Deploy on Railway (no VPS)
Railway is a managed platform that runs your TuneCamp instance without requiring a VPS, SSH access, or any server management. A single click deploys from the official template.
One-click deploy
This provisions:
- The TuneCamp Node.js server
- A persistent volume for the SQLite database and media files
- A public HTTPS URL on
.railway.app(usable for federation)
What you get
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| HTTPS | Automatic — no Nginx or Certbot needed |
| Persistent storage | Volume attached at /app/data |
| Environment variables | Set via the Railway dashboard → Variables tab |
| Custom domain | Add your own in Railway → Settings → Domains |
| Logs | Railway dashboard → Deployments → View logs |
Environment variables
Set these in Railway → Variables before or after first deploy:
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
TUNECAMP_PUBLIC_URL | Yes (for federation) | — | Your full public URL, e.g. https://yourname.up.railway.app |
TUNECAMP_ADMIN_USER | No | admin | Override default admin username |
TUNECAMP_ADMIN_PASS | No | admin | Override default admin password — change this |
JWT_SECRET | Recommended | auto-generated | Set a stable random string so sessions survive redeploys |
First login
Default credentials (same as Docker path):
| Username | Password |
|---|---|
admin | admin |
Change the password immediately in Admin → Settings.
Persistent media
Railway volumes persist across redeploys. Your SQLite database and uploaded/scanned media live inside the volume. If you need to upload a large library, use one of the remote ingestion paths instead of local file scan:
Limits
Railway's free Hobby tier has execution-hour limits. For a production instance with heavy streaming traffic, upgrade to a paid plan or consider a VPS with Docker instead (see Getting Started).
Custom domain + federation
To federate with other TuneCamp instances, ActivityPub requires a stable HTTPS URL. Set TUNECAMP_PUBLIC_URL to your Railway app URL (or a custom domain) and register with a directory instance:
curl -X POST https://directory.example.com/api/community/register \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url": "https://yourname.up.railway.app"}'