Deploy and Host Convex on Railway

Convex is an open-source reactive backend: a database, server functions written in TypeScript, file storage, scheduled jobs and live queries that push updates to every connected client. This template runs the official self-hosted Convex backend and dashboard images (pinned by digest) as three Railway services, with the database on a Railway volume.

About Hosting Convex

Three services, one deploy. convex is the backend (API and WebSocket sync), site is a small HTTPS proxy for HTTP actions, and dashboard is the admin UI. Nothing has to be typed into the deploy form.
HTTP actions get a real HTTPS URL. Convex serves HTTP actions, webhooks and auth callbacks (Convex Auth, OAuth redirects) from a second port. The site service puts that port on its own public Railway domain and CONVEX_SITE_ORIGIN points at it, so callbacks work without any extra setup.
Data survives redeploys. SQLite and file storage live on a Railway volume mounted at /convex/data. The instance secret is generated per deploy and stored on the volume with the instance credentials.
Admin key in the deploy log. Every boot, the convex service prints a line starting with [railway] DASHBOARD ADMIN KEY:. Open the service's Deploy Logs, copy the key and paste it into the dashboard login.
Healthchecks. The backend is checked on /version, the proxy on /railway_health, the dashboard on /.

Getting started

Deploy the template and wait for all three services to go green.
Open the dashboard service domain. Enter the convex service domain as the deployment URL if asked, and the admin key from the convex deploy logs.
In your project, set these two values (for example in .env.local) and run npx convex dev or npx convex deploy:

CONVEX_SELF_HOSTED_URL=https://
CONVEX_SELF_HOSTED_ADMIN_KEY=

Point your client at the same URL: new ConvexReactClient("https://"). HTTP actions are served at https://.

Common Use Cases

A self-hosted backend for a React, Next.js or mobile app that needs live, reactive queries
Backend for AI and vibe-coding projects that already target the Convex API
Webhook receivers and OAuth callbacks through Convex HTTP actions
Keeping app data on infrastructure you control instead of the Convex cloud

Dependencies for Convex Hosting

One Railway volume on the convex service (created by the template)

Deployment Dependencies

Self-hosting guide: https://github.com/get-convex/convex-backend/tree/main/self-hosted
Convex documentation: https://docs.convex.dev/
Backend image: https://github.com/get-convex/convex-backend/pkgs/container/convex-backend
Dashboard image: https://github.com/get-convex/convex-backend/pkgs/container/convex-dashboard

Implementation Details

Variable	Service	Purpose
`INSTANCE_SECRET`	convex	64 hex characters, generated per deploy. The admin key is derived from it, so do not change it after first boot.
`CONVEX_CLOUD_ORIGIN`	convex	Public HTTPS URL of the backend, used in storage URLs and callbacks.
`CONVEX_SITE_ORIGIN`	convex	Public HTTPS URL of the `site` service, used for HTTP actions.
`BACKEND_HOST`	site	Private address of the backend that the proxy forwards to.
`NEXT_PUBLIC_DEPLOYMENT_URL`	dashboard	Backend URL the dashboard connects to.

Why Deploy Convex 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 Convex 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.