Deploy and Host Vespa Search Starter on Railway

Single-node search with a starter document schema and protected API.

Validation scope: static configuration checks only. Image builds and Railway application workflows have not been validated. Deploying this template incurs Railway usage and any external provider charges.

About Hosting Vespa Search Starter

Two services: one Vespa node and an owner gateway. Data persists at /opt/vespa/var. The starter package is deployed only once; a marker prevents redeploys from overwriting an operator schema. This is a single-node example with no replication or high availability. Allocate sufficient memory/CPU for Vespa and measure it; no low-cost monthly estimate is provided. Runtime startup, hostname mapping and application activation still require verification. Apache-2.0 upstream license.

Setup

Open the vespa endpoint using username admin and vespa.ACCESS_PASSWORD, or send X-Template-Key for API calls. The first boot installs the included title/body search schema. Feed a document of type document to /document/v1/default/document/docid/ID and query /search/. The configuration API on port 19071 stays private; deploy schema changes from within the project.

Deployment Dependencies

Service	Source	Persistent volume	Public HTTP port
core	Repository adapter: templates/vespa/Dockerfile	/opt/vespa/var	Private
vespa	Repository adapter: shared/round6-gateway/Dockerfile	None	8080

Operator inputs

Variable	Requirement
None	Initial credentials are generated; complete application setup above.

Generated credentials: vespa.ACCESS_PASSWORD. Never copy another deployment's secrets. Preserve encryption/signing keys with backups.

Why Deploy Vespa Search Starter on Railway

The definition connects private dependencies, declares persistent volumes and exposes the listed application endpoints through Railway HTTPS. Repository adapters build from codex/fifteen-template-drafts with the repository root as Docker context. Configure one replica for each stateful service.

Common Use Cases

Single-node search with a starter document schema and protected API. Use a separate test project to verify the workflow below before putting real data into the instance.

Dependencies for Vespa Search Starter

Reviewed upstream release: v8.751.13. Image digests are recorded in images.round6.lock.json; source receipts are in sources.round6.lock.json. A matching version label does not independently prove image-to-source provenance. Base-image pins do not lock later apt/apk or language-package resolution.

Recommended acceptance checks

Build; wait for configuration health and starter activation; reject anonymous feed/query operations; feed a title/body document and retrieve it; run a BM25 query; restart and verify data; deploy an intentional schema revision privately; confirm redeploy does not reset it; test backup and restore.

Operations and recovery

Back up every listed persistent volume and export every application database, preserving the generated encryption/signing secrets. Restore into a separate test instance and repeat the functional workflow before relying on the backup. Keep internal databases private. An owner gateway /healthz response proves only that gateway is alive, not that its application or dependencies are ready. After changing a public domain, update all application origin and callback settings. Review upstream migrations before upgrading; record the old source/image pins and a recoverable backup. No scheduled backup service is configured by this draft.

Validation status

The checked-in catalog supports static pin, reference, Docker COPY-path and script-syntax validation. Container builds, native proxy behavior, fresh Railway deployment, provider integrations, persistence and restore remain release gates. See RELEASES-ROUND-6.md for the publication record.