Deploy and Host Otari on Railway

Otari is an open-source, OpenAI-compatible LLM gateway you run yourself. Put one endpoint in front of providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and Gemini, then issue virtual API keys, enforce budgets, and track usage and cost in one place. It speaks the OpenAI Chat Completions and Responses APIs plus the Anthropic Messages API.

About Hosting Otari

This template runs two services: the Otari gateway from its published Docker image (mzdotai/otari:0.14.1, pinned to a release), and a managed PostgreSQL database. Otari is stateless; Postgres holds your keys, users, budgets, and usage.

On first boot Otari runs its database migrations and prints a first-use API key in the deploy logs, so the gateway is usable right away. The template generates the master key, the key that encrypts stored provider credentials, and the provider account pepper for you. The gateway listens on port 8000, with a healthcheck at /api/v1/health/readiness, so a deploy that cannot reach its database does not go live.

After the deploy:

Open the otari service's public domain.
Sign in with the master key (OTARI_MASTER_KEY on the Variables tab).
Add at least one provider on the Providers page.

Then make a request:

curl "https://YOUR_DOMAIN/api/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "openai:gpt-4o-mini", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Say hello."}]}'

What the template sets

Variable	Value	Notes
`OTARI_DATABASE_URL`	`${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}}`	Pre-wired; leave as-is.
`OTARI_MASTER_KEY`	auto-generated	Signs you in to the dashboard and the management API.
`OTARI_SECRET_KEY`	auto-generated	Encrypts the provider credentials you add. Keep it: losing it makes them unrecoverable.
`OTARI_PROVIDER_ACCOUNT_PEPPER`	auto-generated	Required at startup while provider file copies are on.
`OTARI_REQUIRE_PRICING`	`false`	Serves models that have no configured pricing.
`OTARI_DEFAULT_PRICING`	`true`	Meters common models from community-maintained rates. Prices you set on the Models page always win.
`OTARI_FORWARDED_ALLOW_IPS`	`*`	Lets per-IP sign-in limits see the real client, not Railway's ingress.
`OTARI_PUBLIC_BASE_URL`	`https://${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}`	Your service's public URL, for sign-in redirects, passkeys and email links. Change it if you attach a custom domain.
`PORT`	`8000`	The port Railway's healthcheck probes. Keep it equal to the target port.

To keep provider keys in Railway variables instead of the dashboard, declare the providers through OTARI_CONFIG_YAML; see Full config via environment.

Upgrading

The image is pinned to a release, so a redeploy never migrates your schema by surprise. To upgrade, back up Postgres, read the release notes, then change the image tag under Settings → Source. To take patch releases automatically, turn on Image Auto Updates with Patches only.

Common Use Cases

Give a team one OpenAI-compatible endpoint in front of several providers
Issue and revoke virtual API keys per app or user without sharing raw provider keys
Enforce budgets and track spend and token usage across models

Dependencies for Otari Hosting

A PostgreSQL database (provisioned by this template)
At least one provider API key (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Gemini, or any any-llm provider), added on the dashboard after deploy

Deployment Dependencies

Otari repository: https://github.com/mozilla-ai/otari
Otari documentation: https://github.com/mozilla-ai/otari/tree/main/docs
Railway deploy guide: https://github.com/mozilla-ai/otari/blob/main/deploy/railway/README.md
Docker image: https://hub.docker.com/r/mzdotai/otari

Why Deploy Otari 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 Otari 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.