Deploy and Host Bolt DIY on Railway

Bolt DIY is the open-source alternative to bolt.new: describe an app in chat and it writes, runs and previews a full-stack project in your browser, using whichever LLM provider you connect — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, OpenRouter, Ollama and more. This template deploys the current upstream build behind HTTP basic authentication, on a container that actually starts and that binds the port Railway gives it.

About Hosting Bolt DIY

This template runs Bolt DIY as a single service with no database and no volume, because the app keeps chat history in your browser's own storage rather than on the server. Two things are fixed relative to a stock deployment. Upstream's production image prunes development dependencies but its start command still invokes one of them, so the container exits within seconds of starting; this image reinstalls that dependency at upstream's own pinned version, so the newest code boots. Upstream's start command also hardcodes its listening port, which means Railway's healthcheck — which dials the injected port — can never succeed; here the application runs on loopback behind a small reverse proxy that binds Railway's port and answers /healthz without credentials. Everything else requires a password, generated per deployment, and the container refuses to start if that password is empty.

Why Deploy Bolt DIY 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 Bolt DIY 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.

It boots — the upstream production image at its current commit exits immediately with wrangler: not found; this one starts and stays healthy, and it is healthchecked so a failed deployment is reported as failed.
Your provider keys are not public — Bolt DIY ships no authentication of its own, and any API key present in the server environment is usable by every visitor to the URL. This deployment puts HTTP basic auth in front of the whole application.
Current code, pinned — built from upstream's newest commit and pinned by tag, rather than tracking a moving tag or an old digest.
Nothing blank to fill in — the deploy form generates the password for you. Provider API keys belong in the app's own settings panel, not on the deploy form, so none are asked for here.

Common Use Cases

Prototype an app from a prompt — describe a page or a feature and get a running project you can edit, preview and download.
A shared AI builder for a small team — one URL, one password, and whichever model provider you already pay for.
Try several LLM providers on the same task — switch provider and model inside the app and compare the code each one writes.

Dependencies for Bolt DIY Hosting

An API key for at least one LLM provider, entered in the application's own settings panel after you sign in.

Deployment Dependencies

stackblitz-labs/bolt.diy — the upstream project (MIT)
bon5co/boltdiy-railway — the Railway wrapper image this template deploys

Implementation Details

Open your deployment's URL and sign in with the username admin and the generated BOLT_PASSWORD from the service variables. To change it, edit BOLT_PASSWORD and redeploy.

Add your LLM provider keys inside Bolt DIY, from the settings panel in the app. Keys set as Railway service variables are also read by the application, but they are then available to anyone who can sign in, so the settings panel is the better place for them.

Chat history is stored in your browser, not on the server, so it is per-browser and is not shared between devices or lost on redeploy.