Self-Hosting Trigger.dev on Railway: Full Setup and Production Checklist

Trigger.dev's cloud is the easiest starting point, but for teams with strict data residency requirements or high job volumes, self-hosting gives you full control. The Trigger.dev server is open-source and ships as a Docker image. Railway is an ideal host: it handles persistent volumes, environment variables, and service networking without requiring Kubernetes or manual infrastructure management.

This guide walks through a complete self-hosted Trigger.dev setup on Railway, including the Postgres database, Redis queue, and the Trigger server itself.

Architecture Overview

Step 1: Create a Railway Project

# Install Railway CLI npm install -g @railway/cli # Login and create a project railway login railway init --name trigger-self-hosted

Step 2: Add Postgres and Redis

In the Railway dashboard, click Add Service → Database → PostgreSQL, then repeat for Redis. Railway automatically sets `DATABASE_URL` and `REDIS_URL` environment variables that other services in the project can reference.

Step 3: Deploy the Trigger.dev Server

Create a `railway.toml` and `Dockerfile` for the Trigger server service:

# Dockerfile FROM ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/trigger.dev:latest # Trigger.dev reads all config from environment variables # No additional build steps needed

# railway.toml [build] dockerfilePath = "Dockerfile" [deploy] startCommand = "" healthcheckPath = "/api/v1/health" healthcheckTimeout = 300 restartPolicyType = "on_failure" restartPolicyMaxRetries = 3

Step 4: Set Environment Variables

# Required variables for the Trigger.dev server # Set these in Railway dashboard → Service → Variables DATABASE_URL=${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}} REDIS_URL=${{Redis.REDIS_URL}} # Generate a secure random string (32+ chars) SESSION_SECRET=your-long-random-session-secret-here MAGIC_LINK_SECRET=your-long-random-magic-link-secret-here ENCRYPTION_KEY=your-32-char-hex-encryption-key # The public URL Railway assigns your service LOGIN_ORIGIN=https://trigger-server-production.up.railway.app APP_ORIGIN=https://trigger-server-production.up.railway.app # Email (required for magic link auth) RESEND_API_KEY=re_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx FROM_EMAIL=noreply@yourapp.com REPLY_TO_EMAIL=support@yourapp.com

# Generate secrets with Node.js node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"

Step 5: Run Database Migrations

Trigger.dev uses Prisma for database migrations. You need to run them once after the Postgres database is ready:

# SSH into the Railway service or use railway run railway run --service trigger-server npx prisma migrate deploy

Railway's service-to-service networking uses internal hostnames. If the migration command can't reach Postgres, check that `DATABASE_URL` uses the internal Railway URL (not the public one) for security and lower latency.

Step 6: Configure Your App to Use Self-Hosted Trigger

// trigger/index.ts export const client = new TriggerClient({ id: "my-app", apiKey: process.env.TRIGGER_API_KEY!, // Point to your self-hosted instance instead of Trigger's cloud apiUrl: process.env.TRIGGER_API_URL!, // https://trigger-server-production.up.railway.app });

# .env.local (your Next.js app) TRIGGER_API_KEY=tr_dev_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx # created in your self-hosted dashboard TRIGGER_API_URL=https://trigger-server-production.up.railway.app

Production Checklist

Viewing the Dashboard

Navigate to your Trigger server's Railway URL (e.g., `https://trigger-server-production.up.railway.app`). Create an account using a magic link (sent to the email you configured), then create an organization and project to get your API key.

The self-hosted Trigger dashboard is currently single-tenant (one organization per server). If you need multiple isolated organizations, deploy separate Trigger server instances.

Cost Estimate on Railway