---
title: "Deploy valhalla-private-host"
description: "Valhalla private-room mailbox host: source build, /data volume, TCP proxy."
category: "Other"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/valhalla-private-host
---

# Deploy valhalla-private-host

Valhalla private-room mailbox host: source build, /data volume, TCP proxy.

**[Deploy valhalla-private-host on Railway](https://railway.com/template/valhalla-private-host)**

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

- **Creator:** hraness's Projects
- **Category:** Other

## Template content

### valhalla-private-host

- **Source:** https://github.com/hraness/valhalla

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host a Valhalla Private-Room Host on Railway

A participant-controlled Valhalla private-room mailbox: a Rust source build of
`vhalla private-host` from
[hraness/valhalla](https://github.com/hraness/valhalla) listening on loopback
behind a small TCP bridge, with host state persisted on a `/data` volume.

**In development.** Do not host sensitive data yet.

## About Hosting a Valhalla Private-Room Host

The host is a mailbox for a Valhalla private room: it stores opaque ciphertext
under per-credential quotas and serves it to room members over pinned TLS 1.3.
The participants control the host; Railway is only the infrastructure provider
they chose. The application listener stays on loopback inside the container
and only a small `socat` bridge on port 19473 is exposed through Railway's TCP
proxy. Host state (CA, member tokens, mailbox) lives on the attached `/data`
volume and survives redeploys.

The template configures everything the service needs:

- `vhalla` built from the repository with the `experimental-private` feature set
- A persistent `/data` volume holding the host home
- A public TCP proxy onto the service's application port (19473)

## Why Deploy a Valhalla Private-Room Host on Railway?

The private-room host is designed to run anywhere the participants control:
a laptop, a LAN box, a VPS or a small hosted container. Railway is the
near-zero-operations route: the template wires the build, volume and public
endpoint, and the measured footprint is small (about 13 MB resident for the
host plus about 4 MB for the bridge at idle).

Railway meters usage. A lightly used host measured about **$0.40/month**,
inside the Free plan's included usage credit. See
[Railway pricing](https://railway.com/pricing) for current terms.

## Common Use Cases

- A private-room mailbox for a small group, run on participant-selected
  infrastructure rather than a provider-hosted service
- An always-on relay for members on laptops that sleep and roam
- A test deployment of the private-room transport against real public
  endpoints

## Dependencies for a Valhalla Private-Room Host

### Deployment Dependencies

- A Railway account. The Free plan's included usage credit covers a lightly
  used host (measured about $0.40/month).
- The public [hraness/valhalla](https://github.com/hraness/valhalla)
  repository, built by the template's Dockerfile at `deploy/railway/Dockerfile`
  via the root `railway.toml`. No secrets are baked in; the host generates its
  own CA and member tokens on first boot.

### After deploy

1. The TCP proxy endpoint is under the service's **Networking** tab:
   `*.proxy.rlwy.net:PORT`. Members use it as the host endpoint.
2. Read the member credentials out of the host volume: `config.json` carries
   the namespace, TLS name and member token, and `ca.der` is the pinned CA.
   Hand them to members over a confidential channel; they are the access
   credentials and the trust anchor.
3. Members connect with
   `vhalla private ... --addr :`.

`APP_PORT` and `HOME_DIR` are optional overrides; leave them empty to keep the
defaults (19473 and `/data/host`).

### Notes

- The host is a mailbox, not a backup. Host loss starts a new mailbox
  generation; member stores are the durable record.
- Full operator guide, including credential extraction commands:
  [deploy/railway/README.md](https://github.com/hraness/valhalla/blob/main/deploy/railway/README.md)


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