> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.studiograph.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Railway

> Provision and deploy a managed Studiograph instance on Railway with one command.

The CLI can provision and deploy a Studiograph instance on [Railway](https://railway.app):

```bash theme={null}
studiograph deploy railway --name "My Studio"
```

This creates the Railway project and service, provisions secrets, and deploys the server. You can also pass a provider, model, and API key at deploy time (`--provider`, `--model`, `--api-key`).

## Updating a deployment

```bash theme={null}
studiograph redeploy
```

`redeploy` pins the exact `@studiograph/server` version in the service's start command (`npx --yes @studiograph/server@<version> serve`) and sets a fresh `DEPLOY_TS`, which forces a clean build rather than reusing a cached one.

## Auto-provisioned secrets

Deploying generates two secrets on the service:

| Variable                 | Purpose                    |
| ------------------------ | -------------------------- |
| `STUDIOGRAPH_JWT_SECRET` | Signs session tokens       |
| `STUDIOGRAPH_MASTER_KEY` | Encrypts the secrets store |

<Warning>
  Keep a copy of `STUDIOGRAPH_MASTER_KEY` outside Railway. It encrypts the secrets database — if it is lost, the stored credentials are unrecoverable. See [Configuration](/self-hosting/configuration).
</Warning>

## Artifact PDF and PNG export

Exporting artifacts to PDF or PNG requires Playwright Chromium on the server. These variables are **not** set automatically — add them to the Railway service yourself:

```bash theme={null}
STUDIOGRAPH_INSTALL_PLAYWRIGHT=1
PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=/workspace/.ms-playwright
```

Placing the browsers under `/workspace` keeps them on the persistent volume. To verify, check `/api/health` — it reports the renderer status under `render.playwright.state`.

## Optional: GitHub-backed config bootstrap

The server can bootstrap its configuration from a GitHub repository:

1. Set `STUDIOGRAPH_CONFIG_REPO` to the repository and `GITHUB_TOKEN` to a token that can read it.
2. To pick up changes automatically, point a GitHub webhook at `POST /webhooks/github` on your instance and set the same secret in the `WEBHOOK_SECRET` variable.