railway connect

Connect to a database's interactive shell (psql for Postgres, mongosh for MongoDB, etc.).

Options

Flag	Description
`-e, --environment <ENV>`	Environment to pull variables from (defaults to linked environment)
`--ssh`	Tunnel to the database over SSH instead of a public TCP proxy. Auto-enabled when the service has no public proxy URL
`--no-ssh`	Force the public TCP proxy path and never fall back to SSH. Conflicts with `--ssh`
`--tunnel-only`	Open the local tunnel without launching a database client; prints connection details for external tools and holds the tunnel open until Ctrl+C. Implies `--ssh`
`-P, --port <PORT>`	Local port to bind for the SSH tunnel (defaults to an ephemeral port)

Supported databases

Database	Client Required
PostgreSQL	`psql`
MySQL	`mysql`
Redis	`redis-cli`
MongoDB	`mongosh`

Examples

Connect to database (interactive)

Prompts you to select a database service if multiple exist.

Connect to database in specific environment

Point an external GUI client (TablePlus, DBeaver, pgAdmin, ...) at the database

Opens a local SSH tunnel to the database and prints the host, port, user, password, database, and full connection URL, then holds the tunnel open until Ctrl+C. Use this when you want to point a GUI client at the database instead of an interactive shell.

Requirements

The appropriate database client must be installed on your machine, unless using --tunnel-only
If the database has no public TCP Proxy, railway connect automatically tunnels over SSH instead — no public URL required

How it works

Detects the database type from the service's image
Fetches connection variables (DATABASE_PUBLIC_URL, REDIS_PUBLIC_URL, etc.)
If the service has a public TCP Proxy and --ssh/--tunnel-only weren't passed, launches the appropriate database client directly against it
Otherwise, opens a local SSH tunnel into the service and either launches the database client against the tunnel, or — with --tunnel-only — prints the connection details for an external client and holds the tunnel open