# Deployment Setup: Modal → HF Space This guide walks through deploying the three Modal model services and wiring their endpoint URLs into the public Hugging Face Space as secrets. --- ## What gets deployed | Service | Model | Env var | App name | |---------|-------|---------|----------| | Receipt OCR | MiniCPM-V 4.6 | `MODAL_RECEIPT_ENDPOINT` | `dukaan-saathi-receipt-vlm` | | Speech ASR | Distil-Whisper small | `MODAL_SPEECH_ENDPOINT` | `dukaan-saathi-speech-asr` | | Voice NLU | Qwen2.5-1.5B-Instruct | `MODAL_NLU_ENDPOINT` | `dukaan-saathi-command-nlu` | All three are optional — the app falls back to deterministic parsers when any endpoint is missing. Deploy whichever you want active on the Space. --- ## Part 1 — Prerequisites ### 1.1 Modal account and CLI Create a free Modal account at https://modal.com if you do not have one. Install the Modal CLI and log in: ```bash uv add modal # adds to this project's venv uv run modal setup # opens a browser to authenticate ``` After `modal setup` completes, verify you are logged in: ```bash uv run modal token show ``` You should see your workspace name (e.g., `zappandy`). ### 1.2 Hugging Face account You need a Hugging Face account with write access to the Space at `https://huggingface.co/spaces/Zappandy/Kirana_AI`. If this is your Space you already have access. --- ## Part 2 — Deploy Modal services Run each deploy command from the project root. Each command: 1. Deploys (or re-deploys) the Modal app 2. Fetches the generated endpoint URL from Modal 3. Writes it to your local `.env` file ### 2.1 Receipt image OCR (MiniCPM-V) ```bash scripts/modal_deploy.sh modal_apps/receipt_vlm_service.py ``` When done, `.env` will contain: ```text MODAL_RECEIPT_ENDPOINT=https://--dukaan-saathi-receipt-vlm-api.modal.run/extract ``` Verify it is responding (replace with your actual URL from `.env`): ```bash source scripts/_env.sh curl "${MODAL_RECEIPT_ENDPOINT%/extract}/health" ``` Expected response: ```json {"status": "ok", "model": "openbmb/MiniCPM-V-2_6"} ``` First call may take 30–60 seconds while the GPU container starts. Subsequent calls within the `scaledown_window` are fast. ### 2.2 Speech transcription (Distil-Whisper) ```bash scripts/modal_deploy.sh modal_apps/speech_asr_service.py ``` When done, `.env` will contain: ```text MODAL_SPEECH_ENDPOINT=https://--speech-transcribe.modal.run ``` Verify: ```bash source scripts/_env.sh SPEECH_HEALTH="${MODAL_SPEECH_ENDPOINT/speech-transcribe/speech-health}" curl "$SPEECH_HEALTH" ``` Expected: ```json {"status": "ok", "model": "distil-whisper/distil-small.en"} ``` ### 2.3 Voice command NLU (Qwen2.5-1.5B-Instruct) ```bash scripts/modal_deploy.sh modal_apps/command_nlu_service.py ``` When done, `.env` will contain: ```text MODAL_NLU_ENDPOINT=https://--nlu-extract.modal.run ``` Verify: ```bash source scripts/_env.sh curl -s -X POST "$MODAL_NLU_ENDPOINT" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"command": "add Bun 12"}' | python3 -m json.tool ``` Expected: ```json { "intent": "add_stock", "product_name": "Bun", "quantity": 12, "unit": null, "confidence": "high", "model": "Qwen/Qwen2.5-1.5B-Instruct" } ``` --- ## Part 3 — Add secrets to the HF Space The HF Space container does not read your local `.env` file. You must add each endpoint URL as a Space secret through the Hugging Face web UI. ### 3.1 Open Space settings 1. Go to https://huggingface.co/spaces/Zappandy/Kirana_AI 2. Click the **Settings** tab (top of the Space page) 3. Scroll down to **Variables and secrets** ### 3.2 Add each secret Click **New secret** for each of the following. Use the exact variable names below — the app reads these from the environment at runtime. | Secret name | Value | |-------------|-------| | `MODAL_RECEIPT_ENDPOINT` | the