Switch to Docker deployment to fix Python version and ChromaDB initialization

Author: Janmesh23

backend/Dockerfile

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Use a stable, official Python 3.11 image
+FROM python:3.11-slim
+
+# Set environment variables
+ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
+    PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
+    PORT=8000
+
+# Install system dependencies (needed for certain PDF/DocX parsers)
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
+    build-essential \
+    curl \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# Set working directory
+WORKDIR /app
+
+# Install dependencies
+COPY requirements.txt .
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+
+# Copy application code
+COPY . .
+
+# Create persistent directories (mirrored to our Render disk)
+RUN mkdir -p /data/chroma_db
+
+# Expose the port
+EXPOSE 8000
+
+# Start command
+CMD ["gunicorn", "main:app", "--workers", "2", "--worker-class", "uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker", "--bind", "0.0.0.0:8000"]

render.yaml

@@ -1,20 +1,15 @@
 services:
   - type: web
     name: sidequest-backend
-    env: python
+    env: docker
     rootDir: backend
-    pythonVersion: 3.11.9
-    buildCommand: pip install -r requirements.txt
-    startCommand: gunicorn main:app --workers 2 --worker-class uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT
     envVars:
       - key: DATABASE_URL
         value: sqlite:////data/sidequest.db
       - key: CHROMA_SERVER_NOFILE
         value: "65535"
       - key: CHROMA_PERSIST_PATH
         value: /data/chroma_db
-      - key: PYTHON_VERSION
-        value: 3.11.9
       - key: GEMINI_API_KEY
         sync: false
       - key: FRONTEND_URL