Deploy and Host drobek with Railway

drobek is an open-source (AGPL-3.0) cloud workspace for agent-built web apps. Your AI agent connects over MCP, writes the files, and drobek compiles them, keeps every write as a version with its own preview URL, and publishes the app when you ask. A dashboard covers secrets, data and users.

About Hosting drobek

drobek is one Node.js process plus Postgres and Redis. The template runs the official image ghcr.io/freema/drobek with Railway's managed Postgres and Redis on the private network, and a volume at /data for uploads, assets and installed modules. Railway's edge terminates TLS. This template is a personal instance that needs no domain of your own: the dashboard and MCP live on one Railway URL, your apps under a second one at /apps//, served through a small proxy service from the same image. Sign-in works with e-mailed codes, so you need a Resend API key or an SMTP server. The database migrates itself on the first start.

Common Use Cases

Let Claude, Codex or any MCP client build and host small web apps for you
Prototype personal tools with a backend (login, stored data, forms, file uploads) without writing infrastructure
Run a private, self-hosted alternative to hosted app builders, with your data in your own Postgres

Dependencies for drobek Hosting

Postgres (included in the template)
Redis (included in the template)
A Resend API key or an SMTP server for sign-in e-mails

Deployment Dependencies

Image: https://github.com/freema/drobek/pkgs/container/drobek
Self-hosting reference: https://github.com/freema/drobek/blob/main/docs/SELF-HOSTING.md
Railway guide: https://github.com/freema/drobek/blob/main/docs/RAILWAY.md

Implementation Details

The drobek service uses one volume at /data (FILES_DIR, ASSETS_DIR, DROBEK_MODULES_DIR), the healthcheck /healthz, and a generated DROBEK_MASTER_KEY that encrypts app secrets. The apps service runs node dist/server/apps-proxy.js from the same image and forwards the apps origin to drobek over the private network. DATABASE_URL and REDIS_URL are reference variables to the Postgres and Redis services. All apps share one browser origin, so the instance is for one owner; teams and own domains use the subdomain setup from the self-hosting guide.

Why Deploy drobek 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 drobek 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.