a month ago
Hi,
I added www.example.com as a custom domain in Railway. The "Configure DNS Records" panel tells me to add:
Type: CNAME; Name: @ ; Value:xxxxxxxx.up.railway.app
Type: TXT; Name:_railway-verify ;Value:railway-verify=<redacted>
The problem: my DNS is at GoDaddy, and GoDaddy will not accept @ as the Name for a CNAME record (it rejects it as invalid — CNAME-at-apex isn't permitted there). I need to enter www instead.
My question: to make www.example.com work, can I substitute the Names as follows in GoDaddy?
Type: CNAME; Name: www ; Value:xxxxxxxx.up.railway.app
Type: TXT; Name:_railway-verify ;Value:railway-verify=<redacted>
i.e. Railway's @ is relative to the subdomain I added (www.example.com), and from GoDaddy's zone-rooted perspective that becomes www for the CNAME and _railway-verify.www for the TXT.
Will Railway's verification succeed with these names, or does it require something different?
Thanks!
Pinned Solution
a month ago
No. Using www means you’ll need _railway-verify.www. Using @ means you’ll need _railway-verify. They are not interchangeable.
If you wish to use the root domain, you’ll need to migrate to a DNS provider that supports CNAME flattening (using CNAME on root records), such as Cloudflare.
4 Replies
Status changed to Open Railway • 30 days ago
a month ago
No. Using www means you’ll need _railway-verify.www. Using @ means you’ll need _railway-verify. They are not interchangeable.
If you wish to use the root domain, you’ll need to migrate to a DNS provider that supports CNAME flattening (using CNAME on root records), such as Cloudflare.
0x5b62656e5d
No. Using `www` means you’ll need `_railway-verify.www`. Using `@` means you’ll need `_railway-verify`. They are not interchangeable. If you wish to use the root domain, you’ll need to migrate to a DNS provider that supports CNAME flattening (using CNAME on root records), such as Cloudflare.
a month ago
Thanks — that helps clarify the rule, but I think there's a missing piece. I'm not trying to use the root domain. I added www.o-domain.com as the custom domain in Railway (the panel header confirms: "Add both of the following DNS records to www.o-domain.com"). Despite that, the records shown are:
- CNAME — Name:
@— Value:xxxxxxxx.up.railway.app - TXT — Name:
_railway-verify— Value:railway-verify=<redacted>
For comparison, on another project I have for domain.energy, after adding the equivalent subdomain, Railway showed me the records in zone-rooted form (these worked fine in GoDaddy):
- CNAME — Name:
www— Value:xxxxxxxx.up.railway.app - TXT — Name:
_railway-verify.www— Value:railway-verify=…
So my read is that both panels are describing the same target (www.<domain>), just in different notations — the domain.energy panel rendered names relative to the zone apex, and the o-domain.com panel is rendering names relative to the subdomain (where @ means "this subdomain"). They look like equivalent records to me, but the UI output is inconsistent between the two projects.
My questions:
- Was there a change to how Railway renders these records, or does the format depend on something I configured differently between the two projects?
- For the o-domain.com case, can I safely enter
www/_railway-verify.wwwin GoDaddy (the zone-rooted form, matching what worked for domain.energy), and will Railway's verification still pass? - If not, what specifically do I need to add at the Railway side so the panel renders the
www/_railway-verify.wwwform instead of@/_railway-verify?
To be explicit: I'm fine staying on GoDaddy and using the www subdomain — I don't need apex support or CNAME flattening. I just need the same setup that worked on my other project.
Thanks!
a month ago
I'd try removing the domain and adding it back to Railway. I can't seem to reproduce this issue.
a month ago
Gave in and just migrated to cloudflare as you initially suggested.
Working now.
Status changed to Solved 0x5b62656e5d • 29 days ago