# Backend Deployment Guide The backend cannot be deployed to Vercel due to Python dependency issues (faiss-cpu compatibility). ## Option 1: Deploy Backend to Render (Recommended) 1. Go to [render.com](https://render.com) and sign in 2. Click "New +" → "Web Service" 3. Connect your GitHub repository 4. Configure: - **Name**: `escalation-api-backend` - **Runtime**: Python 3 - **Build Command**: `pip install -r requirements.txt` - **Start Command**: `uvicorn src.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port $PORT` 5. Add Environment Variables: - `GOOGLE_API_KEY`: Your Gemini API key 6. Deploy Your backend will be at: `https://escalation-api-backend.onrender.com` ## Option 2: Deploy Backend to Railway 1. Go to [railway.app](https://railway.app) and sign in 2. Click "New Project" → "Deploy from GitHub repo" 3. Select your repository 4. Add environment variables in the Variables tab 5. Railway auto-deploys Your backend will be at: `https://your-app.up.railway.app` ## Update Frontend After deploying the backend, update the frontend environment variable in Vercel: 1. Go to Vercel Dashboard → Your Project → Settings → Environment Variables 2. Add/Update: `VITE_API_URL` = `https://your-backend-url.onrender.com` 3. Redeploy frontend ## Local Development ### Backend: ```bash pip install -r requirements.txt uvicorn src.main:app --reload ``` ### Frontend: ```bash cd frontend npm install npm run dev ``` Set `VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:8000` in `frontend/.env`