Deploy and Host Xata PostgreSQL +Django on Railway

Xata is a fully-managed PostgreSQL service offering advanced features like:

• Copy-on-Write branching
• Point-in-Time (PITR) recovery
• Separation of storage from compute
• High availability, redundancy, and scalability
• Long list of PostgreSQL extensions, including pgvector, postgis, pg_cron, etc.
• Built-in query editor, AI self-optimizations, advanced observability
• Expert support in PostgreSQL

About Hosting Xata PostgreSQL with Railway

This template contains a sample Django application configured to connect to the Xata PostgreSQL service. You can use this template, or simply follow the same pattern in your own application.

This template is for Django, but Xata PostgreSQL can be used with any programming language or framework that supports PostgreSQL.

The DATABASE_URL is the only environment variable required. Set it to the PostgreSQL connection string, which you can copy from the branch overview page in the Xata console.

Common Use Cases

• A fully-managed PostgreSQL database to store your Django admin data and user data.
• Implement infinite chat history and memory for your AI agent. Works with any AI framework that uses PostgreSQL.
• Use the pgvector extension to create similarity search, product recommendations, or AI RAG use cases.

Dependencies for Xata + Django Hosting

• Xata account: You can create one by logging in at console.xata.io . Once you login, create an organization, and a project inside the organization. Start a main branch for your database. From the branch overview page, copy the connection string set the DATABASE_URL to it.

Deployment Dependencies

None.

Implementation Details

The key code change in the template compared to the standard Django template is the parsing of the DATABASE_URL in settings.py:

if 'DATABASE_URL' in os.environ:
    # Parse DATABASE_URL (format: postgresql://user:password@host:port/database)
    database_url = os.environ['DATABASE_URL']
    parsed_url = urlparse(database_url)

    DATABASES = {
        'default': {
            'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
            'NAME': parsed_url.path[1:] or 'postgres',  # Remove leading slash, default to 'postgres' if empty
            'USER': parsed_url.username,
            'PASSWORD': parsed_url.password,
            'HOST': parsed_url.hostname,
            'PORT': parsed_url.port or '5432',
        }
    }
else:
    # Fall back to individual PostgreSQL environment variables

Set the DATABASE_URL in your Railway project settings, and you are good to go.

Why Deploy Xata PostgreSQL with 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 using Xata PostgreSQL together with 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.