Railway Deploy

Deploy code from the current directory to Railway using railway up.

When to Use

User asks to "deploy", "ship", "push code"
User says "railway up" or "deploy to Railway"
User wants to deploy local code changes
User says "deploy and fix any issues" (use --ci mode)

Modes

Detach Mode (default)

Starts deploy and returns immediately. Use for most deploys.

railway up --detach

CI Mode

Streams build logs until complete. Use when user wants to watch the build or needs to debug issues.

railway up --ci

When to use CI mode:

User says "deploy and watch", "deploy and fix issues"
User is debugging build failures
User wants to see build output

Deploy Specific Service

Default is linked service. To deploy to a different service:

railway up --detach --service backend

Deploy to Unlinked Project

Deploy to a project without linking first:

railway up --project <project-id> --environment production --detach

Requires both --project and --environment flags.

CLI Options

Flag	Description
`-d, --detach`	Don't attach to logs (default)
`-c, --ci`	Stream build logs, exit when done
`-s, --service <NAME>`	Target service (defaults to linked)
`-e, --environment <NAME>`	Target environment (defaults to linked)
`-p, --project <ID>`	Target project (requires --environment)
`[PATH]`	Path to deploy (defaults to current directory)

Directory Linking

Railway CLI walks UP the directory tree to find a linked project. If you're in a subdirectory of a linked project, you don't need to relink.

For subdirectory deployments, prefer setting rootDirectory via the railway-environment skill, then deploy normally with railway up.

After Deploy

Detach mode

Deploying to <service>...

Use railway-deployment skill to check build status (with --lines flag).

CI mode

Build logs stream inline. If build fails, the error will be in the output.

Do NOT run railway logs --build after CI mode - the logs already streamed. If you need more context, use railway-deployment skill with --lines flag (never stream).

Composability

Check status after deploy: Use railway-service skill
View logs: Use railway-deployment skill
Fix config issues: Use railway-environment skill
Redeploy after config fix: Use railway-environment skill

Error Handling

No Project Linked

No Railway project linked. Run `railway link` first.

No Service Linked

No service linked. Use --service flag or run `railway service` to select one.

Build Failure (CI mode)

The build logs already streamed - analyze them directly from the railway up --ci output. Do NOT run railway logs after CI mode (it streams forever without --lines).

Common issues:

Missing dependencies → check package.json/requirements.txt
Build command wrong → use railway-environment skill to fix
Dockerfile issues → check dockerfile path