Issue Summary:

Railway is deploying commits with SHA hashes that cannot be found in my GitHub repository. When triggering deployments (webhook or manual

"Redeploy"), Railway displays commit SHAs that don't exist in git history, GitHub API, or reflog.

Evidence:

GitHub's actual state (verified via GitHub API):

- Latest commit: 5b4bbe2 (full: 5b4bbe27e3e5270056879a39a05e9ccc0084b1f9)

- Timestamp: 2025-12-29T04:44:13Z

Previous verified commits:

- e2d27a6 (2025-12-29T04:39:23Z)

- 90b2ac8 (2025-12-28T23:42:51Z)

- 819d5f1 (2025-12-28T23:37:25Z)

Railway's displayed commits (none exist in repository):

- 13d796a6

- 79837bb4

- e3d10964

- 8903b139

- 33b4f187 (most recent)

Verification:

git log --all --oneline | grep "13d796a" # No results

git log --all --oneline | grep "33b4f18" # No results

git reflog | grep "13d796a" # No results

Timeline:

1. Dec 28, 23:37 - Pushed commit 819d5f1

2. Dec 28, 23:40 - Railway deployed 13d796a6 (phantom)

3. Dec 28, 23:42 - Pushed 90b2ac8 to trigger webhook

4. Dec 28, 23:45 - Clicked "Redeploy" → deployed 8903b139 (phantom)

5. Dec 29, 04:39 - Disconnected/reconnected GitHub, pushed e2d27a6

6. Dec 29, 04:40 - Railway deployed 13d796a6 again (phantom)

7. Dec 29, 04:41 - Set Root Directory to backend → deployed 33b4f187 (phantom)

8. Dec 29, 04:44 - Removed Root Directory, pushed 5b4bbe2

9. Current - Issue persists

Impact:

- New code not deploying to production

- API routes return 404 errors

- Service worked correctly for 6 months prior

Repository structure:

/

├── backend/

│ ├── src/

│ └── package.json

├── frontend/

└── railway.toml

railway.toml:

[build]

builder = "NIXPACKS"

buildCommand = "cd backend && npm install && npm run build"

[deploy]

startCommand = "cd backend && node dist/scripts/runMarketplaceMigration.js && node dist/index.js"

restartPolicyType = "ON_FAILURE"

restartPolicyMaxRetries = 10

healthcheckPath = "/health"

healthcheckTimeout = 100

Attempted fixes:

- Disconnected/reconnected GitHub integration

- Disconnected/reconnected branch

- Toggled Root Directory setting (blank vs backend)

- Deleted conflicting config files

- Pushed empty commits

- Multiple manual redeploys

- Simplified configuration

- Verified GitHub connection settings

Expected vs Actual:

- Expected: Deploy commit 5b4bbe2 from GitHub

- Actual: Deploys phantom commit 33b4f187 that doesn't exist

Possible causes:

- Corrupted build cache

- Internal commit reference mismatch

- Webhook integration issue