🚂 How to Deploy Your Own Private Nostr Relay on Railway (I think??)

You Derek and Alex is this how to do it?

DJ Valerie B LOVE🩷

13. Februar 2026February 13, 2026 · 7 Min. Lesezeit7 min read

🚂 How to Deploy Your Own Private Nostr Relay on Railway (I think??)

By: DJ Valerie B LOVE (Sonnet 4.5 did this not me ;-)

Time Required: 45-90 minutes

Cost: Free trial (then ~$5-8/month)

Skill Level: Beginner-friendly (no coding required!)

📋 What You'll Need Before Starting#

Gather this information and write it down:

Your Admin Pubkey (hex): [YOUR_HEX_PUBKEY_HERE] Your Admin Pubkey (npub): [YOUR_NPUB_HERE] Your Email: [YOUR_EMAIL_HERE] Your Relay Name: [YOUR_RELAY_NAME - e.g., "My Private Relay"]

To find your hex pubkey:

🚂 PART 1: Create Railway Account (5 minutes)#

Step 1: Sign Up for Railway#

  1. Go to: https://railway.app

  2. Click "Login" (top right)

  3. Click "Login with GitHub"

If you don't have GitHub:

  1. Click "Authorize Railway" when GitHub asks

  2. ✅ You're in! You should see the Railway dashboard

🔀 PART 2: Fork the Relay Code (5 minutes)#

Step 2: Get Your Own Copy of the Relay#

  1. Open new tab: https://github.com/scsibug/nostr-rs-relay

  2. Click "Fork" button (top right)

  3. Click "Create fork" (green button)

  4. Wait 10 seconds

  5. ✅ You now have: github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/nostr-rs-relay

📝 PART 3: Configure Your Relay (10 minutes)#

Step 3: Edit the Config File#

  1. In your forked repo, click config.toml

  2. Click the pencil icon ✏️ (Edit this file)

  3. Delete everything in the file

  4. Paste this config (replace the bracketed values):

`[info] relay_url = "wss://YOUR-RELAY-URL-WILL-GO-HERE.up.railway.app" name = "[YOUR_RELAY_NAME]" description = "[YOUR_RELAY_DESCRIPTION]" pubkey = "[YOUR_HEX_PUBKEY]" contact = "[YOUR_NPUB_OR_EMAIL]"

[database] data_directory = "/data"

[network] port = 8080 address = "0.0.0.0"

[limits] messages_per_sec = 100 max_event_bytes = 131072 max_ws_message_bytes = 524288 max_conn = 128

[authorization] pubkey_whitelist = [ "[YOUR_HEX_PUBKEY]" ]

[options] reject_future_seconds = 1800`

  1. Scroll down

  2. Commit message: Configure relay with my settings

  3. Click "Commit changes"

Note: You'll update the relay_url later once Railway gives you the URL.

Step 4: Update the Dockerfile#

  1. In your repo, click Dockerfile

  2. Click pencil ✏️ to edit

  3. Delete everything

  4. Paste this Dockerfile:

`FROM docker.io/library/rust:1-bookworm as builder ARG CARGO_LOG RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y cmake protobuf-compiler && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* RUN USER=root cargo install cargo-auditable RUN USER=root cargo new --bin nostr-rs-relay WORKDIR ./nostr-rs-relay COPY ./Cargo.toml ./Cargo.toml COPY ./Cargo.lock ./Cargo.lock RUN cargo auditable build --release --locked RUN rm src/.rs COPY ./src ./src COPY ./proto ./proto COPY ./build.rs ./build.rs RUN rm ./target/release/deps/nostrrelay* RUN cargo auditable build --release --locked

FROM docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim ARG APP=/usr/src/app ARG APP_DATA=/usr/src/app/db RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y ca-certificates tzdata sqlite3 libc6 && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* EXPOSE 8080 ENV TZ=Etc/UTC APP_USER=appuser RUN groupadd $APP_USER && useradd -g $APP_USER $APP_USER && mkdir -p ${APP} && mkdir -p ${APP_DATA} COPY --from=builder /nostr-rs-relay/target/release/nostr-rs-relay ${APP}/nostr-rs-relay COPY config.toml /config.toml RUN chown -R $APP_USER:$APP_USER ${APP} USER $APP_USER WORKDIR ${APP} ENV RUST_LOG=info,nostr_rs_relay=info ENV APP_DATA=${APP_DATA} CMD ./nostr-rs-relay --db ${APP_DATA} --config /config.toml`

  1. Scroll down

  2. Commit message: Add config file to Docker build

  3. Click "Commit changes"

🚀 PART 4: Deploy to Railway (15 minutes)#

Step 5: Create Railway Project#

  1. Go back to Railway: https://railway.app

  2. Click "New Project" (purple button)

  3. Click "Deploy from GitHub repo"

  4. Click "Configure GitHub App"

  5. Select "Only select repositories"

  6. Choose nostr-rs-relay from the dropdown

  7. Click "Install & Authorize"

Step 6: Deploy Your Relay#

  1. You should see nostr-rs-relay in the list

  2. Click on it

  3. Click "Deploy Now"

  4. Wait 7-10 minutes - Railway is building (Rust takes time!)

  5. Watch for "Deployed" or green checkmark ✅

🌐 PART 5: Generate Your Relay URL (5 minutes)#

Step 7: Get Your Public URL#

  1. Click on your deployed nostr-rs-relay service

  2. Click "Settings" tab

  3. Scroll to "Networking" section

  4. Click "Generate Domain"

  5. Railway creates a URL like: nostr-rs-relay-production-XXXX.up.railway.app

  6. Copy this URL!

Step 8: Update Config with Your Real URL#

  1. Go back to GitHub: github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/nostr-rs-relay

  2. Click config.toml

  3. Click pencil ✏️ to edit

  4. Find line 2:

    relay_url = "wss://YOUR-RELAY-URL-WILL-GO-HERE.up.railway.app"

