Update Dockerfile

Dockerfile

@@ -1,20 +1,25 @@
 # Use a Python base image
 FROM python:3.9-slim-buster
 
-# Set working directory
+# Set working directory inside the container
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# Install dependencies
+# Create a virtual environment and activate it.
+# This ensures a clean and isolated environment for your dependencies.
+RUN python -m venv /opt/venv
+ENV PATH="/opt/venv/bin:$PATH"
+
+# Install dependencies from requirements.txt into the virtual environment
 COPY requirements.txt .
 RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
 
 # Copy your application code
 COPY app.py .
 
-# Expose the port your API will run on (Hugging Face Spaces uses 7860 by default for Gradio/Streamlit,
-# but for custom Docker, you can choose, e.g., 8000 for FastAPI or 5000 for Flask).
+# Expose the port your API will run on
+# Hugging Face Spaces typically uses port 8000 for custom Docker builds
 EXPOSE 8000
 
-# Command to run your FastAPI/Flask app
-CMD ["uvicorn", "app:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"] # For FastAPI
-# CMD ["python", "app.py"] # For a simple Flask app
+# Command to start the FastAPI application using Uvicorn as a Python module.
+# This is more robust as it explicitly invokes 'python' to run the 'uvicorn' module.
+CMD ["python", "-m", "uvicorn", "app:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]