Deploy and Host ntfy on Railway

About Hosting ntfy

ntfy is an HTTP-based pub/sub notification service with web, desktop, Android, and iOS clients. This template deploys a private-by-default ntfy v2.27.0 server with persistent users, cached messages, and S3-compatible attachments.

Common Use Cases

Send deployment, monitoring, and automation alerts
Run private notification topics for a team
Integrate scripts with a simple HTTP publish API
Self-host notification history and attachments

Dependencies for ntfy Hosting

Deployment Dependencies

The template creates the public ntfy service, one Railway Volume mounted at /var/lib/ntfy, and one private Railway Bucket. Bucket endpoint and credentials are cross-service references; do not replace them manually.

Implementation Details

The ntfy service owns the public domain and exposes /v1/health. On first boot, the wrapper initializes ntfy's SQLite auth database on loopback, creates NTFY_ADMIN_USER with the generated NTFY_ADMIN_PASSWORD, and applies deny-all as the default policy. Subsequent boots detect the existing administrator. Attachments use the Bucket, while auth and cached messages use the volume.

There is no separate setup wizard. Sign in with the generated administrator variables, then create users and topic grants as needed. Mobile push uses NTFY_UPSTREAM_BASE_URL, which defaults to https://ntfy.sh; SMTP and Web Push remain optional post-deploy configuration.

Why Deploy ntfy on Railway?

Railway provides HTTPS routing, persistent disk, private object storage, generated secrets, health checks, and source-based rebuilds in one deploy. The template keeps upstream ntfy pinned so upgrades remain deliberate and testable.