Django + Tailwind CSS deployment failing on Railway with Procfile parsing errors

I'm trying to deploy a Django application with compiled Tailwind CSS to Railway, but I keep getting Procfile parsing errors. The build process works fine (Tailwind compiles successfully), but the deployment fails during the Procfile parsing stage.

Error Message

Nixpacks build failed
Error: Reading Procfile
Caused by:
found unknown escape character at line 1 column 44, while parsing a quoted scalar

My Setup

Project Structure:

Jobflow/
├── manage.py
├── Procfile
├── requirements.txt
├── package.json
├── tailwind.config.js
├── static/
│   └── css/
│       ├── input.css
│       └── output.css (generated)
├── Jobflow/
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── wsgi.py
│   └── urls.py
└── JobFlow_app/
    ├── models.py
    ├── views.py
    └── templates/

Current Procfile content:

web: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:$PORT

requirements.txt:

Django==4.2
python-decouple==3.8
gunicorn==21.2.0
whitenoise==6.6.0
psycopg2-binary==2.9.9
Pillow==10.1.0
dj-database-url==2.1.0

package.json scripts:

{
  "scripts": {
    "build-css": "npx tailwindcss -i ./static/css/input.css -o ./static/css/output.css --watch",
    "build-css-prod": "npx tailwindcss -i ./static/css/input.css -o ./static/css/output.css --minify",
    "dev": "npm run build-css",
    "build": "npm run build-css-prod"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "tailwindcss": "^3.4.0"
  }
}

What Works

✅ Tailwind CSS compilation - Build logs show:

> npx tailwindcss -i ./static/css/input.css -o ./static/css/output.css --minify
Rebuilding...
Done in 417ms.

✅ Python dependencies installation - No errors during pip install
✅ Static file structure - All files are in the correct locations

What I've Tried

1. Different Procfile formats:

web: gunicorn Jobflow.wsgi:application --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT
web: gunicorn Jobflow.wsgi --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT
web: python -m gunicorn Jobflow.wsgi:application --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT
web: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:$PORT

2. File creation methods:

# Using echo command
echo "web: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:$PORT" > Procfile

# Using here document
cat > Procfile << 'EOF'
web: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:$PORT
EOF

• Creating manually in VS Code

3. Railway configuration:

• Tried with and without railway.toml
• Tried with and without nixpacks.toml
• Added PostgreSQL database
• Set environment variables (SECRET_KEY, DEBUG=False, etc.)

Build Logs (Successful Parts)

[stage-0 6/12] RUN npm ci ✔ 2 sec
[stage-0 8/12] RUN npm run build
> [email protected] build
> npm run build-css-prod
> npx tailwindcss -i ./static/css/input.css -o ./static/css/output.css --minify
Rebuilding...
Done in 417ms. ✔ 1 sec

What I Tried and Expected Results

1. Standard Gunicorn Deployment

Attempt:

web: gunicorn Jobflow.wsgi:application --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT

Expected: Standard Django production deployment with Gunicorn
Result: gunicorn: command not found errors

2. Django Development Server

Attempt:

web: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:$PORT

Expected: Should work since Django is definitely installed
Result: Same parsing error - found unknown escape character at line 1 column 44

3. File Creation Methods Tried

Method A - Echo command:

echo "web: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:$PORT" > Procfile

Method B - Here document:

cat > Procfile << 'EOF'
web: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:$PORT
EOF

Method C - Manual creation in VS Code:

• Created new file named exactly Procfile (no extension)
• Typed content manually: web: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:$PORT
• Saved with UTF-8 encoding

Result: All methods show same error: found unknown escape character at line 1 column 44

4. Port Variable Testing

Tried different PORT syntax:

$PORT (standard)
${PORT} (bash expansion)  
8000 (hardcoded for testing)

Result: All variations still show parsing error at column 44

Environment

• Platform: Railway
• Build system: Nixpacks
• Django version: 4.2
• Python version: 3.11 (Railway default)
• Local development: Windows 11, works perfectly

Questions

1. Why does Railway's Procfile parser think there are escape characters when my file contains plain text?
2. Is there a Railway-specific Procfile format I should be using?
3. Could the issue be related to having both Node.js (for Tailwind) and Python dependencies?
4. What's the proper way to deploy Django + Tailwind CSS to Railway?

The Mystery

• Column 44 would be around the $PORT variable in my Procfile
• But I've tried every possible variation and file creation method
• The exact same Procfile format works for other developers on Railway
• Local development works perfectly with the same Django setup

This suggests there's something specific about my setup causing Railway's Procfile parser to fail.