URL written to `.env` in step 2.1 | | `MODAL_SPEECH_ENDPOINT` | the URL written to `.env` in step 2.2 | | `MODAL_NLU_ENDPOINT` | the URL written to `.env` in step 2.3 | | `HF_TOKEN` | your HF write token (only needed if `HF_RECEIPT_MODEL_REPO` is private) | | `HF_RECEIPT_MODEL_REPO` | e.g. `Zappandy/dukaan-saathi-receipt-lora` | Secrets are encrypted and only visible to the Space runtime — not to other users or in the Space logs. **Do not add** `DB_PATH` unless you have enabled persistent storage on the Space. Without persistent storage, leave it unset and the DB stays runtime-local (resets on restart). ### 3.3 Restart the Space After adding secrets, click **Factory reset** or wait for the Space to rebuild on its own. The new environment variables take effect on the next container start. To force an immediate rebuild, push any change to the Space remote: ```bash git checkout --orphan _hf_tmp git add -A git commit -m "trigger rebuild" git push space HEAD:main --force git checkout main git branch -D _hf_tmp ``` --- ## Part 4 — Verify end-to-end on the Space After the Space rebuilds: 1. Open the Space URL and wait for the app to finish loading 2. Go to **Voice** tab → type `add Bun 12` → click **Parse for approval** - The agent reasoning panel should show NLU steps if `MODAL_NLU_ENDPOINT` is set 3. Go to **Bill Desk** → upload a receipt photo - Cold start message appears while MiniCPM-V loads (~30 s first time) - Editable rows appear after extraction 4. Go to **Voice** → click **Transcribe with Modal** and upload a `.wav` file - Transcript fills in automatically If any Modal service times out or returns an error, the app falls back to the deterministic parser and shows a trace message explaining the fallback. --- ## Part 5 — Managing costs Modal charges only for GPU time. Each service has a `scaledown_window=300` (5 minutes) — after 5 minutes of inactivity the container stops and you stop being charged. To stop all services immediately: ```bash uv run modal app stop dukaan-saathi-receipt-vlm || true uv run modal app stop dukaan-saathi-speech-asr || true uv run modal app stop dukaan-saathi-command-nlu || true uv run modal app list ``` Look for `Tasks 0` in the output to confirm containers are stopped. To redeploy after stopping (same commands as Part 2): ```bash scripts/modal_deploy.sh modal_apps/receipt_vlm_service.py scripts/modal_deploy.sh modal_apps/speech_asr_service.py scripts/modal_deploy.sh modal_apps/command_nlu_service.py ``` The endpoint URLs do not change between deploys, so no HF Space secret update is needed unless you deploy under a different workspace. --- ## Troubleshooting **`modal setup` hangs or fails** Run `uv run modal token show`. If it shows no token, re-run `uv run modal setup` and complete the browser authentication flow. **Deploy command fails with "app not found"** Check you are in the project root (`ls modal_apps/` should list the service files) and that `uv` has Modal installed (`uv run modal --version`). **HF Space shows no NLU trace after rebuild** Confirm the secret name is exactly `MODAL_NLU_ENDPOINT` (no spaces, correct case). Check the Space logs (Settings → Logs) for any startup errors. **`curl` health check returns 502 or times out** The container is cold-starting. Wait 30–60 seconds and retry. Modal T4 GPU containers take longer on first cold start because the model weights are downloaded into the container volume. **Endpoint URL has extra `/extract` suffix** The `write_modal_endpoint.py` script derives the URL from the deployed function. If it appends a route that the endpoint doesn't use, edit `.env` and the HF Space secret to remove the suffix. Test the corrected URL with `curl` before updating the secret.