Deploy and Host PilotDeck on Railway

About Hosting PilotDeck on Railway

PilotDeck is an open-source AI Agent operating system that runs as a containerized application. Railway provides a simple, one-click deployment option for PilotDeck with persistent storage for agent workspaces, configuration, and memory. The service runs two cooperating Node.js processes: a gateway for agent runtime and a UI server for web access.

Tech Stack

• Node.js 22 - Runtime environment
• TypeScript - Language
• Vite - Frontend build tool
• SQLite - Embedded database for auth and sessions
• PilotDeck Gateway - Agent execution runtime
• OpenRouter API - AI model integration (configurable)

Why Deploy PilotDeck on Railway

Railway offers several advantages for hosting PilotDeck:

• One-click deployment with no configuration required
• Automatic scaling based on resource needs
• Persistent storage for PilotDeck state, configuration, memory, and projects
• Public domain with automatic HTTPS
• Environment variables for easy model/API key configuration
• Docker-native deployment with zero vendor lock-in

Common Use Cases

• AI-assisted development - Use agents to help with coding and project analysis
• Task automation - Build agents that handle repetitive workflows across multiple projects
• Knowledge management - Leverage PilotDeck's memory system to maintain context across tasks
• Multi-agent orchestration - Run multiple specialized agents in parallel on long-running work

Deployment Notes

• Port: PilotDeck UI listens on port 3001 (configured via SERVER_PORT env var)
• Gateway Port: Internal gateway runs on 18789 (configured via PILOTDECK_GATEWAY_PORT)
• Volume Persistence: /root/.pilotdeck directory persists all state including config, auth DB, skills, plugins, and memory
• Model Configuration: Uses OpenRouter by default with Deepseek v4 Flash (configurable via PILOTDECK_MODEL, PILOTDECK_API_KEY, PILOTDECK_API_URL)
• Light Model: Qwen 3 8B for token-saving tier routing (configurable via PILOTDECK_LIGHT_MODEL)
• Health Check: Web UI returns 200 on /
• Build Time: First deployment takes ~3-5 minutes due to npm dependency installation and TypeScript compilation

Dependencies for PilotDeck on Railway

PilotDeck is a self-contained application with no external database dependencies. All state is stored in SQLite within the mounted volume.

Deployment Dependencies