How do I deploy Pinchflat on Railway?

You can deploy Pinchflat on Railway by clicking the "Deploy Now" button on this page. Railway will automatically set up all the necessary services and configurations for you.

What are the system requirements?

Railway handles all the infrastructure requirements. You only need a web browser to deploy and manage your application.

Is this template free to use?

Yes, this template is free to use within your existing Railway account.

Can I customize this template?

Yes, you can fully customize this template. After deployment, you will have full control of what you've deployed in your Railway project.

How do I get support for this template?

You can get support through our community forum: pinchflat-4e985c1b, or click "Get template help" for this template for more assistance.

Deploy and Host Pinchflat on Railway

Pinchflat is a self-hosted YouTube media manager built with yt-dlp. It automatically downloads content from YouTube channels and playlists on a schedule, organizing media for use with Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi, or personal archival. It runs as a single container with a built-in web UI and SQLite database.

About Hosting Pinchflat

Pinchflat runs as a single Docker container with no external database or service dependencies. The template deploys the official ghcr.io/kieraneglin/pinchflat:latest image with a persistent volume mounted at /data to store both the SQLite database and downloaded media. Railway's network-attached volumes require SQLite's journal mode set to delete instead of the default WAL mode. The container bundles yt-dlp, FFmpeg, Deno, and Apprise, so no additional services need to be provisioned. The web UI is served via Phoenix LiveView on port 8945 with websocket support.

Common Use Cases

Automatically download and organize YouTube content for Plex, Jellyfin, or Kodi media libraries
Archive YouTube channels or playlists for offline access and long-term preservation
Serve downloaded content as podcast RSS feeds to your favorite podcast app
Schedule periodic downloads with custom naming rules, quality settings, and SponsorBlock integration

Dependencies for Pinchflat Hosting

Persistent volume for SQLite database and media storage (minimum 5 GB recommended)
Public networking enabled for the web UI (Phoenix LiveView requires websocket support)

Deployment Dependencies

Pinchflat GitHub Repository
Pinchflat Documentation Wiki
Pinchflat Docker Image
yt-dlp (bundled in the container, auto-updates daily)

Why Deploy Pinchflat 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 Pinchflat 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.