Skip to main content

Node.js

A project with package.json in its root is built as Node.js. Railpack picks the Node.js version, package manager, build step and start command from the project's files; see Railpack: Node. Commit the lockfile, and set engines.node in package.json to pin the version.

Example​

server.js
const http = require('node:http')

const port = process.env.PORT || 8080

http
  .createServer((req, res) => {
    res.end('Hello from Freepod\n')
  })
  .listen(port, '0.0.0.0')
package.json
{
  "name": "hello",
  "engines": { "node": "24" },
  "scripts": { "start": "node server.js" }
}

Listening on $PORT​

next start reads PORT and listens on all interfaces. Express listens on all interfaces when app.listen gets no host argument. Fastify listens on localhost by default; pass the host explicitly:

await app.listen({ port: Number(process.env.PORT), host: '0.0.0.0' })