This repository contains the pre-deploy configuration for deploying Discourse on Railway using the Bitnami Discourse template.

This setup uses Railway's pre-deploy script feature to automatically:

1. Clone the discourse-oauth2-basic plugin for Clerk SSO integration
2. Clone a private configuration repository (optional)
3. Install additional plugins from a plugins list
4. Set up all necessary configuration files

forum/
├── pre-deploy.sh          # Main pre-deploy script
├── config/
│   ├── discourse.conf     # Discourse configuration template
│   ├── site_settings.yml  # Site settings template
│   └── plugins.txt        # List of additional plugins
└── README.md              # This file

1. Go to Railway Dashboard
2. Click "New Project" → "Deploy from Template"
3. Search for "Discourse" and select the Bitnami Discourse template
4. Railway will create the necessary services (Discourse, Sidekiq, PostgreSQL, Redis)

In your Railway project settings:

1. Go to the Discourse service
2. Navigate to Settings → Deploy
3. In the Pre-Deploy Command field, enter:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/YOUR_USERNAME/bequant/main/forum/pre-deploy.sh | bash

Replace YOUR_USERNAME with your actual GitHub username.

Add these environment variables to your Discourse service:

# Basic Configuration
DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME=forum.bequant.dev
DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS=[email protected],[email protected]

# Database (Railway will auto-generate these)
DATABASE_HOST=${DATABASE_HOST}
DATABASE_NAME=${DATABASE_NAME}
DATABASE_USERNAME=${DATABASE_USERNAME}
DATABASE_PASSWORD=${DATABASE_PASSWORD}

# Redis (Railway will auto-generate these)
REDIS_HOST=${REDIS_HOST}
REDIS_PORT=${REDIS_PORT}
REDIS_PASSWORD=${REDIS_PASSWORD}

# SMTP Configuration (Gmail)
DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME=[email protected]
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD=your-app-password

# Clerk OAuth2 Configuration
CLERK_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID=your-clerk-oauth-client-id
CLERK_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET=your-clerk-oauth-client-secret

# Private Config Repository (if using)
CONFIG_REPO_URL=[email protected]:your-username/your-private-config-repo.git
GITHUB_DEPLOY_KEY=-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----\n...\n-----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----

For the Sidekiq service, add the same environment variables but reference the Discourse service:

# Inherit all variables from Discourse service
DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME=${{Discourse.DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME}}
DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS=${{Discourse.DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS}}
DATABASE_HOST=${{Discourse.DATABASE_HOST}}
DATABASE_NAME=${{Discourse.DATABASE_NAME}}
DATABASE_USERNAME=${{Discourse.DATABASE_USERNAME}}
DATABASE_PASSWORD=${{Discourse.DATABASE_PASSWORD}}
REDIS_HOST=${{Discourse.REDIS_HOST}}
REDIS_PORT=${{Discourse.REDIS_PORT}}
REDIS_PASSWORD=${{Discourse.REDIS_PASSWORD}}
DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME=${{Discourse.DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME}}
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD=${{Discourse.DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD}}
CLERK_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID=${{Discourse.CLERK_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID}}
CLERK_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET=${{Discourse.CLERK_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET}}

Also set the same pre-deploy command for Sidekiq.

If you want to use a private repository for configuration:

1. Create a private GitHub repository with this structure:

your-private-config-repo/
├── discourse.conf
├── site_settings.yml
└── plugins.txt

2. Generate a GitHub deploy key:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]" -f ~/.ssh/railway_deploy_key

3. Add the public key to your private repository's deploy keys
4. Add the private key content to Railway as GITHUB_DEPLOY_KEY
5. Set CONFIG_REPO_URL to your private repository's SSH URL

1. Environment Check: Verifies it's running in Bitnami Discourse
2. Directory Setup: Creates necessary plugin and config directories
3. OAuth2 Plugin: Clones the discourse-oauth2-basic plugin
4. SSH Setup: Configures GitHub deploy key if provided
5. Config Repository: Clones and processes private config repo if specified
6. Plugin Installation: Installs additional plugins from plugins.txt
7. Permissions: Sets correct file ownership for Bitnami user

• Check Railway logs for the exact error
• Verify the script URL is accessible
• Ensure all required environment variables are set

• Verify CLERK_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID and CLERK_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET are set
• Check that Clerk OAuth2 application is configured correctly
• Review Discourse admin logs for OAuth2 errors

• Check that discourse.conf and site_settings.yml are in the correct format
• Verify environment variable interpolation is working
• Restart the Discourse service after configuration changes

Edit config/plugins.txt and add GitHub repository URLs, one per line.

Update config/discourse.conf and config/site_settings.yml as needed. The files use environment variable interpolation with ${VARIABLE_NAME} syntax.

Modify pre-deploy.sh to add custom setup steps like:

• Installing system packages
• Setting up SSL certificates
• Configuring custom themes
• Running database migrations

To update the configuration:

1. Modify the files in this repository
2. Push changes to GitHub
3. Redeploy the Railway service (the pre-deploy script will pull the latest version)

For issues with this setup:

1. Check Railway deployment logs
2. Verify all environment variables are set correctly
3. Test the pre-deploy script locally if possible
4. Review Discourse documentation for configuration options