Deploy and Host marketplace.openship.org on Railway

A conversational commerce marketplace where shopping happens entirely in AI chat. Products, cart, checkout, and payment are all rendered in the conversation via MCP UI. Zero transaction fees. Zero data collection. Complete store independence. Merchants keep 100% of revenue while getting discovered through curated directories.

About Hosting marketplace.openship.org

The marketplace is a Next.js 15 application built on Model Context Protocol (MCP) that enables conversational shopping without centralized infrastructure. It queries independent e-commerce stores in real-time, renders interactive product cards and checkout flows directly in AI chat, and routes payments straight to each store's Stripe or PayPal account. No database required—everything happens through API queries to stores configured in marketplace.config.json. Hosting on Railway means forking the repo, adding your curated stores, and deploying a zero-fee discovery platform where merchants own their data and customers shop through natural conversation.

Common Use Cases

• Niche curated marketplaces - Fork to create specialized directories (sustainable brands, local shops, vintage collectibles, handmade goods) where merchants pay zero transaction fees
• Multi-store networks - Connect multiple stores you operate under one conversational discovery platform with shared AI-powered search across brands, regions, or franchises
• Community platforms - Build discovery for maker communities, co-op networks, or artist collectives where each member runs their own independent storefront but benefits from shared discoverability

Dependencies for marketplace.openship.org Hosting

• Node.js 18+ - Runtime environment for Next.js application
• OpenRouter API Key (Optional) - For Global Mode where all users share the operator's AI key. Users can also bring their own OpenRouter key (Local Mode) or connect external MCP clients

Deployment Dependencies

• marketplace.config.json configuration - Configure which stores appear in your marketplace
• OpenRouter API Keys - Get your API key for AI-powered conversational shopping
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) Documentation - Learn about the protocol powering the marketplace
• MCP UI Documentation - Interactive UI components rendered in AI chat

Implementation Details

Store Configuration (marketplace.config.json):

[
  {
    "baseUrl": "https://store.example.com",
    "platform": "openfront"
  }
]

Environment Variables (Optional - for Global Mode):

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_openrouter_api_key_here
OPENROUTER_MODEL=openai/gpt-4o-mini
OPENROUTER_MAX_TOKENS=4000

Three AI Configuration Modes:

• Global Mode: Set OpenRouter key in environment variables, all users share it
• Local Mode: Users bring their own OpenRouter key stored in browser localStorage
• MCP Client Mode: Connect external MCP-compatible AI clients (Claude Desktop, etc.) directly to /api/mcp-transport/http

Why Deploy marketplace.openship.org 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 marketplace.openship.org 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.