How do I deploy Background Agent on Railway?

You can deploy Background Agent on Railway by clicking the "Deploy Now" button on this page. Railway will automatically set up all the necessary services and configurations for you.

What are the system requirements?

Railway handles all the infrastructure requirements. You only need a web browser to deploy and manage your application.

Is this template free to use?

Yes, this template is free to use within your existing Railway account.

Can I customize this template?

Yes, you can fully customize this template. After deployment, you will have full control of what you've deployed in your Railway project.

How do I get support for this template?

You can get support through our community forum: background-agent-0b7250ff, or click "Get template help" for this template for more assistance.

Deploy and Host Background Agent on Railway

Background Agent is a small full-stack demo that provisions per-session "sandbox" services on Railway and routes traffic to them through a proxy.

It's inspired by Ramp's Background Agent architecture (https://builders.ramp.com/post/why-we-built-our-background-agent). You get an admin dashboard to create/retire ephemeral environments and a secure token-based link to open each sandbox in the browser.

About Hosting Background Agent

Hosting Background Agent on Railway involves deploying:

API service (Express + TypeScript)
Web dashboard (React + Vite)
Postgres database to track session state.

When a user creates a session, the API uses the Railway GraphQL API to spin up a new Railway service from a sandbox container image. The API then reverse-proxies HTTP + WebSocket traffic to the correct sandbox over Railway's internal network, using a signed token to authorize access.

You'll configure two public hostnames: one for the API/dashboard and one dedicated to proxying sandbox traffic.

Common Use Cases

Ephemeral dev/test environments per ticket, customer, or agent run
Secure "open in browser" sandboxes for demos, support, and onboarding
Multi-tenant workspaces where each session gets an isolated service container

Dependencies for Background Agent Hosting

Deployment Dependencies

Railway API token + Project/Environment IDs (to create/delete sandbox services)
GitHub personal acceses token (to clone the target repo and create branches/PRs)

Why Deploy Background Agent 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 Background Agent 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.