Arcane is a modern, web-based Docker management interface. Manage containers, images, volumes, and networks from a clean UI — deploy it on Railway in minutes.
Arcane runs as a single container with SQLite for persistence. Railway provides the compute, TLS at the edge, and a public URL. The service restarts automatically on failures. No external database is required — everything runs in one container with a persistent /app/data volume for SQLite, settings, and uploaded assets.
Railway-specific note: Login, the bootstrap admin account, SQLite persistence, and service health checks all work normally. The dashboard / containers / images / volumes / networks tabs return HTTP 500 on Railway because Railway-managed containers do not expose /var/run/docker.sock to the application. To manage live Docker resources from the UI, run Arcane directly on a Docker host and mount the socket: docker run -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock.
- Modern Docker UI — Manage containers, images, volumes, and networks from a clean, intuitive web interface.
- Zero external dependencies — SQLite-based, no PostgreSQL or Redis required. Single container with a persistent volume.
- 5.9K+ GitHub stars — Active community, fast-growing alternative to Portainer.
- Built-in health check —
/app/arcane healthmonitored by Railway for automatic restarts. - MIT licensed — Fully open source with no restrictions.
- Container management — Start, stop, restart, and inspect containers from a browser.
- Image management — Pull, build, and remove Docker images with a visual interface.
- Volume & network management — Manage persistent storage and Docker networks.
- Log viewing — Stream container logs in real-time from the UI.
- Quick deployment dashboard — Monitor all your Docker services from one pane of glass.
Arcane requires no external services on Railway. It uses embedded SQLite for storage and runs entirely within its container. The Docker socket (/var/run/docker.sock) is not exposed inside Railway containers — see About Hosting above for what works and what does not.
- Modern, responsive web UI for Docker management
- Container lifecycle management (start, stop, restart, logs)
- Image management (pull, build, remove)
- Volume and network management
- SQLite backend — no external database needed
- Pinned version (v2.2.0)
- One-click deploy
- Click Deploy on Railway above
ENCRYPTION_KEYandJWT_SECRETare auto-generated by default; override withopenssl rand -hex 32if you need reproducible values.APP_URLdefaults tohttps://${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}and resolves to your live Railway domain — leave unchanged unless you use a custom domain.- Deploy — Arcane starts in ~30s.
- First login — Arcane bootstraps a default admin on first boot. Sign in at your Railway URL with username
arcaneand passwordarcane-admin. Change it immediately from Settings → Users after signing in. - Open your Railway URL to manage containers, images, volumes, and networks.
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
APP_URL |
Yes | — | Public URL of your Arcane instance |
ENCRYPTION_KEY |
Yes | — | Auto-generated secret; override with openssl rand -hex 32 if you need reproducible values |
JWT_SECRET |
Yes | — | Auto-generated secret; override with openssl rand -hex 32 if you need reproducible values |
PUID |
No | 65532 |
User ID for file ownership |
PGID |
No | 65532 |
Group ID for file ownership |
git clone https://github.com/INAPP-Mobile/railway-arcane && cd railway-arcane
cp .env.example .env && $EDITOR .env
docker build -t railway-arcane .
docker run -d -p 3552:3552 -v arcane-data:/app/data --env-file .env railway-arcane| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| UI not loading | Verify APP_URL matches your Railway domain |
| Login fails | Verify username arcane + password arcane-admin for first-time bootstrap (or your rotated password thereafter); also check Settings → Users for password-change confirmation |
| Docker socket errors | Mount /var/run/docker.sock if managing host containers |
Arcane is MIT licensed. Template by INAPP-Mobile.