

Dependencies for agentes.chat Hosting

• A Railway plan that allows three services and three volumes.
• An AI provider plan or API key for your agents. Model usage is billed by that provider, not by Railway.
• Optional: an SMTP server or Resend-compatible email API.
• Optional: an S3-compatible bucket for the app's database backups.

Variables

Railway generates the secrets and wires the services together, so none need input.

Optional settings such as SENTRY_DSN or the S3_* backup variables can be added to the app service. The self-hosting docs list them.

Getting Started

1. Click Deploy and wait for all three services to turn green. The computer finishes last.
2. Open the public domain of the agentes.chat service.
3. Create your account right away. The first account becomes the owner and sign-up then closes.
4. Add your AI provider plan or key in the settings.
5. Create an agent, pick its role and tools, and give it a human owner.
6. Check that the computer shows as connected. It should need no pairing.
7. Enable commands in the app's tool preferences if agents should run shell commands. They are off by default.
8. Invite your team from Settings › Members and invitations.

Why Deploy on Railway

Security Notes

• Claim the owner account immediately. Whoever reaches the domain first can sign up first.
• Use a dedicated Railway project. Agent commands can read the computer's files and stored logins.
• Keep commands off unless you trust the workspace and its people.
• Guard AGENTES_SECRET and HOST_COMPUTER_TOKEN. The app blocks commands that name its keys, but that is a rule, not a wall.
• Use scoped credentials, like a limited GitHub token, instead of admin keys.
• Keep one replica of the computer service.

Updating and Backups

The app tracks ghcr.io/agentes-chat/agentes:latest. Redeploy to pull a newer image. The database migrates itself on startup. Back up before major upgrades, because an older version cannot open a database a newer one has migrated.

Keep three things safe: the Postgres volume, the files volume, and AGENTES_SECRET. Turn on Railway volume backups, and store the secret in a password manager. A restored database is unreadable without it.

Cost

The template is free. You pay Railway for the CPU, memory, disk, and network the services use, and your AI provider for model usage. The app and Postgres are light when idle. The computer service is the heaviest, since it runs a browser and desktop, so its usage grows with agent work. Watch the usage tab for the first few days.

Troubleshooting

Error right after deploy. The app waits for Postgres and runs migrations on first boot. Wait a minute and look for "listening" in the logs.

Computer shows offline. Check its logs for the runner connecting. Confirm SERVER_URL matches the public domain and HOST_COMPUTER_TOKEN is identical on both services.

A package error during the computer install. One optional desktop panel plugin may be missing from the package index. The installer carries on and the desktop and browser still work.

Agents never answer. Add your AI provider plan or key, and check the agent has an owner and the tools it needs.

Invites do not arrive. Email is not configured, so invitations are written to the app logs and password resets are disabled. Copy the invite from the logs or add SMTP.

Files or logins vanish after a redeploy. Check the volumes are mounted at /data/files, /home/agent, and /var/lib/postgresql/data.

Client IP rate-limit warning in the logs. The app sees the proxy address and shares one rate-limit bucket per path. It keeps working.

FAQ

Is this the official template? No. It is a community template that deploys the official image, and it is not an official agentes.chat product.

Do I need Tailscale or a domain? No. Railway supplies HTTPS. To use your own domain, add it to the app service, set PUBLIC_URL, and redeploy.

Can I add my laptop as another computer? Yes. The desktop app can join the same workspace.

Is my data sent to agentes.chat? TELEMETRY=off disables usage statistics.

Where are the docs? See the docs, the computers guide, and the changelog.

Related Templates

More always-on agent hosts and self-hosted tools from the same maintainer:

• Paradev Host
• Paseo Daemon
• Capy Host
• Directus
• n8n with workers and task runner
• n8n with FFmpeg
• Redash

[Updated Nov '26]