Deploy and Host knocktell on Railway

knocktell is a multi-tenant SaaS for recording and managing door-to-door visits on a map. Pick houses shown on a vector map, log outcomes such as "visited" or "no answer," and share progress across your organization in real time. Built for field reps on mobile and managers on desktop, with each tenant's data kept separate.

About Hosting knocktell

Hosting knocktell means running a Next.js (App Router) app backed by PostgreSQL. On deploy, the template provisions a Postgres database, runs migrations, and seeds a default organization automatically. Sign-in uses Auth.js with Auth0 (Google) — in production you supply three Auth0 values plus a session secret. The base map is drawn with MapLibre and Japan GSI optimized vector tiles, so no map API key is required. The app is host-agnostic: it only needs DATABASE_URL and DIRECT_URL, so the web service and database can scale independently. A /api/health endpoint backs Railway's health checks.

Common Use Cases

• Door-to-door sales or canvassing teams tracking which households have already been visited
• Coverage work where every address in an area must be accounted for (surveys, inspections, campaigns)
• Field teams that need real-time, shared visit status separated per organization

Dependencies for knocktell Hosting

• A PostgreSQL database (provisioned by this template)
• An Auth0 tenant with a Google social connection (for production sign-in)

Deployment Dependencies

• Auth0 — https://auth0.com (create an Application, enable the Google connection, and register the callback URL /api/auth/callback/auth0)
• Auth.js (NextAuth) — https://authjs.dev
• MapLibre GL — https://maplibre.org
• GSI optimized vector tiles (国土地理院) — https://www.gsi.go.jp/

Implementation Details

Required environment variables: AUTH0_ISSUER, AUTH0_CLIENT_ID, AUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET, and AUTH_SECRET (generate with npx auth secret). DATABASE_URL and DIRECT_URL are wired to the bundled Postgres automatically. The first user to sign in becomes the organization admin; subsequent users join as "pending" and require admin approval before they can access data. Until Auth0 is configured, the app shows a "setup required" screen and stays locked, so it is never publicly open by accident.

Why Deploy knocktell 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 knocktell 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.