Pre-download Hugging Face models during build

Dockerfile

@@ -15,6 +15,12 @@ COPY requirements.txt ./
 # Install Python dependencies
 RUN pip3 install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
 
+# Pre-download Hugging Face models during build
+# This caches models in the Docker image for faster container startup
+COPY download_models.py ./
+COPY src/config/settings.yaml ./src/config/settings.yaml
+RUN python download_models.py
+
 # Copy all application files (excluding .dockerignore patterns)
 COPY . .