Deploy and Host a Claude Code Dev Box on Railway

This template gives you an always-on Ubuntu 24.04 workstation with Claude Code pre-installed. Open your Railway domain for a terminal in the browser, or SSH in through Railway's TCP proxy. Your home directory lives on a volume, so repos, Claude login, GitHub auth and dotfiles survive every redeploy.

About Hosting a Claude Code Dev Box

One service, one volume. The image ships claude, git, gh, Node 22, Python 3 + uv, tmux, ripgrep, jq, vim, build tools and an OpenSSH server. A ttyd web terminal (basic-auth gated) and sshd (password or key) both drop you into the same tmux session, so you can start a long Claude Code run from your laptop and pick it up from your phone. SSH host keys are stored on the volume, so your client never sees a "host key changed" warning after a redeploy.

Common Use Cases

Run Claude Code 24/7 on a task without keeping your laptop open
Code from an iPad, Chromebook or phone: the browser terminal needs no SSH client
A disposable root box with a stable IP for scripts, scraping, cron-style jobs or CI debugging
Keep a persistent workspace for side projects that is reachable from anywhere

Dependencies for Claude Code Dev Box Hosting

None. Single service, no database.

Deployment Dependencies

Implementation Details

First use: open your Railway domain, log in with WEB_USER and the generated WEB_PASSWORD (service Variables tab). Run claude and complete /login by pasting the URL into a browser, or set CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN (from claude setup-token on your own machine) or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY as a variable so it is signed in from the start.

SSH: Railway creates a TCP proxy for port 22 on deploy. Copy the host and port from Settings → Networking and run ssh root@ -p with ROOT_PASSWORD, or add your public key to AUTHORIZED_KEYS and clear ROOT_PASSWORD for key-only login.

Handy commands inside the box:

cl starts Claude Code inside a detachable tmux session named claude; tmux attach -t claude resumes it
gh auth login or set GH_TOKEN to push to GitHub
claude update upgrades Claude Code in place

Notes and limits:

You are root. Anything you install outside /root disappears on redeploy; anything under /root stays.
Give the service at least 1 GB of RAM. Claude Code plus a Node build comfortably uses more.
There is no Docker daemon inside the box.
The web terminal password is the whole security model for a root shell. Keep it strong and do not share the URL.

Why Deploy a Claude Code Dev Box 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 a Claude Code dev box 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.