Deploy and Host OpenDots on Railway

OpenDots is a self-hosted personal-agent workspace from CopilotKit. Create Dots (specialist agents), organize work into Spaces and pages, run recurring tasks, and talk to your agents from the web app, by voice, or from Slack. Conversations are persisted through CopilotKit Intelligence Threads.

About Hosting OpenDots

This template deploys two services: the OpenDots app (a Node server plus React UI, with its SQLite database on a persistent volume) and a sandboxed Playwright browser service that is only reachable over Railway's private network. Your login token and the shared browser secret are generated automatically. After deploy, add your CopilotKit Intelligence key, model API key and model name, open the generated domain, and sign in with the OWNER_TOKEN shown in the OpenDots service's Variables tab.

Common Use Cases

A private personal assistant with persistent conversations
Scheduled research that reads public web pages on a recurring basis
A document workspace where agents read, draft and edit pages for you
A Slack-connected agent for you or a small allowlisted team
A starting point for building your own CopilotKit-powered agent app

Dependencies for OpenDots Hosting

OpenDots app service (Node.js 24, SQLite on a Railway volume)
Browser service (Playwright Chromium, private networking only)
CopilotKit Intelligence project key for conversation persistence
An OpenAI-compatible model API key and model name

Deployment Dependencies

OpenDots source repository
CopilotKit Intelligence for the INTELLIGENCE_API_KEY
OpenDots setup guide for optional Slack and voice configuration

Implementation Details

OpenDots refuses to start on a public address without an access token, so the template generates a 64-character OWNER_TOKEN for you. APP_ORIGIN is set to your public domain, and BROWSER_URL points at the Browser service's private address (browser.railway.internal). The Browser service rejects any request that lacks the shared BROWSER_SECRET.

OpenDots keeps pages and settings in SQLite on the /data volume, while conversation history lives in your CopilotKit Intelligence project. Back up both. This template does not include the optional persistent per-Dot computers feature, which needs a Docker socket.

OpenDots service variables

Variable	Description
`RAILWAY_DOCKERFILE_PATH`	Selects the OpenDots app image. Do not change.
`PORT`	Port the OpenDots server listens on and Railway health-checks. Do not change.
`OWNER_ID`	Stable identity that owns your conversations. Unique per deployment; do not change after first use.
`OWNER_TOKEN`	Password for signing in to OpenDots. Generated for you; find it in this service's Variables tab.
`APP_ORIGIN`	Exact public URL of this app. Update it if you add a custom domain.
`BROWSER_SECRET`	Shared secret the app uses to call the Browser service. Generated for you; do not change.
`BROWSER_URL`	Private-network address of the Browser service. Do not change.
`INTELLIGENCE_API_KEY`	CopilotKit Intelligence project key for conversation storage. Create one at https://cloud.copilotkit.ai.
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	API key for your model provider (OpenAI or any OpenAI-compatible service).
`OPENAI_MODEL`	Model identifier to use, exactly as your provider names it.
`OPENAI_BASE_URL`	Model API endpoint. Change it only to use another OpenAI-compatible provider.

Browser service variables

Variable	Description
`RAILWAY_DOCKERFILE_PATH`	Selects the Browser service image. Do not change.
`BROWSER_SECRET`	Shared secret that authorizes requests from the app. Do not change.

Why Deploy OpenDots 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 OpenDots 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.