---
title: "Deploy Operately"
description: "Deploy Operately, open-source goal and project tracking"
category: "Other"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/operately
---

# Deploy Operately

Deploy Operately, open-source goal and project tracking

**[Deploy Operately on Railway](https://railway.com/template/operately)**

- **Creator:** André Lademann's Projects
- **Category:** Other

## Template content

### Postgres https://devicons.railway.app/i/postgresql.svg

- **Image:** ghcr.io/railwayapp-templates/postgres-ssl:18

### Operately

- **Source:** https://github.com/vergissberlin/railwayapp-operately
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

# Operately for railway.app

![Template Header](./template-header.svg)

Deploy Operately on Railway with one click.

[![Deploy on Railway](https://railway.com/button.svg)](https://railway.com/deploy/REPLACE_WITH_RAILWAY_TEMPLATE_CODE?referralCode=2_sIT9&utm_medium=integration&utm_source=template&utm_campaign=generic)

# Deploy and Host Operately on Railway

Operately is an open-source goal, project, and OKR tracking tool that replaces status-update
meetings with structured check-ins. This template runs the official `operately/operately`
Docker image on Railway, backed by a separate Postgres service for data storage.

## About Hosting Operately

Hosting Operately on Railway means running its Elixir/Phoenix release container next to a
managed Postgres instance, with Railway generating the domain, terminating TLS, and running
the database migration automatically before every deploy — no server to patch, no reverse
proxy to configure by hand.

## Why Deploy Operately on Railway

* No server provisioning — Railway builds and runs the container from the pinned upstream image
* Postgres attaches as a managed service instead of a self-hosted database to babysit
* TLS and the domain are handled at Railway's edge, so `OPERATELY_HOST` only needs a hostname
* Migrations run automatically on every deploy via `preDeployCommand`, no manual SSH step
* Renovate keeps the pinned image tag current without floating on `latest`

## Common Use Cases

* Replacing weekly status-update meetings with asynchronous written check-ins
* Tracking OKRs and project goals with automatic progress roll-ups across a company
* Giving leadership a single, always-current view of who owns what and how it is progressing

## Dependencies for Operately

* **Image**: `operately/operately:1.8.0` (official upstream image, pinned tag)
* **Database**: PostgreSQL, provisioned as a separate Railway service and wired in via the
  `DATABASE_URL` reference variable — there is no SQLite fallback
* **Volume**: a Railway volume mounted at `/media` for uploaded files
* **License note**: Operately's core is Apache-2.0; a separate proprietary license covers its
  `ee/` (Enterprise Edition) subtree. This template only references the published Docker image,
  it does not build or redistribute the source.

## 🚀 Quick Start

1. Click "Deploy on Railway"
2. Add a Postgres service to the project and reference it as `DATABASE_URL` (see below)
3. Set the remaining environment variables listed below
4. Attach a volume at `/media` before sending production traffic
5. Wait for the build — `preDeployCommand` creates the database and runs migrations
   automatically — then open the generated URL

## ⚙️ Configuration

### Environment variables

```bash
DATABASE_URL=${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}}     # reference to a separate Postgres service
SECRET_KEY_BASE=generate-a-secret           # Railway "generate" button; signs/encrypts cookies
OPERATELY_BLOB_TOKEN_SECRET_KEY=generate-a-secret   # signs file/blob URLs
SYSTEM_SETTINGS_ENCRYPTION_KEYS=generate-a-secret   # encrypts stored settings
OPERATELY_HOST=${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}   # bare hostname, no scheme or port
OPERATELY_URL_SCHEME=https
ALLOW_LOGIN_WITH_EMAIL=yes    # without this + no Google OAuth, nobody can log in
ALLOW_SIGNUP_WITH_EMAIL=yes
CERT_DOMAIN=""                # must be set (empty string, not unset) — see below
CERT_EMAILS=""
CERT_DB_DIR=/opt/operately/certs
```

Set real values as Railway variables, never in a file in this repo. `PORT` defaults to `4000`
and Railway sets it for you. `requiredMountPath = "/media"` in `railway.toml` — attach a volume
there before production traffic, or uploads are lost on every redeploy.

## 🐳 Local Development

```bash
git clone https://github.com/vergissberlin/railwayapp-operately.git
cd railwayapp-operately
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d
docker compose exec operately /opt/operately/bin/create_db
docker compose exec operately /opt/operately/bin/migrate
```

`preDeployCommand` only runs on Railway, so run the two commands above by hand locally. Then
open http://localhost:4000.

## 🤝 Contributing

Found a bug? [Open an issue](https://github.com/vergissberlin/railwayapp-operately/issues/new)
or a pull request. See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md).

## 📝 License

MIT — see [LICENSE](LICENSE).

## Railway runtime defaults

* Healthcheck `/health` · Restart `ON_FAILURE` (10 retries) · Dockerfile build · TLS at Railway's
  edge, credentials only ever set as variables, never committed
* `preDeployCommand` runs `predeploy.sh` (`create_db` then `migrate`) — Railway only accepts one
  command, so chaining needed a real script, not a `&&`-joined string
* Operately reads `$PORT` directly, no start command or entrypoint wrapper needed
* `CERT_DOMAIN`/`CERT_EMAILS`/`CERT_DB_DIR` are set even though no real TLS cert is used here:
  Operately's cert-management child validates and chmods these at every boot regardless of
  `CERT_AUTO_RENEW`, and unset values crash the app. Empty strings for the first two match the
  official installer's own "skip TLS" path; `CERT_DB_DIR=/opt/operately/certs` is a
  `nobody`-owned folder baked into the image, kept outside `/media` (a volume's contents replace
  whatever the Dockerfile put at its mount path, so it isn't there by boot time).

## 📚 Resources

* [Operately docs](https://github.com/operately/operately/blob/main/docs/installation/single-host.md)
* [Railway docs](https://docs.railway.app/)


---

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