  5. Replace with your actual Railway URL:⚠️ Don't forget the wss:// at the beginning!

    relay_url = "wss://nostr-rs-relay-production-XXXX.up.railway.app"

  6. Commit message: Update relay URL with actual domain

  7. Click "Commit changes"

Step 9: Wait for Auto-Redeploy#

🔐 PART 6: Add Environment Variables (5 minutes)#

Step 10: Configure Environment#

  1. In Railway, click your nostr-rs-relay service

  2. Click "Variables" tab

  3. Click "+ New Variable"

Add these 3 variables one by one:

Variable 1:

Name: NOSTR_CONFIG_DIR Value: /app

Variable 2:

Name: RUST_LOG Value: info,nostr_rs_relay=info

Variable 3:

Name: PORT Value: 8080

  1. After adding all 3, the relay will auto-redeploy (2-3 minutes)

✅ PART 7: Verify It's Working (5 minutes)#

Step 11: Check the Logs#

  1. In Railway, click your service

  2. Click "Deployments" tab

  3. Click on the latest ACTIVE deployment (green checkmark)

  4. Click "Deploy Logs" tab

Look for these SUCCESS messages:

✅ Event publishing restricted to 1 pubkey(s) ✅ Listening on: 0.0.0.0:8080 ✅ database pragma/schema initialized to v18, and ready

Make sure you DON'T see:

❌ Error reading config file ❌ WARNING: Default configuration settings will be used

Step 12: Test WebSocket Connection#

  1. Go to: https://websocketking.com

  2. Enter your relay URL: wss://nostr-rs-relay-production-XXXX.up.railway.app

  3. Click "Connect"

  4. ✅ Should say: "Connected to wss://..."

🎊 YOU'RE DONE!#

What You Have:#

✅ Private Nostr relay running on Railway

✅ NIP-42 authentication enabled

✅ Only YOUR pubkey can publish events

✅ Database ready for your app

✅ WebSocket URL ready to use

Your Relay Info:#

Relay URL: wss://[YOUR-RAILWAY-DOMAIN].up.railway.app Admin Pubkey: [YOUR_HEX_PUBKEY] Status: Online ✅ Cost: ~$5-8/month

🔧 Maintenance & Troubleshooting#

Adding More Allowed Pubkeys:#

When you want to add members to your relay:

  1. Go to GitHub → config.toml

  2. Edit the pubkey_whitelist section:

    [authorization] pubkey_whitelist = [ "YOUR_ADMIN_PUBKEY_HEX", "MEMBER_1_PUBKEY_HEX", "MEMBER_2_PUBKEY_HEX" ]

  3. Commit changes

  4. Railway auto-redeploys (2-3 minutes)

Common Issues:#

Relay shows "Crashed":

"Config file not found" error:

Can't connect to relay:

Relay restarts frequently:

Viewing Relay Activity:#

Costs:#

🌟 Next Steps:#

Now you can:

  1. Connect your Nostr app to this relay

  2. Publish encrypted events (private data)

  3. Create NIP-29 private communities

  4. Build member-only platforms

  5. Control your own data infrastructure!

💜 Share This Guide!#

If this helped you, share it with others learning Nostr!

Built with: Railway + nostr-rs-relay + ❤️

Guide by: DJ Valerie B LOVE (npub184cwc849sejs5pr566zcg4pqn53zzk85q70gmwqx7qt77h3suansvet30s)

Questions? Find me on Nostr! ⚡

#private relay#vibe coding

Written by

DJ Valerie B LOVE🩷

💜 Host: DJ Valerie B LOVE Podcast 🩷 Co-Founder: 11x LOVE Method 💫 Recovery Coach for Moms and Women ✨ 11x LOVE Notes Newsletter for Freedom Lovers, Bitcoiners and Badasses ☮️ Peaceful Money = Peaceful World…

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Contents

12 sections

  1. 📋 What You'll Need Before Starting
  2. 🚂 PART 1: Create Railway Account (5 minutes)
  3. 🔀 PART 2: Fork the Relay Code (5 minutes)
  4. 📝 PART 3: Configure Your Relay (10 minutes)
  5. 🚀 PART 4: Deploy to Railway (15 minutes)
  6. 🌐 PART 5: Generate Your Relay URL (5 minutes)
  7. 🔐 PART 6: Add Environment Variables (5 minutes)
  8. ✅ PART 7: Verify It's Working (5 minutes)
  9. 🎊 YOU'RE DONE!
  10. 🔧 Maintenance & Troubleshooting
  11. 🌟 Next Steps:
  12. 💜 Share This Guide!