---
title: "Deploy Otter Wiki — Private Wiki"
description: "Private Markdown wiki with Git history, attachments and persistent storage."
category: "CMS"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/otter-wiki-private-wiki
---

# Deploy Otter Wiki — Private Wiki

Private Markdown wiki with Git history, attachments and persistent storage.

**[Deploy Otter Wiki — Private Wiki on Railway](https://railway.com/template/otter-wiki-private-wiki)**

Machine-readable deploy manifest (JSON, validated by TemplateCI): https://railway.com/deploy/otter-wiki-private-wiki/manifest.json

- **Creator:** Toropicana's Projects
- **Category:** CMS

## Template content

### otterwiki-railway https://raw.githubusercontent.com/redimp/otterwiki/8036a4cd2c4de5f955c4496c2e1028c0daa0d5f1/otterwiki/static/img/otterhead-up-512.png

- **Source:** Peinne/otterwiki-railway-template
- **Health check:** /-/healthz
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host Otter Wiki — Private Wiki on Railway

Otter Wiki is a Markdown wiki with a web editor, Git-backed page history and file attachments. This independent template provides a private starting configuration for personal notes, project documentation and small-team knowledge bases. It deploys the upstream application with one service, one persistent volume and an initial administrator.

## About Hosting Otter Wiki — Private Wiki

Enter your administrator email when deploying. Railway generates a unique 64-character password for the new installation. The administrator is created before the web server starts; public registration is disabled and pages, edits and attachments require an approved account.

The volume mounted at `/app-data` holds the SQLite database, settings, Git repository and attachments. Keep it attached when redeploying. The container image is pinned to Otter Wiki 2.26.3 and an immutable digest. A native readiness check runs at `/-/healthz`, and public HTTPS routes to port 8080.

This is a single-instance deployment. Hosting and storage are charged under your Railway plan. The template does not configure automatic backups or a monthly spending cap.

## Common Use Cases

- Private personal notes and Markdown documentation.
- Project runbooks with page history and attachments.
- A small team knowledge base with administrator-managed access.

## Dependencies for Otter Wiki — Private Wiki Hosting

- A Railway account with capacity for one application service and a persistent volume.
- An administrator email and secure storage for the generated password.
- The deployment wrapper at https://github.com/Peinne/otterwiki-railway-template, which builds the pinned upstream container.

SQLite and Git storage are included in the application image. No separate database service or external model API is required.

## First Login and Ongoing Operation

After deployment succeeds, retrieve the generated password privately from the service variables and sign in at the HTTPS address. Create a disposable page and attachment, redeploy on the same volume, and confirm their persistence. Save your working credentials securely. Then remove both `BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_EMAIL` and `BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD` from Railway, apply the changes, and verify the same login and content again.

Existing administrator credentials are preserved on later starts. Bootstrap variables are not a password-reset mechanism. Manage users and passwords within Otter Wiki.

Before updates, take a private backup and verify recovery to a separate empty volume. The repository includes a checked export and offline recovery procedure. The export requires a quiet period without writes and is not an atomic filesystem snapshot. Archives contain sensitive settings and authentication material; never post them in support requests.

Read the installation and recovery guides in the repository. This template provides no support response-time or availability guarantee. Report wrapper issues through the repository with sanitized details, and distinguish them from upstream application issues.

## Why Deploy Otter Wiki — Private Wiki on Railway?

Railway builds the repository, provides HTTPS routing and mounts persistent storage in one project. This template supplies the application settings, generated first-run credentials and readiness check for a small private wiki. Administrators remain responsible for access, updates, backups, storage and charges. The readiness check is not continuous monitoring, and a single replica with a volume does not provide high availability.

Otter Wiki is maintained at https://github.com/redimp/otterwiki. This is an independent deployment wrapper, not an official upstream or Railway-verified template.

Otter artwork by Christy Presler, [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), from the upstream Otter Wiki project; used without modification.


## Similar templates

- [Libredesk - Complete Setup](https://railway.com/deploy/libredesk-complete-setup) — Complete self-hosted omnichannel customer support desk.
- [Paperless-ngx](https://railway.com/deploy/paperless-ngx-3) — Paperless-ngx — document management with OCR and full-text search
- [Instatic CMS - Postgres](https://railway.com/deploy/instatic-cms-postgres) — Design, build and manage powerful static sites from state-of-the-art CMS

Open this page in a browser: https://railway.com/deploy/otter-wiki-private-wiki