📌Overview

Purpose: The Railway MCP Server aims to facilitate managing Railway.app infrastructure through natural language commands, enabling efficient deployment and monitoring of services.

Overview: This Model Context Protocol (MCP) server integrates seamlessly with Railway.app, allowing users to manage projects, services, and variables. It is designed for use with various MCP clients, streamlining workflows and enhancing user interaction with infrastructure management.

Key Features:

Authentication with Railway API tokens: Ensures secure access to Railway services, allowing users to manage their projects and environment effectively.
Project management: Users can list, retrieve information, and delete projects effortlessly, helping to maintain organization in their Railway.app accounts.
Deployment management: Facilitates listing and restarting deployments, allowing quick response to issues or updates.
Service management: Users can create services from GitHub repositories or Docker images, which simplifies deployment from existing code.
Variable management: Offers capabilities to list, create, update, and delete environment variables, ensuring flexibility in configurations.
Service Network and Volume management: Enhances the control over service interactions and data storage while managing dependencies effectively.

Railway MCP Server

Let Claude and other MCP clients manage your Railway.app infrastructure. Deploy services, manage variables, and monitor deployments — all through natural language.

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for integrating with the Railway.app platform.

Features • Installation • Available Tools • Example Workflows • Security • Troubleshooting • Contributing

Features

Status	Meaning
✅	Complete
🚧🔨⏳	Being Built or Needs Testing
❌	Not Built at the moment

✅ Authentication with Railway API tokens
✅ Project management (list, info, delete)
✅ Deployment management (list, restart)
✅ Service management (create from GitHub repo or Docker image, list)
✅ Variable management (list, create/update, delete)
✅ Service Network management
✅ Volume management
❌ Full support for all templates
- 🚧🔨⏳ Database template support
- Automatic database and networking workflows
🚧🔨⏳ Most commonly used workflows
❌ Automatic GitHub repository linking for services

Installation

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+ (for built-in fetch API support)
An active Railway account
A Railway API token (create one at https://railway.app/account/tokens)

Quick Start

This MCP server is designed to work with MCP Clients like:

Claude for Desktop | ✅ Battle-Tested
Cursor | ✅ Needs Testing
Cline | 🚧🔨⏳ Needs Testing
Windsurf | 🚧🔨⏳ Needs Testing
Other MCP Clients | 🚧🔨⏳ Needs Testing

Installing via Smithery

To install railway-mcp automatically, use Smithery

Claude Desktop

npx -y @smithery/cli install @jason-tan-swe/railway-mcp --client claude

Cursor

npx -y @smithery/cli@latest run @jason-tan-swe/railway-mcp --config "{\"railwayApiToken\":\"token\"}"

Manual Installation For Cursor

Go to your Cursor settings and find the MCP section
Click 'Add new MCP server'
Name it, e.g., railway-mcp
Paste the command into the 'Command' section, replacing <RAILWAY_API_TOKEN> with your Railway token:

npx -y @jasontanswe/railway-mcp <RAILWAY_API_TOKEN>

Manual Installation For Claude

Create or edit your Claude for Desktop config file:
- macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
- Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Add the railway-mcp server configuration with your API token:

"railway": {
   "command": "npx",
   "args": ["-y", "@jasontanswe/railway-mcp"],
   "env": {
      "RAILWAY_API_TOKEN": "your-railway-api-token-here"
   }
}

If multiple MCP servers exist, your config file might look like:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "railway": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@jasontanswe/railway-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "RAILWAY_API_TOKEN": "your-railway-api-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude for Desktop
Use Railway tools directly in Claude, e.g.,

Please list all my Railway projects

Alternatively, configure your token inside Claude:

Please configure the Railway API with my token: {YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE}

Recommendations and Other Information

This server is best combined with MCP clients that have terminal or Git access (Cursor, Windsurf). railway-mcp orchestrates containers and streamlines deployments seamlessly.

Recommended MCP Servers to Combine With

Git (Official Link)
GitHub (Official, Smithery)

For Claude

Claude does not have terminal access out of the box, so it cannot trigger deployments due to lack of commit access.
Best for spinning up and monitoring services.

For Cursor

Use with GitHub MCP or repositories cloned locally to leverage full integration.
To avoid deployment errors, ensure changes are pushed to GitHub:
- Include a prompt like: Have you pushed our changes to GitHub yet?

Security Considerations

Railway API tokens provide full account access; keep them secure.
Using environment variables stores tokens in the configuration file.
Sensitive variable values are masked when displayed.
API calls use HTTPS for security.
Tokens are stored only in memory during runtime, not written to disk outside config files.

Troubleshooting

Token Authentication Issues

Verify your API token is valid with necessary permissions.
Ensure proper formatting in the environment variable config.
Use the configure tool inside Claude if environment variables fail.

Server Connection Issues

Make sure you have the latest server version.
Confirm Node.js 18+ is installed.
Restart Claude after config changes.

API Errors

Verify project, environment, and service IDs.
Check Railway's status for service disruptions.
Avoid exceeding Railway API rate limits.

Available Tools

Authentication

configure — Set your Railway API token (if not provided via environment variables)

Projects

project-list — List all projects
project-info — Get project details
project-create — Create a new project
project-delete — Delete a project
project-environments — List environments in a project

Services

service-list — List services in a project
service-info — Get service details
service-create-from-repo — Create service from GitHub repo
service-create-from-image — Create service from Docker image
service-delete — Delete a service
service-restart — Restart a service
service-update — Update service config (build/start commands) | 🚧 Needs Testing

Deployments

deployment-list — List service deployments
deployment-trigger — Trigger a deployment
deployment-logs — Get deployment logs
deployment-health-check — Check deployment health/status

Variables

variable-list — List variables for service or environment
variable-set — Create/update a variable
variable-delete — Delete a variable
variable-bulk-set — Bulk update variables | 🚧 Needs Testing
variable-copy — Copy variables between environments | 🚧 Needs Testing

Databases

database-list-types — List available database types
database-deploy — Deploy a new database service

Example Workflows

Setting up a new service

List projects to get the project ID
Create a new service from a template
Add environment variables
View the service deployment

Managing environment variables

List projects to get project ID
List variables currently set
Create or update variables as needed
Delete obsolete variables

Contributing

We welcome community contributions! Please see our Contributing Guidelines for details on getting started, development guidelines, and debugging information.

railway-mcp