Comprehensive Railway deployment fix: eliminate cache mount errors

MAJOR CHANGES:
- Replace complex uv-based Dockerfile with simple pip-only approach
- Add requirements.txt for standard Python dependency management
- Remove all uv commands that might trigger cache mount behavior
- Add .dockerignore for clean Railway build context
- Add nixpacks.toml to force Dockerfile usage (disable auto-detection)
- Update railway.json with explicit Docker configuration

PROBLEM SOLVED:
Railway 'Cache mount ID is not prefixed with cache key' error should be resolved
by eliminating all potential sources of cache mount directives.

DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY:
- Single-stage Docker build using standard pip
- Install graphiti-core from source with 'pip install .'
- Install MCP dependencies with 'pip install -r requirements.txt'
- No complex build tools or caching mechanisms
- Explicit Railway Docker configuration

🚀 Generated with Claude Code (https://claude.ai/code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

.dockerignore

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Exclude files that don't need to be in the Docker build context
+.git
+.gitignore
+.github/
+*.md
+!README.md
+.env*
+!.env.example
+.venv/
+__pycache__/
+*.pyc
+*.pyo
+*.pyd
+.pytest_cache/
+.coverage
+htmlcov/
+.tox/
+.mypy_cache/
+.DS_Store
+node_modules/
+*.log
+tests/
+docs/
+images/
+signatures/
+depot.json
+ellipsis.yaml
+conftest.py
+pytest.ini
+docker-compose*.yml
+uv.lock
+poetry.lock

Dockerfile

@@ -1,60 +1,36 @@
-# Railway-optimized Dockerfile for Graphiti MCP Server
+# Ultra-simple Railway-compatible Dockerfile for Graphiti MCP Server
 FROM python:3.12-slim
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
 # Install system dependencies
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-    curl \
-    ca-certificates \
     gcc \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
-# Install uv using the installer script
-ADD https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh /uv-installer.sh
-RUN sh /uv-installer.sh && rm /uv-installer.sh
+# Copy the entire project
+COPY . .
 
-# Add uv to PATH
-ENV PATH="/root/.local/bin:${PATH}"
+# Install graphiti-core from source using standard pip
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir .
 
-# Configure uv for optimal Docker usage without cache mounts
-ENV UV_COMPILE_BYTECODE=1 \
-    UV_LINK_MODE=copy \
-    UV_PYTHON_DOWNLOADS=never \
-    MCP_SERVER_HOST="0.0.0.0" \
-    PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
+# Install MCP server dependencies using standard pip
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
 
 # Create non-root user
 RUN groupadd -r app && useradd -r -d /app -g app app
-
-# First, copy and install the core graphiti library
-COPY ./pyproject.toml ./README.md ./
-COPY ./graphiti_core ./graphiti_core
-
-# Build and install graphiti-core (no cache mount for Railway compatibility)
-RUN uv build && \
-    pip install dist/*.whl
-
-# Now set up the MCP server
-COPY ./mcp_server/pyproject.toml ./mcp_server/uv.lock ./mcp_server/
-COPY ./mcp_server/graphiti_mcp_server.py ./
-
-# Install MCP server dependencies (no cache mount for Railway compatibility)
-RUN uv sync --frozen --no-dev
-
-# Change ownership to app user
 RUN chown -R app:app /app
 
 # Switch to non-root user
 USER app
 
 # Set environment variables for Railway
+ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
 ENV PORT=8000
-ENV MCP_SERVER_HOST=0.0.0.0
 
-# Expose port (Railway will override with PORT env var)
+# Expose port
 EXPOSE $PORT
 
-# Command to run the MCP server with SSE transport
-# Railway will set PORT environment variable, host and port are configured via env vars
-CMD ["uv", "run", "graphiti_mcp_server.py", "--transport", "sse"]
+# Change to MCP server directory and run
+WORKDIR /app/mcp_server
+CMD ["python", "graphiti_mcp_server.py", "--transport", "sse"]

nixpacks.toml

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# Force Railway to use Dockerfile instead of auto-detection
+[variables]
+NIXPACKS_NO_CACHE = 'true'
+
+# Explicitly disable nixpacks to force Docker usage  
+[phases.build]
+cmds = ["echo 'Using Dockerfile - nixpacks disabled'"]

railway.json

@@ -2,10 +2,11 @@
   "$schema": "https://railway.app/railway.schema.json",
   "build": {
     "builder": "dockerfile",
-    "dockerfilePath": "Dockerfile"
+    "dockerfilePath": "Dockerfile",
+    "buildArgs": {}
   },
   "deploy": {
-    "startCommand": "uv run graphiti_mcp_server.py --transport sse",
+    "numReplicas": 1,
     "restartPolicyType": "on_failure",
     "restartPolicyMaxRetries": 10
   }

requirements.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Railway-compatible requirements for Graphiti MCP Server
+mcp>=1.5.0
+openai>=1.68.2
+azure-identity>=1.21.0
+python-dotenv