Deployment instructions for Digital Ocean DB + Modal.com website

.gitignore

@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 __pycache__
 *.pyc
 .env
+.env.local
+.env.development
+.env.production
 _environment
 /.quarto/
 _docs/

docs/deployment.qmd

@@ -2,4 +2,190 @@
 title: "Deployment"
 ---
 
-## Under construction
+This application requires two services to be deployed and connected to each other:
+
+1. A PostgreSQL database (the storage layer)
+2. A FastAPI app (the application layer)
+
+There are *many* hosting options available for each of these services; this guide will cover only a few of them.
+
+## Deploying and Configuring the PostgreSQL Database
+
+### On Digital Ocean
+
+#### Getting Started
+
+- Create a [DigitalOcean](mdc:https:/www.digitalocean.com) account
+- Install the [`doctl` CLI tool](mdc:https:/docs.digitalocean.com/reference/doctl) and authenticate with `doctl auth init`
+- Install the [`psql` client](mdc:https:/www.postgresql.org/download)
+
+#### Create a Project
+
+Create a new project to organize your resources:
+
+```bash
+# List existing projects
+doctl projects list
+
+# Create a new project
+doctl projects create --name "YOUR-PROJECT-NAME" --purpose "YOUR-PROJECT-PURPOSE" --environment "Production"
+```
+
+#### Set Up a Managed PostgreSQL Database
+
+Create a managed, serverless PostgreSQL database instance:
+
+```bash
+doctl databases create your-db-name --engine pg --version 17 --size db-s-1vcpu-1gb --num-nodes 1 --wait
+```
+
+Get the database ID from the output of the create command and use it to retrieve the database connection details:
+
+```bash
+# Get the database connection details
+doctl databases connection "your-database-id" --format Host,Port,User,Password,Database
+```
+
+Store these details securely in a `.env.production` file (you will need to set them later in application deployment as production secrets):
+
+```bash
+# Database connection parameters
+DB_HOST=your-host
+DB_PORT=your-port
+DB_USER=your-user
+DB_PASS=your-password
+DB_NAME=your-database
+```
+
+You may also want to save your database id, although you can always find it again later by listing your databases with `doctl databases list`.
+
+#### Setting Up a Firewall Rule (after Deploying Your Application Layer)
+
+Note that by default your database is publicly accessible from the Internet, so you should create a firewall rule to restrict access to only your application's IP address once you have deployed the application. The command to do this is:
+
+```bash
+doctl databases firewalls append <database-cluster-id> --rule <type>:<value>
+```
+
+where `<type>` is `ip_addr` and `<value>` is the IP address of the application server. See the [DigitalOcean documentation](https://docs.digitalocean.com/reference/doctl/reference/databases/firewalls/append/) for more details.
+
+**Note:** You can only complete this step after you have deployed your application layer and obtained a static IP address for the application server.
+
+## Deploying and Configuring the FastAPI App
+
+### On Modal.com
+
+The big advantages of deploying on Modal.com are:
+1. that they offer $30/month of free credits for each user, plus generous additional free credit allotments for startups and researchers, and
+2. that it's a very user-friendly platform.
+
+The disadvantages are:
+1. that Modal is a Python-only platform and cannot run the database layer, so you'll have to deploy that somewhere else,
+2. that you'll need to make some modest changes to the codebase to get it to work on Modal, and
+3. that Modal offers a [static IP address for the application server](https://modal.com/docs/guide/proxy-ips) only if you pay for a higher-tier plan starting at $250/year, which makes securing the database layer with a firewall rule cost prohibitive.
+
+#### Getting Started
+
+- [Sign up for a Modal.com account](https://modal.com/signup)
+- Install modal in the project directory with `uv add modal`
+- Run `uv run modal setup` to authenticate with Modal
+
+#### Defining the Modal Image and App
+
+Create a new Python file in the root of your project, for example, `deploy.py`. This file will define the Modal Image and the ASGI app deployment.
+
+1.  **Define the Modal Image in `deploy.py`:**
+    - Use `modal.Image` to define the container environment. Chain methods to install dependencies and add code/files.
+    - Start with a Debian base image matching your Python version (e.g., 3.13).
+    - Install necessary system packages (`libpq-dev` for `psycopg2`, `libwebp-dev` for Pillow WebP support).
