Deploy and Host a Docker Registry on Railway

A private Docker registry: the CNCF registry (distribution 3.1) behind a password, with images on a volume. It refuses to start without credentials, so it is never an open file host on a public domain.

Nothing to fill in. The template generates the password; find it in the Registry service's variables.

About Hosting a Docker Registry

One service, built from ak40u/docker-registry-railway-starter:

Registry: the Docker Registry HTTP API, behind HTTP basic authentication, with image layers on a volume (public)

docker login  -u admin
docker tag myapp /myapp:1.0
docker push /myapp:1.0

Common Use Cases

Private images for your own deployments, pulled by other Railway services or by CI.
A mirror of the images your builds depend on, so a deploy does not wait on a public registry.
Sharing images inside a team without a paid registry plan.

Dependencies for Docker Registry Hosting

Deployment Dependencies

registry:3.1.2 (CNCF distribution, Apache-2.0) with apache2-utils for htpasswd, built from the starter repository's Dockerfile

Implementation Details

A password is mandatory. The common registry template runs registry:2 with no authentication on a public domain, so anyone who finds the address can push and pull anything. Here the start script exits unless both AUTH_USERNAME and AUTH_PASSWORD are set, and writes the bcrypt htpasswd file the registry requires from them on every start; changing the password is a variable change and a redeploy.
The credentials are not REGISTRY_* variables. The registry reads every REGISTRY_* variable as a configuration key, so REGISTRY_PASSWORD would be logged as an unrecognised setting.
htpasswd is installed at build time, so the registry never depends on a package mirror while it starts.
Deletes free space. REGISTRY_STORAGE_DELETE_ENABLED=true lets you delete manifests through the API and reclaim storage with garbage collection.
No health check path. The registry's API answers 401 without credentials, and Railway's health check expects 200.

Configuration

AUTH_USERNAME defaults to admin; AUTH_PASSWORD is generated. Image layers count toward the volume's size, so watch it if you push large images.

Verification

Deployed from this template into an empty project: the registry started for the generated user and answers an anonymous /v2/ request with 401. Locally, on the same image: a wrong password gets 401, the right one 200, and docker login, docker push and the catalog work; without credentials the container exits with a message naming both variables.

Why Deploy a Docker Registry 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 Docker Registry 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.