Custom domains cannot be added (Cyrillic and Punycode both rejected)
yoimdely
HOBBYOP

13 days ago

Hello,

I’m experiencing an issue when trying to add custom domains to my Railway service.

I am attempting to attach a Russian (Cyrillic) domain, for example:

Railway returns a “Malformed Domain” error.

I then converted the domain to Punycode format (XN----7SBFM1AFVM.XN--P1AI) and tried adding that version as well, but it is also rejected with the same error.

This happens consistently for:

  • Cyrillic domains (.рф)

  • Their Punycode equivalents

The service itself is running correctly and the railway.app subdomain works fine. The issue appears to be specifically with custom domain validation.

Could you please confirm:

  1. Does Railway currently support IDN (Internationalized Domain Names)?

  2. Is this a validation bug?

  3. Is there any required format I might be missing?

Thank you in advance. I’d appreciate clarification because I specifically need support for Russian-language domains.

Best regards.

Solved

3 Replies

brody
EMPLOYEE

13 days ago

Hello,

I don't have a similar domain I could test the entire flow with, so I am not super confident in my fix, but please try adding the Punycode-encoded domain back and let me know if you run into any issues.

heart1

Status changed to Awaiting User Response Railway • 13 days ago

yoimdely
HOBBYOP

12 days ago

First of all, thank you — Punycode support is now working, and I really appreciate that update. I’m now able to add my IDN domain in its encoded form without the previous “Malformed Domain” error.

However, I’ve run into another issue during DNS configuration.

My domain registrar (Reg.ru) allows CNAME records only for subdomains, not for the apex/root domain (@). Because Railway requires:

CNAME @ → wridsfli.up.railway.app

I’m unable to complete the setup for the root domain.

At the moment:

  • www.xn----7sbfm1afvm.xn--p1ai works correctly via CNAME

  • xn----7sbfm1afvm.xn--p1ai (apex/root domain) does not work

Since many DNS providers do not allow CNAME at the root level (standard DNS limitation), could you please clarify:

  1. Is there support for apex domains via A record instead of CNAME?

  2. Is there an alternative method to connect a root domain?

  3. What is the recommended configuration in this case?

Thank you again for enabling Punycode support — now I just need to resolve the apex configuration.

Best regards.

pray1

Status changed to Awaiting Railway Response Railway • 12 days ago

brody
EMPLOYEE

12 days ago

  1. There is not, we only supports CNAMEs

  2. There is not.

  3. You would need to use alternative nameservers that support this, Cloudflare, name.com, namecheap.

Status changed to Awaiting User Response Railway • 12 days ago

Railway
BOT

5 days ago

This thread has been marked as solved automatically due to a lack of recent activity. Please re-open this thread or create a new one if you require further assistance. Thank you!

Status changed to Solved Railway • 5 days ago

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