How do I deploy DATAENG/API2DB on Railway?

You can deploy DATAENG/API2DB on Railway by clicking the "Deploy Now" button on this page. Railway will automatically set up all the necessary services and configurations for you.

What are the system requirements?

Railway handles all the infrastructure requirements. You only need a web browser to deploy and manage your application.

Is this template free to use?

Yes, this template is free to use within your existing Railway account.

Can I customize this template?

Yes, you can fully customize this template. After deployment, you will have full control of what you've deployed in your Railway project.

How do I get support for this template?

You can get support through our community forum: api2db-template-6193231a, or click "Get template help" for this template for more assistance.

Deploy DATAENG/API2DB

Deploy and Host api2db on Railway

Fetch JSON from any HTTP API and store it in PostgreSQL. Ideal for scheduled ETL: run on a 5-minute (or custom) cron to snapshot API data into your database.

About Hosting api2db

One service: A Python app that runs once per invocation (no long-running server).
Flow: GET SITE_URL → parse JSON → insert full payload into TABLE_NAME.raw_json.
Resilience: Retries on connection/timeout (configurable timeout, retries, and backoff).
Use case: Pair with a Railway Cron (or external cron) to pull an API on a schedule and append rows to a table in the DB.

Common Use Cases

Scheduled data ingestion — Pull data from third-party APIs on a cron schedule and store it in PostgreSQL for later analysis
API archiving — Capture raw API responses as JSON snapshots for auditing, compliance, or historical tracking
ETL staging — Land raw JSON into a staging table as the first step of a data pipeline before transforming into structured tables

Dependencies for api2db Hosting

A REST API endpoint that returns JSON (public or authenticated via headers)
A PostgreSQL database with a target table containing a raw_json column (e.g. JSONB or TEXT)
A PostgreSQL database (add a Postgres service in the same project or use an external DATABASE_URL).
A table with at least a raw_json column. The template does not create the table.

Deployment Dependencies

A PostgreSQL database (add a Postgres service in the same project or use an external DATABASE_URL).
A table with at least a raw_json column. The template does not create the table.

Implementation Details

The target table needs a raw_json column. A minimal setup:

  CREATE TABLE my_api_data (
      id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
      raw_json JSONB NOT NULL,
      created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT NOW()
  );

For authenticated APIs, pass headers as a JSON object:

  HEADER_KEYS={"Authorization": "Bearer sk-..."}

Variable	Description
`SITE_URL`	Full URL to fetch (GET). Example: `https://api.example.com/v1/records` or `https://opensky-network.org/api/states/all?lamin=45&lomin=-123&lamax=46&lomax=-122`.
`DATABASE_URL`	PostgreSQL connection string. Use a reference variable from your Postgres service (e.g. `${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}}`) when possible.
`TABLE_NAME`	Name of the table to insert into. Table must already exist with a `raw_json` column (e.g. `TEXT` or `JSONB`).

Optional

Variable	Default	Description
`HEADER_KEYS`	`{}`	JSON object of HTTP headers, e.g. `{"Authorization": "Bearer TOKEN", "Accept": "application/json"}`.
`DEBUG`	`false`	Set to `true` to log a sample of the fetched payload.
`REQUEST_TIMEOUT`	`60`	Request timeout in seconds.
`MAX_RETRIES`	`3`	Number of retry attempts on timeout.
`RETRY_BACKOFF_SEC`	`10`	Seconds to wait between retries.

Why Deploy api2db 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 api2db 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.