Hey there! We've found the following might help you get unblocked faster:

• 🧵 Deploy any docker image from Docker Hub

• 🧵 Docker Build Failing but Succeeds Locally

• 🧵 Build failure - deploy logs missing

If you find the answer from one of these, please let us know by solving the thread!

You can deploy Docker images from private registries, but it requires the Pro plan.

https://docs.railway.com/guides/services#deploying-a-private-docker-image

Isn't there an option that would work like railway up -s API -d --local-build, which would build locally and send the exported Docker image to Railway?

IIRC no, you're not able to build an image locally and upload it to Railway directly.

$ railway up -h
Upload and deploy project from the current directory

Usage: railway up [OPTIONS] [PATH]

Arguments:
  [PATH]

Options:
  -d, --detach                     Don't attach to the log stream
  -c, --ci                         Stream build logs only, then exit (equivalent to setting $CI=true)
  -s, --service <SERVICE>          Service to deploy to (defaults to linked service)
  -e, --environment <ENVIRONMENT>  Environment to deploy to (defaults to linked environment)
      --no-gitignore               Don't ignore paths from .gitignore
      --path-as-root               Use the path argument as the prefix for the archive instead of the project directory
      --verbose                    Verbose output
  -h, --help                       Print help
  -V, --version                    Print version

Why wouldn't you want to upload it to a registry?

A private registry is another service that needs to be maintained. It also has to be exposed to the public network (This is for Railway, because you currently can’t connect a service from Project A to Project B via the internal network). This introduces potential attack vector. If it’s not currently possible, and if anyone from the Railway team is reading this, could you please consider this as a feedback or feature request? Thanks!

You can publish private images to Github's registry or Docker registry. You do not have to host your own registry. The only common "potential attack vector" is for an attacker to gain access to your API keys that is used to access the private registry.