Deploy and Host Lakecraft Multiplayer Server on Railway

Lakecraft Multiplayer Server is the persistent realtime backend for Lakecraft's browser-based multiplayer mode. This template creates an invitation-only server with a generated public WebSocket address, generated access token, and a durable SQLite world volume.

About Hosting Lakecraft Multiplayer Server

The service runs the public ghcr.io/bentsignal/lakecraft-server:railway-beta image as one Bun process. Railway terminates HTTPS and WSS, checks /status, and mounts a persistent volume at /data. Player positions and block edits survive deployments and restarts while the public domain remains stable.

Why Deploy Lakecraft Multiplayer Server on Railway

No local port forwarding, router configuration, Node installation, or Docker setup is required.
Railway generates the public domain and high-entropy invitation credentials.
The included volume persists the shared world across restarts and updates.
The service is preconfigured for https://craft.lakebed.app, one replica, health checks, and automatic restart.

Common Use Cases

Host a private Lakecraft world for friends.
Test Lakecraft multiplayer across multiple computers and networks.
Run a persistent development or playtest server without keeping a laptop on.

Dependencies for Lakecraft Multiplayer Server Hosting

Deployment Dependencies

A Railway account with enough trial credit or account usage allowance to run one small always-on service and one 500 MB volume.
A current browser and the Lakecraft client at https://craft.lakebed.app.
No repository connection or private container-registry credentials are needed; the server image is public.

After deployment, open the service's Networking settings and copy its generated domain. Players connect to wss://YOUR-DOMAIN/ws. Reveal LOCAL_DEMO_TOKEN in Variables and share it privately, separately from the address. This beta token is intended only for trusted friends.