Atlas lists Railway services, reads crash-looping deploy logs, and sets variables through the MCP server bundled into the Railway CLI, or through Railway's hosted endpoint with short-lived tokens. Run railway login and then atlas mcp add railway -- railway mcp, or point at https://mcp.railway.com and run atlas mcp auth railway.
What Atlas does with Railway
Atlas lists Railway services, reads crash-looping deploy logs, and sets variables through the MCP server bundled into the Railway CLI, or through Railway's hosted endpoint with short-lived tokens. In 2026 there are exactly 2 supported paths, and the npm package is not one of them.
Railway's failure mode has a distinctive shape: a service that will not stay up. The container starts, something is missing, it dies, Railway restarts it, and the loop repeats until somebody reads the logs carefully enough to spot the one line that matters. Atlas can list the services, pull the failing deploy's logs, and explain the crash loop, and because it also holds your repository it can fix the cause rather than describe it.
The CLI-bundled MCP server
Railway bundles MCP into its CLI, so run railway login and then atlas mcp add railway -- railway mcp. Those 2 commands are the whole setup in 2026: no separate server package gets downloaded, because the same Railway CLI you already use for railway up is the process Atlas talks to over stdio.
Bundling MCP into the CLI is a good design decision on Railway's part, because it means the agent's credentials and your credentials are the same credentials. After railway login, the CLI holds a session, and atlas mcp add railway -- railway mcp launches railway mcp as a local stdio server that uses it. There is no second token to mint and no second thing to keep in sync when your Railway access changes.
The hosted endpoint and short-lived tokens
Prefer short-lived tokens by using the hosted server instead: run atlas mcp add railway --url https://mcp.railway.com, followed by atlas mcp auth railway. Short-lived tokens are the security argument for the hosted path, and it is the 1 setup that does not depend on a CLI login persisting on the machine.
Teams with a security review to satisfy usually prefer https://mcp.railway.com. atlas mcp auth railway completes the OAuth flow and Railway issues short-lived tokens rather than leaning on a long-lived CLI session sitting on a developer laptop. The tool surface Atlas gets is the same one: listing services, reading deploy logs, setting variables. The difference is entirely in how the credential is held and for how long.
Do not install @railway/mcp-server
Do not install the npm @railway/mcp-server package. It is deprecated in favor of the CLI-bundled railway mcp command, so the correct registration in 2026 is atlas mcp add railway -- railway mcp, or the hosted endpoint at https://mcp.railway.com.
The @railway/mcp-server package on npm is deprecated, and it is the first thing a search turns up, which is why people keep finding it. Railway moved MCP into the CLI itself. If a tutorial tells you to npm install a Railway MCP server, the tutorial predates that move. Register railway mcp through the CLI, or use the hosted endpoint, and skip the npm package entirely.
Debugging a crash loop
Ask Atlas to list the services in the environment, read the failing deploy's logs, and explain the crash loop. A Railway crash loop is a restart cycle with the answer buried in log output, and those 3 instructions get Atlas from the symptom to the actual stack trace.
The order is deliberate. Listing the services in the environment tells Atlas what exists and which one is unhealthy. Reading the failing deploy's logs gives it the raw evidence, including the lines that scroll past a human reading a live tail. Explaining the crash loop forces it to commit to a diagnosis you can check. Most Railway crash loops turn out to be a missing variable or a bad start command, and both are visible in the logs Atlas just read.
Setting a variable and redeploying
Let Atlas set a service variable and trigger a redeploy, approving the railway up command when it prompts. Setting a variable and redeploying are 2 write actions, and Atlas asks before running railway up rather than shipping on its own initiative.
Setting the variable happens through the Railway MCP server. Running railway up happens through the shell, which is where the approval prompt lives. Keeping those two separate is what makes the workflow safe to use on a real environment: Atlas can fix the missing configuration that caused the crash loop, show you what it changed, and then wait for a keystroke before the redeploy actually goes out.
Resetting the wiring with railway setup agent
railway setup agent regenerates the client wiring if you ever need to reset it. When a Railway MCP connection needs resetting, running railway setup agent is the 1 command to reach for before you start re-registering the server in Atlas from scratch.
Configuration drift happens: a CLI upgrade, a machine change, a config file edited by hand. railway setup agent exists to put the client wiring back the way Railway expects it, without you having to work out which piece broke. Run it first. If the railway entry in Atlas still does not connect afterward, then it is worth removing and re-adding the server with atlas mcp add railway -- railway mcp.
Setup
- 01Railway bundles MCP into its CLI, so run railway login and then atlas mcp add railway -- railway mcp
- 02Prefer short-lived tokens by using the hosted server instead: atlas mcp add railway --url https://mcp.railway.com followed by atlas mcp auth railway.
- 03Do not install the npm @railway/mcp-server package; it is deprecated in favor of the CLI-bundled railway mcp command.
- 04Ask Atlas to list the services in the environment, read the failing deploy's logs, and explain the crash loop.
- 05Let Atlas set a service variable and trigger a redeploy, approving the railway up command when it prompts.
- 06Run railway setup agent if you ever need to regenerate the client wiring.
Frequently asked questions
- how to connect Atlas to Railway
- Run railway login, then atlas mcp add railway -- railway mcp, because Railway bundles MCP into its CLI. Or use the hosted server with atlas mcp add railway --url https://mcp.railway.com and atlas mcp auth railway.
- is @railway/mcp-server deprecated
- Yes. The npm @railway/mcp-server package is deprecated in favor of the CLI-bundled railway mcp command. Do not install it for new setups.
- how do I debug a Railway crash loop with an AI agent
- Ask Atlas to list the services in the environment, read the failing deploy's logs, and explain the crash loop. It reads the logs through the Railway MCP server.
- can Atlas set Railway service variables
- Yes. Atlas sets variables through the Railway MCP server, and can then trigger a redeploy by asking you to approve the railway up command.
- Railway MCP hosted endpoint vs CLI, which should I use
- The hosted endpoint at https://mcp.railway.com issues short-lived tokens, which is the safer credential story. The CLI-bundled railway mcp reuses your existing railway login session.
- how do I reset the Railway MCP client configuration
- Run railway setup agent, which regenerates the client wiring. Try that before removing and re-adding the server in Atlas.
- does Atlas ask before deploying to Railway
- Yes. Atlas prompts for approval on the railway up command, so a redeploy is not automatic even after it sets a service variable.
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