Deploy and Host Trigger.dev on Railway (Webapp) + DigitalOcean (Supervisor)

Trigger.dev is an open-source platform that lets developers reliably run long-duration background jobs—like AI workflows and data processing—directly in their codebase, without timeouts, manual scaling, or complex setup.

About This Dual-Platform Deployment

This template deploys Trigger.dev across two platforms: Railway hosts the webapp (orchestration, API, dashboard) while DigitalOcean runs the supervisor (task execution in Docker containers). This architecture is required because Railway doesn't provide Docker socket access needed for task execution, while DigitalOcean droplets have full Docker capabilities.

The included ops-controller automates the entire deployment process—requiring only your DigitalOcean API token alongside Railway's auto-provided credentials. After one-click deployment, the system automatically provisions a DigitalOcean droplet, configures task execution, and maintains the supervisor without manual intervention.

Common Use Cases

• AI workflow orchestration - LLM pipelines, model inference, and AI agent automation without timeouts
• Video and audio processing - Long-running media processing tasks that exceed typical serverless limits
• Data import and ETL - Batch processing, data transformation, and migration jobs with progress tracking
• Document generation - Automated PDF creation, report generation, and file processing workflows
• Webhook automation - Event-driven workflows and third-party service integrations with retry logic
• Scheduled task execution - Cron-like scheduling with robust error handling and real-time monitoring
• API workflow orchestration - Chain multiple API calls with proper error handling and state management

Architecture: Railway + DigitalOcean

Why Two Platforms? Trigger.dev v4 requires a supervisor service to execute tasks in Docker containers. Railway's platform restrictions prevent Docker socket access (/var/run/docker.sock), making task execution impossible. DigitalOcean droplets provide the full Docker capabilities needed for the supervisor.

How It Works:

1. Railway Services: Webapp, PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse, MinIO, Docker registry
2. DigitalOcean Service: Supervisor droplet for task execution
3. ops-controller: Automates cross-platform deployment and monitoring
4. One-Click Setup: Deploy button requires only your DigitalOcean API token

Dependencies for Trigger.dev Hosting

• PostgreSQL database - Job storage, state management, and task persistence (provided by Railway)
• Redis instance - Queue management, real-time features, and caching (provided by Railway with IPv6 support)
• ClickHouse database - Analytics database for advanced metrics and observability (provided by Railway)
• MinIO object storage - S3-compatible storage for large payloads and file processing (provided by Railway)
• Docker registry - Private registry for task deployment and container management (provided by Railway)
• Node.js/TypeScript runtime - Core execution environment for webapp and task processing
• Environment variables - Auto-configured via Railway template with secure secret generation

Deployment Dependencies

• Trigger.dev v4.0.0 - Latest stable release
• Railway account - Sign up at railway.app
• DigitalOcean account - Sign up at digitalocean.com and generate API token
• ops-controller - Automated deployment service (included in template)
• Documentation - Official Trigger.dev docs

Optional Services

• Electric Sync Engine - Deploy separately for real-time PostgreSQL synchronization
• External ClickHouse - Replace built-in ClickHouse with cloud provider, manage with CH-UI
• External Object Storage - Replace built-in MinIO with AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, or other providers

Implementation Details

What's Included:

• ✅ Railway Services: Trigger.dev webapp, PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse, MinIO, Docker registry
• ✅ DigitalOcean Supervisor: Automated droplet deployment for task execution
• ✅ ops-controller: Cross-platform automation with health monitoring and auto-scaling
• ✅ One-Click Setup: Deploy with just DigitalOcean API token, everything else auto-configured
• ✅ Optimized migrations (~1 minute vs 20+ minutes)
• ✅ IPv6 DNS support for Railway internal networking
• ✅ Auto-generated secure secrets (SESSION_SECRET, ENCRYPTION_KEY, etc.)
• ✅ Vertical auto-scaling and health monitoring
• ✅ SSL certificates and secure environment setup

Key v4.0.0 Features:

• Machine presets - Scale tasks with micro, small-1x, large-2x resource configurations
• Real-time streaming - Send live progress updates to your frontend
• Enhanced retry logic - Configurable backoff strategies and error handling
• TypeScript-first - Full type safety throughout task definitions
• Polyglot support - Write tasks in both Node.js/TypeScript and Python

Email Configuration (Optional)

Default Behavior: Without email configuration, Trigger.dev logs magic links and invitations to the console instead of sending emails. Check Railway deployment logs to find invitation URLs.

Why Configure Email: Enable automatic magic link authentication and user invitation emails for a seamless user experience.

Option 1: Resend (Recommended)

Best for: Quick setup, excellent deliverability, modern API Free tier: 3,000 emails/month Setup time: ~2 minutes

Add these environment variables to Railway:

EMAIL_TRANSPORT=resend
[email protected]    # Use their test domain instantly
[email protected]
RESEND_API_KEY=re_xxxxxxxxxx        # Get from resend.com dashboard

Setup steps:

1. Sign up at resend.com (free)
2. Copy API key from dashboard
3. Add environment variables to Railway service
4. Magic links and invitations now send via email! ✅

Option 2: SMTP (Standard Email Server)

Best for: Using existing email infrastructure, Gmail/Outlook integration Setup time: ~10 minutes

EMAIL_TRANSPORT=smtp
[email protected]
[email protected]
SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com          # Your SMTP server
SMTP_PORT=587                     # Usually 587 for TLS, 465 for SSL
SMTP_SECURE=false                 # true for SSL, false for TLS
[email protected]    # SMTP username
SMTP_PASSWORD=your-app-password   # SMTP password or app password

Popular SMTP servers:

• Gmail: smtp.gmail.com:587 (requires App Password)
• Outlook: smtp-mail.outlook.com:587
• SendGrid: smtp.sendgrid.net:587

Option 3: AWS SES (Enterprise)

Best for: High volume, cost-effective enterprise deployment Setup time: ~30 minutes

EMAIL_TRANSPORT=aws-ses
[email protected]
[email protected]
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIAXXXXXXXXXX
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret-key
AWS_REGION=us-east-1              # Your AWS SES region

Setup requirements:

• AWS account with SES enabled
• Domain verification
• IAM user with SES permissions
• Production access request (removes sending limits)

Finding Invitation Links (No Email Configured)

When email is not configured, find invitation links in Railway logs:

1. Go to Railway dashboard → trigger.dev service → View Logs
2. Look for entries: ##### sendEmail to [email], subject: [subject]
3. Copy magic link URLs: https://your-app.up.railway.app/magic?token=
4. Share links with users for registration

Why This Dual-Platform Approach?

This template combines Railway's managed infrastructure with DigitalOcean's Docker capabilities to provide the complete Trigger.dev v4 experience without compromise.

Railway handles your infrastructure complexity - PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse, MinIO, and Docker registry are fully managed with automatic backups, while DigitalOcean provides the Docker socket access essential for task execution that Railway cannot offer.

Key Benefits:

• True one-click deployment - ops-controller automates the entire cross-platform setup
• Zero infrastructure administration - Railway manages databases, DigitalOcean supervisor auto-configures
• Cost-effective - Railway services scale to zero when idle, DigitalOcean droplet optimizes for task load
• Production-ready - SSL certificates, health monitoring, and observability across both platforms
• Complete feature set - Full Trigger.dev v4 capabilities without platform limitations
• Automated maintenance - ops-controller handles supervisor updates and health monitoring
• Developer-friendly - GitHub integration, automatic deployments, and unified logging