Deploy and Host Mealie recipe archive on Railway

Archive imported recipes, retained images, and portable backups

About Hosting Mealie

A single-node recipe archive with SQLite, controlled schema.org recipe import, retained original/derived images and native portable ZIP backups. No AI provider, PostgreSQL, SMTP, LDAP, OIDC, FlareSolverr or Chromium sidecar. Import only sources you are entitled to archive.

What gets deployed

One app volume at /app/data, 5 GB initial size, attached only to that service. One replica; a mounted volume does not imply HA. The directory includes mealie.db, recipes/images/assets, backups, .secret and .session_secret. A native backup is not a complete session-state archive.

Operational contract

Signups are disabled. Before listening, the version-bound bootstrap calls upstream migrations/initialization and replaces only an untouched changeme@example.com / MyPassword administrator, using the upstream password hasher. Existing accounts and restored passwords are not overwritten. Set the admin email before first boot. Upstream recipe media is otherwise public by known ID: template_app.py adds native cookie/Bearer authentication and same-group authorization to recipe images/assets and user avatars. Keep this wrapper; bypassing it exposes upstream media routes. Public recipe/asset sharing is deliberately outside this private archive contract. Groups, not households, are the media isolation boundary; households in the same group are collaborators, not hostile tenants.

Set a real admin identity before first boot, store generated passwords securely, keep only the app public, and retain encrypted off-volume backups. Follow README.md for variables, source settings, URLs and restore procedures. This is a single-node template, not an HA architecture. Railway plans/volume limits and application workload determine suitability.

Native online ZIP restoration requires an application restart before restored login/access validation; active browser sessions are not a portable-backup guarantee. Restore on the same pinned upstream version and keep other writers disconnected.

Why Deploy Mealie on Railway

Keep an authenticated recipe archive with retained media on one persistent volume. The recipe adds group-aware media authorization and preserves original owner credentials across restart and native backup restoration. This is a private archive, not a publicly shared recipe gallery or an HA service.

Common Use Cases

Archive permitted schema.org recipe content and your own recipe images.
Organize collaborating households within a group while isolating other groups.
Export native ZIP backups off-volume and restore to an empty replacement installation.

Dependencies for Mealie

Deployment Dependencies

The pinned Mealie application includes SQLite and uses one 5 GB Railway volume at /app/data. No external SMTP, AI service or paid provider is required. Choose a Railway plan with enough memory and storage, set the administrator email before initial boot, and protect the generated password and off-volume backups. Only port 9000 receives a public HTTPS domain. The visible browser source link opens /template-source; API source and license notices remain available at /api/template-source.

Deploy Mealie recipe archive