Skip to main content
Railway is the easiest way to deploy tinykit. One click, automatic HTTPS, and persistent storage included.

​
One-Click Deploy

Deploy to Railway

Click to deploy tinykit to Railway in under 5 minutes.

​
What You’ll Need

  1. A Railway account (free tier available)
  2. An AI API key from one of:

​
Step-by-Step Setup

1

Click Deploy Button

Click the “Deploy to Railway” button above, or go to the tinykit Railway template.
2

Configure Environment Variables

Railway will prompt you to set environment variables:
VariableRequiredDescription
LLM_PROVIDERYesanthropic, openai, or gemini
LLM_API_KEYYesYour API key
LLM_MODELNoModel name (defaults to provider’s best)
POCKETBASE_ADMIN_EMAILYesAdmin email for database
POCKETBASE_ADMIN_PASSWORDYesAdmin password (min 8 chars)
Example configuration:
LLM_PROVIDER=anthropic
LLM_API_KEY=sk-ant-api03-...
LLM_MODEL=claude-sonnet-4-20250514
POCKETBASE_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@yourdomain.com
POCKETBASE_ADMIN_PASSWORD=your-secure-password
3

Deploy

Click “Deploy” and wait 2-3 minutes for the build to complete.
4

Access Your Instance

Once deployed, Railway provides a URL like your-app.railway.app.
  • Builder: your-app.railway.app/tinykit
  • Production apps: your-app.railway.app/

​
Adding Custom Domains

1

Open Railway Settings

Go to your Railway project → Settings → Domains
2

Add Domain

Click “Add Domain” and enter your domain (e.g., app.yourdomain.com)
3

Configure DNS

Add a CNAME record pointing to your Railway URL:
app.yourdomain.com  CNAME  your-app.railway.app
4

Wait for SSL

Railway automatically provisions SSL certificates. This takes 1-5 minutes.
You can add multiple domains to serve different apps. Each domain can point to a different tinykit project via domain routing.

​
Persistent Storage

Railway automatically persists the pocketbase/pb_data directory. Your data survives:
  • Redeploys
  • Restarts
  • Sleep/wake cycles
Railway’s free tier has storage limits. For production apps with significant data, consider upgrading to a paid plan.

​
Costs

PlanMonthly CostIncludes
Hobby~$5500 hours, 1GB storage
Pro$20 baseUnlimited hours, more resources
Plus your AI API costs (typically $3-10/month for casual use).

​
Updating Your Deployment

​
Automatic Updates

Fork the tinykit repository and connect it to Railway for automatic deployments on push.

​
Manual Updates

  1. Go to your Railway project
  2. Click “Redeploy” to pull the latest changes

​
Environment Variables Reference

VariableDefaultDescription
LLM_PROVIDER-AI provider: anthropic, openai, gemini, ollama, zai
LLM_API_KEY-Your AI API key
LLM_MODELvariesModel to use (e.g., claude-sonnet-4-20250514)
LLM_BASE_URL-Custom API endpoint (for OpenAI-compatible providers)
POCKETBASE_ADMIN_EMAIL-Pocketbase admin email
POCKETBASE_ADMIN_PASSWORD-Pocketbase admin password
PORT3000Server port (Railway sets this automatically)
HOST0.0.0.0Server host

​
Troubleshooting

Check that your POCKETBASE_ADMIN_EMAIL and POCKETBASE_ADMIN_PASSWORD are set. The password must be at least 8 characters.
Verify your LLM_API_KEY is correct and has credits. Check the Railway logs for specific error messages.
Wait 5-10 minutes for SSL provisioning. If it persists, verify your DNS records are correct.
Railway should persist /pocketbase/pb_data. If data is lost, check that you haven’t accidentally removed the volume in Railway settings.
Railway’s free tier sleeps after inactivity. The first request after sleep takes 10-20 seconds. Upgrade to a paid plan for always-on performance.

​
Logs and Monitoring

Access logs from the Railway dashboard:
  1. Go to your project
  2. Click on the service
  3. View “Deployments” for build logs
  4. View “Logs” for runtime logs
Look for:
  • Starting Pocketbase... → Database startup
  • Pocketbase is ready! → Database ready
  • Starting SvelteKit server... → App startup