Add `--db-image` argument to `wasp deploy railway` #3184

cprecioso · 2025-09-22T12:48:42Z

Adds an optional --db-image argument to the wasp deploy railway {launch,setup} command, allowing the user to specify a custom Docker image for the database.

Their default Postgres service only allows adding extensions through the web interface, and only a few "blessed" ones (e.g. neither PostGIS or pgvector are available). If you want it any other way, you must deploy the image while setting the env variables yourself. For those, I copied Miho's already-running ask-the-documents app on Railway, and everything seems work correctly.

This is part of #3174. We're adding ask-the-documents to the repo, which needs a specific PostgreSQL extension. This way we can more easily test the app.

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This reverts commit 7a84c2a.

FranjoMindek

Just text/docs changes.

waspc/ChangeLog.md

web/docs/deployment/deployment-methods/wasp-deploy/railway.md

waspc/packages/deploy/src/providers/railway/commands/setup/setup.ts

Martinsos

Reviewed but didn't search for "what is missing", just reviewed what I see!

waspc/packages/deploy/src/providers/railway/commands/setup/SetupCmdOptions.ts

waspc/packages/deploy/src/providers/railway/commands/setup/setup.ts

waspc/packages/deploy/src/providers/railway/index.ts

web/docs/deployment/deployment-methods/wasp-deploy/railway.md

sodic

There are plenty of reviewers here already so I won't take a detailed look unless you need me to.

I'll just say that this principle should also apply here (if applicable):

sodic · 2025-09-24T08:31:56Z

waspc/ChangeLog.md


+### 🔧 Small improvements
+
+- You can now specify which PostgreSQL image to use in `wasp deploy railway` with the `--db-image` argument. ([#3184](https://github.com/wasp-lang/wasp/pull/3184))


Again, I'd list this as a feature :)

Btw, please bump the version in waspc.cabal to 0.18.1.
I haven't yet delieverd the post mortem and made my case for this, so just trust me bro :)

I will wait until we decided on the postmortem

I think we decided we want to bump right away, does this make this comment actionable now?

I did it on here since I don't want to mix concerns in the same PR, we can merge that one first
#3236

Co-authored-by: Franjo Mindek <84568328+FranjoMindek@users.noreply.github.com>

…up.ts Co-authored-by: Martin Šošić <Martinsos@users.noreply.github.com>

cprecioso · 2025-09-26T13:45:46Z

ready @sodic @Martinsos @FranjoMindek

infomiho

Left some comments

infomiho · 2025-10-07T15:01:35Z

web/docs/deployment/deployment-methods/wasp-deploy/railway.md

+By default, Wasp uses the standard PostgreSQL image provided by Railway when creating a new database for your app. However, if your application requires specific PostgreSQL extensions (e.g., PostGIS), you can specify a Docker image with a custom PostgreSQL installation, with the `--db-image <docker-image>` flag.
+
+:::tip
+You only need to specify the Docker image once, when first creating the app.
+:::
+
+```shell
+# Use PostGIS:
+wasp deploy railway launch my-wasp-app --db-image postgis/postgis
+```
+
+```shell
+# Use pgvector:
+wasp deploy railway launch my-wasp-app --db-image pgvector/pgvector:pg16
+```
+
+The service name will always be `Postgres`, regardless of the image used.


If these texts are repeated verbatim - let's extract them into a partial and include in both places.

infomiho · 2025-10-07T15:02:08Z

waspc/ChangeLog.md


+### 🔧 Small improvements
+
+- You can now specify which PostgreSQL image to use in `wasp deploy railway` with the `--db-image` argument. ([#3184](https://github.com/wasp-lang/wasp/pull/3184))


I think we decided we want to bump right away, does this make this comment actionable now?

infomiho · 2025-10-07T15:10:02Z

waspc/packages/deploy/src/providers/railway/commands/setup/setup.ts

+      "--variables",
+      "PGDATA=/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata",
+      "--variables",
+      "DATABASE_URL=postgresql://${{POSTGRES_USER}}:${{POSTGRES_PASSWORD}}@${{RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}:${{PORT}}/${{POSTGRES_DB}}",


I'd reuse the getRailwayEnvVarValueReference helper for these Railway env var references 😄

Okay, I did it, but tbh I don't think we're winning much by using it, on the contrary making it more difficult to read the variable. Check it out and tell me what you think.

