How do I deploy campfire (with Postgres) on Railway?

You can deploy campfire (with Postgres) on Railway by clicking the "Deploy Now" button on this page. Railway will automatically set up all the necessary services and configurations for you.

What are the system requirements?

Railway handles all the infrastructure requirements. You only need a web browser to deploy and manage your application.

Is this template free to use?

Yes, this template is free to use within your existing Railway account.

Can I customize this template?

Yes, you can fully customize this template. After deployment, you will have full control of what you've deployed in your Railway project.

How do I get support for this template?

You can get support through our community forum: once-campfire-with-postgres-1b1c6ae0, or click "Get template help" for this template for more assistance.

Deploy and Host once-campfire (with Postgres) on Railway

What is once-campfire (with Postgres)?

Campfire is a self-hosted, real-time team chat application from Basecamp's ONCE series. It provides multiple chat rooms with access controls, direct messaging, file attachments with previews, full-text search, Web Push notifications, @mentions, and API support for bot integrations. This template includes PostgreSQL for reliable data persistence and Railway Bucket for S3-compatible file storage.

About Hosting once-campfire (with Postgres)

Deploying Campfire on Railway involves provisioning three services: the Rails application, a PostgreSQL database, and Railway Bucket for file storage. The template automatically configures environment variables to connect these services. After deployment, visit your application URL to create an admin account and start inviting team members. Campfire is single-tenant, meaning each deployment serves one organization. SSL is handled by Railway, and the health check endpoint at /up ensures reliable container orchestration.

Common Use Cases

Team Communication: Replace Slack or Discord with a private, self-hosted chat solution for internal team discussions.
Client Projects: Deploy separate Campfire instances for different clients to maintain data isolation and privacy.
Open Source Communities: Host a dedicated chat space for project contributors and maintainers.

Dependencies for once-campfire (with Postgres) Hosting

PostgreSQL: Stores users, rooms, messages, and application data.
Railway Bucket (S3): Handles file attachments, avatars, and Active Storage uploads.

Deployment Dependencies

Implementation Details

Health Check Configuration:

Healthcheck Path: /up

Required Environment Variables:

RAILS_ENV=production SECRET_KEY_BASE=${{secret(128)}} DATABASE_URL=${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}} BUCKET_NAME=${{campfire-bucket.BUCKET}} BUCKET_ENDPOINT_URL=${{campfire-bucket.ENDPOINT}} BUCKET_ACCESS_KEY_ID=${{campfire-bucket.ACCESS_KEY_ID}} BUCKET_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=${{campfire-bucket.SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}} AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=${{campfire-bucket.REGION}}

Why Deploy once-campfire (with Postgres) 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 once-campfire (with Postgres) 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.