Dockerfile

FROM python:3.9 

# Create a user with UID 1000 and set as default user
RUN useradd -m -u 1000 user
USER user

# Set environment variables for the user
ENV PATH="/home/user/.local/bin:$PATH"
WORKDIR /app

# Set HF_HOME environment variable to a writable directory
# This tells huggingface_hub where to store its cache and downloaded models
ENV HF_HOME="/app/.cache/huggingface" 

# Copy requirements.txt first to leverage Docker cache
COPY --chown=user ./requirements.txt requirements.txt

# Install Python dependencies
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade -r requirements.txt

# Copy the rest of your application code
COPY --chown=user . /app

# Command to run your Flask application
# It will listen on the PORT environment variable provided by Hugging Face Spaces
CMD ["python", "app.py"]