DEPLOY.md

Deploying DocSentry to Streamlit Community Cloud

Free, public URL like https://docsentry-yourname.streamlit.app. Judges click a link, see your app. ~10 minutes total.

What you need

• A free GitHub account (https://github.com)
• A free Streamlit Community Cloud account (https://share.streamlit.io)
• That's it — no credit card, no Docker, no AWS

Files already prepared for deployment

File	Purpose
requirements.txt	Python packages
packages.txt	System packages (Tesseract OCR) — apt-installed on the cloud VM
.streamlit/config.toml	Theme: blue corporate colors
.gitignore	Excludes .venv/, data/ (use sample_data/ instead), checkpoints
sample_data/	26 curated demo files (~21 MB) — small enough for GitHub
app.py	Auto-detects sample_data on startup; judges can pick a sample without uploading

Step 1 — Create a GitHub repository (3 minutes)

1. Go to https://github.com/new
2. Repository name: docsentry (or whatever you want)
3. Set to Public (required for free Streamlit Cloud tier)
4. Do NOT initialize with README — we have our own
5. Click Create repository
6. Copy the URL shown — looks like https://github.com/YourName/docsentry.git

Step 2 — Push the project to GitHub

Open PowerShell in your project folder:

cd "C:\Users\HP\Desktop\Anomaly Based project"

# Install git for Windows if you don't have it: https://git-scm.com/download/win
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit: DocSentry document forensics demo"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/YourName/docsentry.git
git push -u origin main

If git asks for credentials: use your GitHub username + a personal access token (not your password). Make a token at https://github.com/settings/tokens — give it repo scope.

After this, refresh your GitHub page. You should see all the files: app.py, forensics.py, audit_report.py, requirements.txt, packages.txt, sample_data/, etc.

Step 3 — Deploy on Streamlit Community Cloud (5 minutes)

1. Go to https://share.streamlit.io
2. Sign in with your GitHub account (one click — it's the same login)
3. Click Create app (top right)
4. Pick Deploy from GitHub
5. Fill in:
   • Repository: YourName/docsentry
   • Branch: main
   • Main file path: app.py
   • App URL (custom): docsentry-yourname (or whatever's free)
6. Click Deploy

Streamlit Cloud now:

1. Reads packages.txt → installs Tesseract OCR on the VM
2. Reads requirements.txt → pip-installs every dependency
3. Loads app.py → starts the Streamlit server

This takes 3-5 minutes the first time. Watch the build log on the right side of the screen.

When you see "Your app is live", click Open app — that's your public URL.

Step 4 — Test the live deployment

On the live URL:

1. Tab 1: pick a sample from the dropdown (e.g. tampered/land_005_copy_move.png) → should show HIGH band + heatmaps
2. Tab 2: upload two different files from sample_data/originals/ → consistency check
3. Tab 3: change folder to sample_data → batch audit

If anything errors, check the logs via the Manage app menu on the live page.

Step 5 — Share the link

You now have a public URL. Drop it in your pitch deck, on your GitHub README, on Devpost. Judges click → 30-second cold start → working demo, no install required.

Updating the live app

Push to GitHub → Streamlit Cloud auto-deploys in ~1 minute. No redeploy button needed.

git add .
git commit -m "Updated thresholds for higher precision"
git push

The live URL stays the same.

Resource limits on the free tier

• 1 GB RAM — enough for all forensic operations on documents up to ~2000x2000 pixels
• CPU only — no GPU. The Random Forest path runs fine; the CNN path (Section 7.6 in the notebook) won't fit here
• App sleeps after ~7 days of zero traffic — first visitor after that waits ~30 seconds for a cold start
• Public access — anyone with the URL can use it. Fine for hackathons. If you need it private, upgrade to Streamlit Teams ($25/mo) or self-host

Common issues

"ModuleNotFoundError: forensics" Make sure forensics.py and audit_report.py are at the repo root (not in a subfolder). Streamlit Cloud runs app.py from the repo root and Python only finds modules in the same folder.

"tesseract: not found" on the live app The packages.txt file might not have been committed. Run git status and git add packages.txt, then git push. Verify on GitHub that packages.txt exists in the root.

Sample data dropdown is empty on live app The .gitignore excludes data/ but not sample_data/. Check on GitHub that the sample_data/ folder is visible. If it's missing, you might have a leftover data/ exclusion. Remove sample_data/ from .gitignore if so.

Build times out Free tier build limit is ~15 minutes. If you exceed, trim requirements.txt (e.g. remove seaborn, imagehash, exifread if unused). They're nice-to-have but not core.

models/forgery_rf.joblib missing Train it locally first (run Section 7.5 in the notebook) then commit + push. The app gracefully falls back to rule-based-only scoring if the model is missing.

Memory error on large uploads Free tier has 1 GB RAM. Tell judges to use PNG/JPG under 5 MB or downscale large scans first. Or upgrade to Teams ($25/mo, 8 GB RAM) for the hackathon.

Alternative: Hugging Face Spaces (also free)

If Streamlit Cloud is slow on your day of demo, the same code deploys to Hugging Face Spaces with no changes:

1. Create a Space at https://huggingface.co/new-space
2. Pick Streamlit as the SDK
3. Push to its git repo using your HF write token
4. Done. Public URL like huggingface.co/spaces/yourname/docsentry

HF Spaces gives you 16 GB RAM free vs Streamlit's 1 GB, but the URL is uglier. Use whichever wins on the day.