Railway Configuration

2026-01-16

Jordan Wallwork

Table of content
  1. Custom Domain Setup
  2. DNS Configuration
  3. API Service Environment Variables
  4. Web Service Environment Variables
  5. Railway Custom Domain Configuration
  6. API Service
  7. Web Service
  8. Google OAuth Configuration
  9. Deployment Steps
  10. Verification Checklist
  11. Testing Commands
  12. Troubleshooting
  13. DNS Not Resolving
  14. SSL Certificate Not Provisioning
  15. CORS Errors Persist
  16. Authentication Cookie Issues
  17. OAuth Redirect Fails

Custom Domain Setup

DNS Configuration

Add the following CNAME records in your DNS provider (e.g., Cloudflare, Route53):

Type Name Value (Target) TTL
CNAME api {provided-by-railway}.up.railway.app Auto
CNAME app {provided-by-railway}.up.railway.app Auto

Note: Railway will provide the exact CNAME target when you add the custom domain in each service's settings.

API Service Environment Variables

Railway → API service → Variables

Variable Value Notes
ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT Production Required
ASPNETCORE_URLS http://+:8080 Required
ASPNETCORE_FORWARDEDHEADERS_ENABLED true Required
ConnectionStrings__deckledb Host=$;Port=$;Username=$;Password=$;Database=$ Use Railway reference
FrontendUrl https://app.deckle.games CRITICAL - Must be set
CookieDomain .deckle.games Required for auth (note the leading dot)
Authentication__Google__ClientId {your-client-id}.apps.googleusercontent.com From Google Cloud Console
Authentication__Google__ClientSecret GOCSPX-xxxxxxxxxxxxx From Google Cloud Console
Email__SmtpHost smtp.gmail.com Your SMTP provider
Email__SmtpPort 587 Usually 587 (TLS) or 465 (SSL)
Email__UseSsl true Match your SMTP configuration
Email__Username noreply@deckle.games Your SMTP username
Email__Password {your-smtp-password} SMTP password or app password
Email__FromAddress noreply@deckle.games Email "from" address
Email__FromName Deckle Email "from" name

Web Service Environment Variables

Railway → Web service → Variables

Variable Value Notes
NODE_ENV production Required
PORT 5173 Required
PUBLIC_API_URL https://api.deckle.games Must match API custom domain
ORIGIN https://app.deckle.games Must match Web custom domain

Railway Custom Domain Configuration

API Service

  1. Railway → API service → Settings → Networking → Custom Domains
  2. Click "Add Custom Domain"
  3. Enter: api.deckle.games
  4. Railway will show you the CNAME target (e.g., deckle-api-production-abc123.up.railway.app)
  5. Add this CNAME record to your DNS provider
  6. Wait for DNS propagation (usually 5-30 minutes)
  7. Railway will automatically provision SSL certificate via Let's Encrypt

Web Service

  1. Railway → Web service → Settings → Networking → Custom Domains
  2. Click "Add Custom Domain"
  3. Enter: app.deckle.games
  4. Railway will show you the CNAME target
  5. Add this CNAME record to your DNS provider
  6. Wait for DNS propagation
  7. Railway will automatically provision SSL certificate

Google OAuth Configuration

Update your Google Cloud Console OAuth settings:

  1. Go to: https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
  2. Select your OAuth 2.0 Client ID
  3. Under "Authorized redirect URIs", add:
    • https://api.deckle.games/signin-google
  4. Remove or keep old Railway domain as backup:
    • https://deckle-api.up.railway.app/signin-google
  5. Save changes

Deployment Steps

  1. Add custom domains in Railway (API and Web services)
  2. Update DNS records with CNAME targets from Railway
  3. Wait for DNS propagation (check with nslookup api.deckle.games)
  4. Update environment variables in Railway (see tables above)
  5. Trigger redeploy of both services (or push to master branch)
  6. Update Google OAuth redirect URI
  7. Test authentication flow:
    • Visit https://app.deckle.games
    • Click "Sign in with Google"
    • Should redirect to Google OAuth
    • Should redirect back to https://app.deckle.games/projects
    • Layout/TopBar should be visible

Verification Checklist

Testing Commands

# Verify DNS propagation
nslookup api.deckle.games
nslookup app.deckle.games

# Test SSL certificates
curl -I https://api.deckle.games/health
curl -I https://app.deckle.games

# Check API responds
curl https://api.deckle.games/health

# View API logs in Railway
railway logs --service api

# View Web logs in Railway
railway logs --service web

Troubleshooting

DNS Not Resolving

SSL Certificate Not Provisioning

CORS Errors Persist

OAuth Redirect Fails