I checked your repo you have debug logs in index.js that print whether client/dist exists. Can you share what those lines show in your railway deploy/runtime logs?  

Of course!
Starting Container

npm warn config production Use --omit=dev instead.

up to date, audited 72 packages in 617ms

found 0 vulnerabilities

Stopping Container

Starting Container

Dist exists: true

Dist contents: [

'LilitaOne-Regular.ttf',

'assets',

'background.png',

'favicon.png',

'forfeit.png',

'hand.png',

'iconmonstr-copy-clipboard-lined.svg',

'index.html',

'keyboard.png',

'logo.png',

'media',

'menu',

'peggle.png',

'wizard.png'

]

Serving from: /app/client/dist

Server running on port 8080

based on repo  in client/main.js line with connectWebSocket(), you have const port = process.env.PORT || 3000. process.env doesn't exist in the browser this will crash your entire frontend js. for fixing it you don't even need that line since you're already using location.host for the WebSocket URL which is correct. Just remove the process.env.PORT line and the unused testUrl (client/main.js remove line 495 and line 497)
Also  It works locally because vite's dev server replaces process.env during development, but in production it's raw browser code and process is undefined.

I just changed it and tragically that wasn't it, but at least the code has less useless stuff

What exactly you see when visiting the railway URL is it a Railway error page saying "Application failed to respond" or a blank  white/black page?can you also share runtime logs after the latest deploy (after removing those lines)

Starting Container

npm warn config production Use --omit=dev instead.

up to date, audited 72 packages in 507ms

found 0 vulnerabilities

Stopping Container

Starting Container

]

Serving from: /app/client/dist

Server running on port 8080

'assets',

'background.png',

'media',

'favicon.png',

'menu',

'peggle.png',

Dist exists: true

'wizard.png'

'forfeit.png',

'hand.png',

Dist contents: [

'iconmonstr-copy-clipboard-lined.svg',

'LilitaOne-Regular.ttf',

'index.html',

'keyboard.png',

'logo.png',

and the https logs all gave 502 errors with one of them trying to get / and the other /favicon.ico

Your latest deployments are all failing the build succeeds but the app crashes at runtime. 2 things to do:                                                          1. Disable GitHub Pages in your repo (Settings -> Pages -> Source -> None) to stop the failing Jekyll action                                      

2. Add this at the very top of your index.js to catch the crash reason:

  process.on('uncaughtException', (err) => {

    console.error('UNCAUGHT:', err);

  });

  Push and share the new logs so that I can see what's actually killing the process.

1.github pages was already disabled, I just had multiple railway projects I forgot to delete.
2. the logs are unchanged from the previous ones:
Starting Container

npm warn config production Use --omit=dev instead.

up to date, audited 72 packages in 697ms

found 0 vulnerabilities

Stopping Container

Starting Container

'favicon.png',

'forfeit.png',

'hand.png',

'iconmonstr-copy-clipboard-lined.svg',

'index.html',

'keyboard.png',

'logo.png',

'media',

'menu',

'peggle.png',

'wizard.png'

]

Serving from: /app/client/dist

Server running on port 8080

Dist exists: true

Dist contents: [

'LilitaOne-Regular.ttf',

'assets',

'background.png',

You're using Express 5 (^5.2.1) which has breaking changes from Express 4. Your catch-all app.use((req, res, next) => ...) behaves differently

  in v5. Try two things:

  1. Change your catch-all from app.use to app.get:

app.get('*', (req, res) => {

    res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, "client/dist/index.html"));

  });

  2. If that doesn't work, downgrade to Express 4 in your package.json:

  "express": "^4.21.0"

Delete package-lock.json, push, and redeploy.
Hope this works

1.this is the logs from that attempt:
Starting Container

Stopping Container

Starting Container

'media',

'menu',

'peggle.png',

Dist exists: true

Dist contents: [

'LilitaOne-Regular.ttf',

'assets',

'background.png',

'iconmonstr-copy-clipboard-lined.svg',

'favicon.png',

'wizard.png'

'index.html',

]

'forfeit.png',

'keyboard.png',

Serving from: /app/client/dist

'logo.png',

'hand.png',

UNCAUGHT: PathError [TypeError]: Missing parameter name at index 1: *; visit https://git.new/pathToRegexpError for info

at name (/app/node_modules/path-to-regexp/dist/index.js:96:19)

at parse (/app/node_modules/path-to-regexp/dist/index.js:113:68)

at pathToRegexp (/app/node_modules/path-to-regexp/dist/index.js:267:58)

at Object.match (/app/node_modules/path-to-regexp/dist/index.js:237:30)

at matcher (/app/node_modules/router/lib/layer.js:86:23)

at new Layer (/app/node_modules/router/lib/layer.js:93:62)

at Function.route (/app/node_modules/router/index.js:428:17)

at Function.route (/app/node_modules/express/lib/application.js:257:22)

at app.<computed> [as get] (/app/node_modules/express/lib/application.js:478:22)

at file:///app/index.js:26:5 {

originalPath: '*'

}
2. I don't think it did anything, but it didn't break anything more:
Starting Container

found 0 vulnerabilities

up to date, audited 75 packages in 726ms

npm warn config production Use --omit=dev instead.

Stopping Container

Starting Container

'favicon.png',

'forfeit.png',

'hand.png',

'iconmonstr-copy-clipboard-lined.svg',

'index.html',

'keyboard.png',

'logo.png',

'media',

'menu',

'peggle.png',

'wizard.png'

]

Serving from: /app/client/dist

Server running on port 8080

Dist exists: true

Dist contents: [

'LilitaOne-Regular.ttf',

'assets',

'background.png',

  Your second attempt shows the server running with no crashes. Is your site actually loading now? Can you visit your railway URL and check?     

nope the server was running before as well and the site still isn't loading, thats why I'm really confused

 Since the server runs fine with no crashes but still doesn't respond are you 100% sure you're visiting the domain for this specific

deployment? You mentioned having multiple Railway projects earlier.can you go to this service in Railway dashboard -> Settings -> Networking -> copy the exact domain, and try that URL? Also, does curl https://your-exact-railway-domain.up.railway.app/ return anything or timeout?

the domain is https://pianowizards-production.up.railway.appI just curled in my powershell:
curl pianowizards-production.up.railway.app

curl : {"status":"error","code":502,"message":"Application failed to respond","request_id":"Poeq_BnDTf6TzbcB8u2xcg"}

At line:1 char:1

+ curl pianowizards-production.up.railway.app

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [Invoke-WebRequest], WebExc

eption

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand

update port

Your server is running on port 8080 while your URL is mapped to port 3001.

Make sure those two ports match.

(The screenshot literally shows a Railway generated domain...??)

Ah sorry, I saw the +Custom Domain button and assumed there was no domain generated lol

The url doesn't use the port anymore, but even when it did the ports were matched

maybe Railway's proxy can't reach localhost? the server must bind to all interfaces:

wrong, only accessible locally

app.listen(port, () => console.logServer running on port ${port}));

accessible from Railway proxy

app.listen(port, '0.0.0.0', () => console.logServer running on port ${port}));

or use:

app.listen(port, () => console.logServer running on ${process.env.HOST || '0.0.0.0'}:${port}));

first try binding to 0.0.0.0. most likely fix

if still 502, check if Railway health check is hitting a specific route that fails

EDIT sorry i just saw you're doing that already. what exact port is Railway setting (echo $PORT in the deploy command) and is there a health check configured in Railway settings that's failing? maybe something else is running on port 8080?

the problem was so stupid, I had the port set wrong in railway's public networking, I apologize for my stupidity