Deploy and Host Calibre-Web on Railway

Calibre-Web is a self-hosted web application for browsing, reading, managing, and sharing ebook libraries through a browser. It works with a standard Calibre library and adds multi-user access, OPDS feeds, metadata management, ebook uploads, in-browser reading, Kobo sync, and optional ebook conversion capabilities.

About Hosting Calibre-Web

Hosting Calibre-Web on Railway provides a persistent, browser-accessible ebook library without managing your own server. The deployment runs Calibre-Web in a LinuxServer container, exposes the web interface on port 8083, and stores application configuration together with the Calibre library on a Railway Volume mounted at /config.

For Railway's single-volume-per-service model, the ebook library can be stored under /config/books. Calibre-Web then uses /config/books as the Calibre database location, where the library's metadata.db file and ebook files are stored persistently across deployments.

Common Use Cases

Host a private ebook library accessible from any browser
Share an ebook collection with multiple users and configurable permissions
Access books through OPDS-compatible ebook readers and applications
Manage and edit Calibre ebook metadata remotely
Upload, organize, and read ebooks without running Calibre Desktop continuously
Synchronize compatible Kobo devices with your self-hosted library

Dependencies for Calibre-Web Hosting

A persistent Railway Volume mounted at /config
A valid Calibre library containing metadata.db
LinuxServer Calibre-Web container image
Railway public networking routed to port 8083
Optional Universal Calibre Docker Mod for ebook conversion tools

Implementation Details

The recommended Railway configuration uses:

PORT="8083" # Railway public HTTP target port; Calibre-Web listens on 8083
PUID="1000" # User ID used by LinuxServer for application file ownership
PGID="1000" # Group ID used by LinuxServer for application file ownership
TZ="Asia/Jakarta" # Container timezone
RAILWAY_RUN_UID="0" # Allow LinuxServer initialization to access the Railway-mounted volume
DOCKER_MODS="linuxserver/mods:universal-calibre" # Add Calibre ebook conversion binaries

Mount the Railway Volume at:

/config

Use the following path as the Location of Calibre database inside Calibre-Web:

/config/books

A typical persistent directory structure looks like:

/config
├── app.db
├── calibre-web.log
└── books
    ├── metadata.db
    ├── Author Name
    └── Ebook Files

Calibre-Web does not natively require PostgreSQL or Redis. Its application configuration uses SQLite, while the ebook library uses the standard Calibre metadata.db database.

Why Deploy Calibre-Web 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 Calibre-Web 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.