Deploy and Host Nod (community, no Docker) on Railway

Nod is n8n's open source personal agent with its own Linux workspace and browser. It chases invoices, preps your calls and works on real websites, and asks before it acts for you. This community template runs it as ordinary Railway services. It is not made or supported by n8n.

About Hosting Nod (community, no Docker)

Nod's own self-host setup needs a machine with Docker, because the server starts and controls its workspace and browser containers. This template uses a remote runtime from the remote-runtime branch of a fork instead: the workspace and browser each run a small relay, and the server reaches them over Railway's private network with a shared token. Four services deploy together: server, workspace, browser and Postgres, each with its own volume. The access token, Vault key and relay token are generated fresh for every deploy. The change is proposed upstream in n8n-io/nod discussion #833.

Common Use Cases

An always-on Nod you can reach from the desktop app, the web or Telegram
Trying Nod without running your own VPS or Docker host
Testing the remote runtime before it lands upstream

Dependencies for Nod (community, no Docker) Hosting

PostgreSQL (included)
A model connection you add after setup: a ChatGPT subscription or an API key

Deployment Dependencies

Implementation Details

Service	Does	Volume
server	Nod's app and API, on your public domain	`/var/lib/nod`
workspace	Runs the agent's commands and keeps files	`/workspace`
browser	Chromium for websites, keeps browser logins	`/data`
Postgres	Nod's database	included

After deploying

Wait for all four services to go green. The first build takes about 10 minutes.
Copy NOD_AUTH_TOKEN from the server service's variables.
Open the server's public URL and paste the token.
Connect a model. For ChatGPT sign-in, the last page won't load: copy its address into Callback URL in Nod.

Know the trade-offs

No workspace firewall. Railway services can't use NET_ADMIN, so the workspace can reach other services in this project, including Postgres and the server. They're still protected by their passwords and tokens. Railway blocks cloud metadata. Keep Nod in its own project.
Tools reset on restart. Files in /workspace and browser logins in /data persist, but tools installed in /home/node don't.
Back up the database, all three volumes and the server's variables together. Without NOD_VAULT_KEY, saved logins can't be recovered.
Updates come from the fork, not from n8n directly, until the remote runtime is accepted upstream.

Why Deploy Nod (community, no Docker) 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 Nod (community, no Docker) 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.