new_skill

Overview

This skill handles initializing Railway projects and adding services from local code or GitHub. It guides CLI checks, decides between init vs link, scaffolds or detects app types, and creates services ready for deployment. Databases are delegated to the database skill.

How this skill works

It inspects the current repository and parent directories using railway status and railway list to determine if a project is linked. If linked, it adds a service; if not, it helps choose between railway init or railway link based on user intent and existing projects. For GitHub sources it creates an empty service and delegates environment configuration (source.repo, source.branch) to the environment skill rather than using --repo.

When to use it

• User says: setup, deploy to railway, initialize, create project, create service, or deploy from GitHub
• You need to add a service to an already linked Railway project
• You want to create a new Railway project and initialize code deployment
• You are deploying a monorepo subdirectory or single-app repo
• You want to deploy static sites, Node/Python/Go services, or scaffold new apps

Best practices

• Check railway CLI and authentication first: command -v railway and railway whoami --json
• Do NOT create a new project when a project is already linked unless user explicitly requests a new project
• For GitHub repos: create an empty service and set source via the environment skill instead of railway add --repo
• For monorepos: set rootDirectory for isolated apps; use custom build/start commands for shared monorepos
• Use environment skill for all build/start config and run deploy skill after service creation

Example use cases

• Deploy a Vite React app: scaffold locally, railway add --service frontend, deploy with deploy skill
• Add a Python FastAPI service to an existing project: railway add --service api and deploy
• Initialize a new project: railway init -n my-site (include --workspace if multiple workspaces exist)
• Deploy GitHub repo: railway add --service repo-service, then use environment skill to set source.repo and branch
• Add a service in a subdirectory when parent project is linked: railway add --service my-app and set rootDirectory