Deploy and Host OpenWA on Railway

OpenWA is an open-source WhatsApp automation platform built on top of WhatsApp Web. Connect personal or business WhatsApp accounts through a REST API to send messages, manage chats, receive webhooks, and automate workflows without requiring Meta Business API approval.

About Hosting OpenWA

Hosting OpenWA on Railway requires a persistent volume to store WhatsApp authentication sessions, media, plugins, and SQLite database files. The API runs on port 2785 and exposes REST endpoints for session management, messaging, automation, and webhook integrations.

This template uses the prebuilt Docker image:

ghcr.io/rmyndharis/openwa:latest

Railway provisions networking, SSL, deployments, and persistent storage automatically.

Common Use Cases

WhatsApp chatbots and automation
Customer support integrations
Workflow automation with webhooks
Notifications and alerts
Multi-session WhatsApp management

Dependencies for OpenWA Hosting

Persistent volume (mount path: /app/data)
Optional Redis (cache/session acceleration)
Optional PostgreSQL (instead of SQLite)

Deployment Dependencies

Implementation Details

Docker image:

ghcr.io/rmyndharis/openwa:latest

Environment variables (use Railway reference syntax when deploying):

Variable	Value
`NODE_ENV`	`production`
`API_PORT`	`2785`
`DATABASE_TYPE`	`sqlite`
`DATABASE_NAME`	`/app/data/openwa.sqlite`
`SESSION_DATA_PATH`	`/app/data/sessions`
`STORAGE_TYPE`	`local`
`STORAGE_LOCAL_PATH`	`/app/data/media`
`PLUGINS_ENABLED`	`true`
`PLUGINS_DIR`	`/app/data/plugins`
`PUPPETEER_HEADLESS`	`true`
`PUPPETEER_ARGS`	`--no-sandbox,--disable-setuid-sandbox,--disable-dev-shm-usage,--disable-gpu`

Initial API Key:

OpenWA automatically generates an API key during the first startup and prints it in the OpenWA API deployment logs.

After deployment:

Open the OpenWA API service in Railway.
Go to Deploy Logs.
Copy the generated API key.

API keys can later be managed through the API or the Dashboard.

Volume: Mount /app/data for persistent WhatsApp sessions, SQLite database, plugins, and media files.

Public port: 2785

Quick start (local):

docker run -p 2785:2785 \
  -v openwa-data:/app/data \
  ghcr.io/rmyndharis/openwa:latest

API available at:

http://localhost:2785

Why Deploy OpenWA on Railway?

Railway provides a simple way to deploy and scale OpenWA without managing servers, reverse proxies, or SSL certificates manually.

By deploying OpenWA on Railway, you can run WhatsApp automation infrastructure with persistent storage, public networking, and automated deployments in minutes while focusing on your integrations and workflows instead of infrastructure management.