I feel it's more readable now because it's quite explicit about what's going on. Either way, I'd keep it consistent now with the other place where we use env var references - at least when we decide to refactor it, there won't be two different ways of doing things.

cprecioso · 2025-10-08T09:27:45Z

@infomiho ready

Martinsos · 2025-10-09T08:41:20Z

Unsubscribing myself and leaving it to miho

infomiho

LGTM

cprecioso self-assigned this Sep 22, 2025

cprecioso force-pushed the image-arg-for-deploy-railway branch 2 times, most recently from 97d94ee to eb43689 Compare September 22, 2025 13:18

Initial impl

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cprecioso force-pushed the image-arg-for-deploy-railway branch from eb43689 to 00b0ad6 Compare September 22, 2025 13:22

cprecioso changed the title ~~feat: add --image arg to wasp start db command~~ Add --db-image to wasp deploy railway Sep 22, 2025

cprecioso changed the title ~~Add --db-image to wasp deploy railway~~ Add --db-image argument to wasp deploy railway Sep 22, 2025

cprecioso added 3 commits September 22, 2025 16:18

Format

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Simpler logic

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cprecioso added 4 commits September 22, 2025 16:44

Add changelog

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Revert "Simpler logic"

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This reverts commit 7a84c2a.

Custom database logic

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Fixes

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cprecioso marked this pull request as ready for review September 23, 2025 08:13

FranjoMindek approved these changes Sep 24, 2025

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Add --db-image argument to wasp deploy fly #3187

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Update web/docs/deployment/deployment-methods/wasp-deploy/railway.md

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Co-authored-by: Franjo Mindek <84568328+FranjoMindek@users.noreply.github.com>

Update web/docs/deployment/deployment-methods/wasp-deploy/railway.md

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Co-authored-by: Franjo Mindek <84568328+FranjoMindek@users.noreply.github.com>

Update web/docs/deployment/deployment-methods/wasp-deploy/railway.md

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Co-authored-by: Franjo Mindek <84568328+FranjoMindek@users.noreply.github.com>

Update web/docs/deployment/deployment-methods/wasp-deploy/railway.md

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Co-authored-by: Franjo Mindek <84568328+FranjoMindek@users.noreply.github.com>

Update web/docs/deployment/deployment-methods/wasp-deploy/railway.md

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Co-authored-by: Franjo Mindek <84568328+FranjoMindek@users.noreply.github.com>

Consistent description

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cprecioso and others added 4 commits September 26, 2025 15:25

Comment

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Update waspc/packages/deploy/src/providers/railway/commands/setup/set…

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…up.ts Co-authored-by: Martin Šošić <Martinsos@users.noreply.github.com>

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cprecioso added 2 commits September 29, 2025 10:48

Make DB docs consistent between providers

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cprecioso added 3 commits October 8, 2025 11:12

More readable array

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Use helper

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cprecioso requested a review from infomiho October 8, 2025 09:35

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Merge branch 'main' into image-arg-for-deploy-railway

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cprecioso deleted the image-arg-for-deploy-railway branch October 10, 2025 13:39


		### 🔧 Small improvements

		- You can now specify which PostgreSQL image to use in `wasp deploy railway` with the `--db-image` argument. ([#3184](https://github.com/wasp-lang/wasp/pull/3184))

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Add --db-image argument to wasp deploy railway #3184

Add --db-image argument to wasp deploy railway #3184

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Add `--db-image` argument to `wasp deploy railway` #3184

Add `--db-image` argument to `wasp deploy railway` #3184

cprecioso commented Sep 22, 2025 •

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