Deploy and Host DuckDB on Railway

DuckDB is a fast, in-process analytical SQL database for running complex queries over large datasets without a separate server. This template hosts it as a persistent, authenticated HTTP query service on Railway — a ready-to-use REST API backed by a DuckDB file on a volume, so your data survives redeploys and stays secure by default.

About Hosting DuckDB

DuckDB normally runs embedded inside your application — there's no server to connect to. This template wraps it in a small FastAPI service exposing a /query REST endpoint, giving you a hosted DuckDB you can call over HTTP from any client. A Railway volume mounted at /data stores the database file, so tables and data persist across deployments. Requests require an auto-generated API key, and the database is read-only by default unless you set DUCKDB_ALLOW_WRITE=true. It's a lightweight way to get an always-on analytical SQL endpoint for dashboards, analytics backends, and data APIs — without running or managing database infrastructure yourself.

Common Use Cases

Power live dashboards instantly — point Looker, Metabase, Grafana, or a custom frontend straight at the /query endpoint and get sub-second analytical queries without standing up a warehouse
Skip the database ops entirely — get a persistent, always-on SQL backend for internal tools and apps in minutes, with none of the setup, patching, or scaling headaches of Postgres or a full data warehouse
Query CSV/Parquet files like a pro analyst — drop datasets on the volume and run DuckDB's rich, fast SQL dialect over them directly, no ETL pipeline required
Prototype OLAP workloads for free-ish — spin up a real analytical database in seconds to test ideas, validate a data model, or demo a feature, then throw it away or scale it up

Dependencies for DuckDB Hosting

DuckDB — in-process analytical SQL engine
FastAPI + Uvicorn — REST framework and ASGI server
Railway Volume — persistent storage mounted at /data

Implementation Details

The service exposes POST /query (JSON body: {"sql": "SELECT 42"}) and GET /query?sql=..., returning columns, rows, row_count, and elapsed_ms. Healthcheck available at /health. Writes are disabled unless DUCKDB_ALLOW_WRITE=true.

Why Deploy DuckDB on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway hosts your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying DuckDB on Railway, you're one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more — all on Railway.