RAILWAY_GUIDE.md

lex-tg Railway Deployment Guide

This guide will help you deploy lex-tg to Railway.app using Docker and a PostgreSQL database.

1. Create a New Project

1. Go to Railway Dashboard.
2. Click New Project -> Deploy from GitHub Repo.
3. Select your lex-tg repository.

2. Add PostgreSQL Database

1. In your Railway project canvas, click New -> Database -> Add PostgreSQL.
2. Railway will automatically create a DATABASE_URL variable for the project.

3. Configure the Bot Service

1. Click on your bot service.
2. Go to the Variables tab and add the following:
   • API_ID: Your Telegram API ID.
   • API_HASH: Your Telegram API Hash.
   • BOT_TOKEN: Your Telegram Bot Token.
   • OWNER_ID: Your Telegram User ID.
   • DATABASE_URL: Set this to ${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}} (Railway automatically links it).
   • LOG_LEVEL: INFO
   • ENABLE_VIDEO_WATERMARK: True or False.
   • VIDEO_WATERMARK_MAX_SIZE_MB: E.g., 20.

4. Setup Persistent Sessions & Data (CRITICAL)

Railway's filesystem is ephemeral. To prevent data loss and repeated log-ins:

1. Go to your bot service -> Settings.
2. Scroll to Volumes -> Add Volume.
3. Create volumes for the following paths:
   • Mount Path: /app/sessions (For Telegram sessions)
   • Mount Path: /app/data (For local cache snapshots)
   • Mount Path: /app/logs (Optional, for persistent logs)

5. Deployment

1. Every time you push to GitHub, Railway will build the Docker container and deploy it.
2. Check the Logs tab to verify the lex-tg is running! message appears.

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Troubleshooting

• Database Connection: Ensure DATABASE_URL uses the ${{Postgres.DATABASE_URL}} reference.
• Session Reset: If the bot asks to log in again after a restart, ensure the volume is correctly mounted to /app/sessions.
• Migrations: The bot automatically runs alembic upgrade head on startup. check the logs if you see migration errors.