+    - Install Python dependencies using `run_commands` with `uv`.
+    - Add your local Python modules (`routers`, `utils`, `exceptions`) using `add_local_python_source`.
+    - Add the `static` and `templates` directories using `add_local_dir`. The default behaviour (copying on container startup) is usually fine for development, but consider `copy=True` for production stability if these files are large or rarely change.
+
+    ```python
+    # deploy.py
+    import modal
+    import os
+
+    # Define the base image
+    image = (
+        modal.Image.debian_slim(python_version="3.13")
+        .apt_install("libpq-dev", "libwebp-dev")
+        .pip_install_from_pyproject("pyproject.toml")
+        .add_local_python_source("main")
+        .add_local_python_source("routers")
+        .add_local_python_source("utils")
+        .add_local_python_source("exceptions")
+        .add_local_dir("static", remote_path="/root/static")
+        .add_local_dir("templates", remote_path="/root/templates")
+    )
+
+    # Define the Modal App
+    app = modal.App(
+        name="your-app-name",
+        image=image,
+        secrets=[modal.Secret.from_name("your-app-name-secret")]
+    )
+    ```
+
+2.  **Define the ASGI App Function in `deploy.py`:**
+    - Create a function decorated with `@app.function()` and `@modal.asgi_app()`.
+    - Inside this function, import your FastAPI application instance from `main.py`.
+    - Return the FastAPI app instance.
+    - Use `@modal.concurrent()` to allow the container to handle multiple requests concurrently.
+
+    ```python
+    # deploy.py (continued)
+
+    # Define the ASGI app function
+    @app.function(
+        allow_concurrent_inputs=100 # Adjust concurrency as needed
+    )
+    @modal.asgi_app()
+    def fastapi_app():
+        # Important: Import the app *inside* the function
+        # This ensures it runs within the Modal container environment
+        # and has access to the installed packages and secrets.
+        # It also ensures the lifespan function (db setup) runs correctly
+        # with the environment variables provided by the Modal Secret.
+        from main import app as web_app
+
+        return web_app
+    ```
+
+For more information on Modal FastAPI images and applications, see [this guide](https://modal.com/docs/guide/webhooks#how-do-web-endpoints-run-in-the-cloud).
+
+#### Deploying the App
+
+From your terminal, in the root directory of your project, run:
+
+```bash
+modal deploy deploy.py
+```
+
+Modal will build the image (if it hasn't been built before or if dependencies changed) and deploy the ASGI app. It will output a public URL (e.g., `https://your-username--your-app-name.modal.run`).
+
+#### Setting Up Modal Secrets
+
+The application relies on environment variables stored in `.env` (like `SECRET_KEY`, `DB_USER`, `DB_PASSWORD`, `DB_HOST`, `DB_PORT`, `DB_NAME`, `RESEND_API_KEY`, `BASE_URL`). These sensitive values should be stored securely using Modal Secrets.
+
+Create a Modal Secret either through the Modal UI or CLI. Note that the name of the secret has to match the secret name you used in the `deploy.py` file, above (e.g., `your-app-name-secret`).
+
+```bash
+# Example using CLI
+modal secret create your-app-name-secret \
+    SECRET_KEY='your_actual_secret_key' \
+    DB_USER='your_db_user' \
+    DB_PASSWORD='your_db_password' \
+    DB_HOST='your_external_db_host' \
+    DB_PORT='your_db_port' \
+    DB_NAME='your_db_name' \
+    RESEND_API_KEY='your_resend_api_key' \
+    BASE_URL='https://your-username--your-app-name-serve.modal.run'
+```
+
+**Important:** Ensure `DB_HOST` points to your *cloud* database host address, not `localhost` or `host.docker.internal`.
+
+#### Testing the Deployment
+
+Access the provided Modal URL in your browser. Browse the site and test the registration and password reset features to ensure database and Resend connections work.

main.py

@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ async def read_home(
     user: Optional[User] = Depends(get_optional_user)
 ):
     if user:
-        return RedirectResponse(url="/dashboard", status_code=302)
+        return RedirectResponse(url=app.url_path_for("read_dashboard"), status_code=302)
     return templates.TemplateResponse(
         request,
         "index.html",

pyproject.toml

@@ -31,9 +31,5 @@ dev = [
     "notebook<8.0.0,>=7.2.2",
     "pytest<9.0.0,>=8.3.3",
     "sqlalchemy-schemadisplay<3.0,>=2.0",
-    "perplexity-cli",
     "mypy>=1.15.0",
 ]
-
-[tool.uv.sources]
-perplexity-cli = { git = "https://github.com/chriscarrollsmith/perplexity-cli.git" }