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Railway Local Debugging Setup Complete ✅

What We've Set Up

  1. ✅ Railway CLI - Already installed and linked to your project
  2. ✅ Project Linked - Connected to project "neetme" (production environment)
  3. ✅ Debug Script - Created scripts/debug-railway.sh for easy debugging
  4. ✅ Documentation - Created RAILWAY_DEBUG.md with detailed instructions
  5. ✅ Build Fix - Updated nixpacks.toml to ensure public and static files are copied

Quick Start - Find Your Service Name

Since Railway has multiple services, you need to find your web service name:

  1. Go to https://railway.app
  2. Open your project "neetme"
  3. Look at the services list - you'll see services like:
    • A PostgreSQL database service
    • A web/service for your Next.js app (this is what you need)
  4. The service name is usually: web, neetme, api, or similar
    • It's the one that runs your Next.js app (not the database)

Debug Commands

Once you know your service name (let's call it <service-name>):

1. Check Recent Logs

railway logs -s <service-name> --tail 100

2. Test Build Locally with Railway Environment

railway run -s <service-name> npm run build

3. Test Start Command Locally

railway run -s <service-name> npm start

This will start your app locally using Railway's environment variables - perfect for debugging!

4. Check Environment Variables

railway run -s <service-name> env | grep -E "^(DATABASE_URL|NEXT_PUBLIC_|NEXTAUTH_|NODE_ENV)"

5. Use the Debug Script

# Check logs
./scripts/debug-railway.sh logs <service-name>

# Test build
./scripts/debug-railway.sh build <service-name>

# Test start
./scripts/debug-railway.sh start <service-name>

# Show env vars (masked)
./scripts/debug-railway.sh env <service-name>

Common Issues to Check

Issue 1: Build Errors

Symptoms: Build fails in Railway Debug:

railway run -s <service-name> npm run build

Common causes:

  • Missing dependencies
  • TypeScript errors
  • Environment variables missing during build

Issue 2: Start Command Errors

Symptoms: App builds but doesn't start Debug:

railway run -s <service-name> npm start

Common causes:

  • .next/standalone/server.js not found
  • Missing public or .next/static folders (we fixed this in nixpacks.toml)
  • Database connection errors
  • Missing environment variables

Issue 3: Database Connection

Symptoms: App starts but can't connect to database Debug:

railway run -s <service-name> npx prisma db push

Check:

  • DATABASE_URL is set correctly
  • PostgreSQL service is running in Railway
  • Database migrations have run

Issue 4: Missing Environment Variables

Symptoms: App starts but features don't work Check required variables:

  • DATABASE_URL (auto-set by Railway PostgreSQL)
  • NEXT_PUBLIC_REOWN_PROJECT_ID
  • NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL
  • NEXTAUTH_URL
  • NEXTAUTH_SECRET
  • NODE_ENV=production

What We Fixed

  1. Updated nixpacks.toml - Added commands to copy public and .next/static to standalone directory
    • This ensures static assets are available when running the standalone server

Next Steps

  1. Find your service name from Railway dashboard
  2. Check the logs to see what errors are happening: 
    railway logs -s <service-name> --tail 100
  3. Test locally with Railway environment: 
    railway run -s <service-name> npm start
  4. Fix any issues you find
  5. Commit and push - Railway will auto-deploy

Getting More Help

Example Workflow

# 1. Find service name (check Railway dashboard)
# Let's say it's "web"

# 2. Check what's happening
railway logs -s web --tail 100

# 3. Test build locally
railway run -s web npm run build

# 4. Test start locally (this will show errors if any)
railway run -s web npm start

# 5. If you see errors, fix them and redeploy
git add .
git commit -m "Fix deployment issues"
git push

Good luck debugging! 🚀