Deploy and Host Credential Protocol on Railway

Credential Protocol is a self-hosted app for issuing membership cards, event tickets, collectibles, vouchers and certificates. Each card is signed with your own key and checked against your own server. You run it, you keep the member list, and you decide the rules.

Deploy it, log in, answer a few plain questions, and you have a working card system with your name on it.

About Hosting Credential Protocol

Deploying gives you a private copy that belongs only to you: your own admin dashboard, your own signing key, your own member list and your own storage. Nothing is shared with other creators.

After you log in, you set your brand name, colors and what you offer, then paste a short piece of HTML into your website. Visitors get a sign-up box. Members get a card and a members page. You get a dashboard that shows who joined.

Instead of a long settings form, you pick a Recipe and answer a few everyday questions:

A membership: one week, a month, three months, a year, forever, or a length you choose. A free trial is optional.
Event tickets, with check-in at the door (a door link for your team, or scanning with a phone camera).
A collectible: numbered editions ("No. 7 of 100") or unnumbered ones. Numbered editions can be locked so nobody can add more later.
A release in parts, such as an EP, a photo set or a comic. A new piece opens each week, and people who collect them all unlock a bonus edition.
A collection with a reward: collect three cards, get a fourth.
Vouchers and discount or gift codes.
Certificates for courses, workshops and achievements.

Cards can unlock things only your members see: downloads, links, files, a members-only page and a bulletin board. Members can renew, and reminders go out before a card expires.

Handing out cards in person? Create claim codes and print a sheet of QR codes. You can also show upcoming dates on a "What's on" calendar page.

Emails (welcome, receipt, reminder) can be edited in the dashboard and styled to match your brand. You connect the email service there too, so there are no settings files to edit and no server variables to set.

Safety: the dashboard has login lock-outs after repeated wrong passwords, request limits on public forms, and protection against forged requests. You can turn on an optional second login step using an authenticator app. Cards are signed with ECDSA (SHA-256), so a card that has been edited or copied from somewhere else will not verify. You can download a full backup at any time and restore it on another server.

Common Use Cases

A paid or free fan club with levels and members-only extras.
A weekly drop: one song, chapter or photo a week, with a bonus edition for people who collect every part.
Event tickets checked at the door by your team.
Limited collectible cards for an album, an art series or a community milestone.
Certificates for courses and workshops.
Gift or discount vouchers for customers, a launch day or a partner.
A members-only area with downloads, links and a bulletin board.
Approving people by hand, or taking payment at sign-up (Stripe, or your own payment link).
Moving your whole setup to another server using the backup file.

Dependencies for Credential Protocol Hosting

Deployment Dependencies

A persistent Volume mounted at /data. The template creates it for you. Your cards, members and signing key are stored there, so they survive restarts and updates. Do not delete this volume.
An admin password (the ADMIN_SECRET variable). You type it once when you deploy and use it to log in. Use at least 12 characters.
A Railway plan that can keep a service and a volume running. The Free plan is usually too small; the Hobby plan is enough to start.
Optional: an email service so welcome emails, receipts and reminders can be sent. Mailjet, Brevo, Resend or any SMTP server works. You enter the keys in the dashboard under Settings, then Emails. Note that some services (Brevo, for example) rewrite the links in your emails for click tracking. If you want your links to stay exactly as written, choose a service where click tracking can be switched off.
Optional: Stripe keys, if you want people to pay at sign-up. Without them you can still approve members by hand, give cards away, or use your own payment link.

Implementation Details

When the deploy finishes, open https://your-domain/admin/login and log in with the password you set. A short setup checklist walks you through the rest and shows the HTML to paste into your website. Make your first Recipe and try it as a visitor before sharing it.

Your signing key is created on first start and kept on the volume. Back it up with the backup button in the dashboard and keep that file somewhere safe. If the key is lost, cards you already issued can no longer be verified.

Why Deploy Credential Protocol on Railway?

Railway runs the server, the storage volume and the HTTPS address for you, so there is nothing to set up by hand. You deploy from the template, add your password, and the app is online with its data stored safely on a volume.

Updates and restarts keep your data, and you can add your own domain from the Railway settings when you are ready.