Deploying your twin to Render

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HuggingFace Spaces now requires a paid PRO subscription to host Gradio apps, so here is an alternative: Render. Render has a free tier, doesn't ask for a credit card, and can run the twin exactly as it is, with no code changes.

One thing to know up front: on the free tier, your app goes to sleep after 15 minutes without visitors. The next visitor wakes it up, which takes 30 to 60 seconds. After that it responds normally.

What you'll need

• A GitHub account (you probably have one already from cloning this course)
• Your OpenAI API key, and your Pushover user and token, from your .env file
• The twin directory, updated with your own linkedin.pdf and summary.txt

Step 1: Put the twin in its own GitHub repository

Render deploys from a GitHub repository. This course repo won't work for that, because it contains everything else too, and it belongs to the course. You want a small separate repo containing just the contents of the twin directory.

The easiest way, with no git commands at all:

1. Go to github.com/new and create a repository. Call it twin. Choose Private, since your LinkedIn PDF is personal. Check the box to add a README so the repo isn't empty.
2. On your new repo's page, click Add file, then Upload files.
3. Drag in these 7 files from 1_foundations/twin on your computer: app.py, context.py, tools.py, styles.py, requirements.txt, summary.txt and linkedin.pdf. Don't include the __pycache__ folder if you see one.
4. Click Commit changes.

If you prefer the command line: copy the twin folder to somewhere outside this course repo first (for example cp -r twin ~/twin), then run git init, commit the files, and push to a new private GitHub repo in the usual way. The copy matters because creating a git repo inside the course repo causes confusion.

Never put your .env file or any API keys in the repo. Your keys will go into Render's dashboard in Step 4.

Step 2: Create a Render account

1. Go to render.com and click Sign In, then sign up with your GitHub account. This makes the next step easier.
2. Verify your email if asked. You do not need to enter a credit card.

Step 3: Create the web service

1. From the Render dashboard, click New + and choose Web Service.
2. Connect your GitHub account if prompted, and give Render access to your twin repository.
3. Select the twin repository.
4. Fill in the settings:
   • Language: Python 3
   • Build Command: pip install -r requirements.txt
   • Start Command: python app.py
   • Instance Type: Free
5. Don't click Deploy yet. First add the environment variables below.

Step 4: Environment variables

In the Environment Variables section of the same page (or later under the service's Environment tab), add these five:

Key	Value
OPENAI_API_KEY	your OpenAI key from .env
PUSHOVER_USER	your Pushover user from .env
PUSHOVER_TOKEN	your Pushover token from .env
GRADIO_SERVER_NAME	0.0.0.0
GRADIO_SERVER_PORT	10000

The last two need a word of explanation. Render expects your app to listen for web traffic on port 10000, and Gradio reads these two variables at startup, so this is how we tell Gradio where to listen. No code changes needed.

Step 5: Deploy

1. Click Deploy Web Service.
2. Watch the logs. The first build takes a few minutes while it installs the requirements.
3. When you see the Gradio startup message in the logs, your app is live. The URL is at the top of the page and looks like https://twin-xxxx.onrender.com.
4. Open it and say hello to your twin. Check that a Pushover notification arrives when you share your email address with it.

Updating your twin

When you change a file (for example improving summary.txt), upload the new version to the GitHub repo, or push if you used the command line. Render notices the change and redeploys automatically.

Troubleshooting

• The page takes ages to load. If nobody has visited for 15 minutes, the app is asleep and takes up to a minute to wake. This is normal on the free tier.
• The build fails. Check the logs on the service page. The most common cause is a missing file, so confirm all 7 files are in the GitHub repo.
• The app builds but the page shows an error. Usually a missing or mistyped environment variable. Check all five under the Environment tab, then use Manual Deploy to restart.
• No Pushover notifications. Check PUSHOVER_USER and PUSHOVER_TOKEN in the Environment tab, and remember the user key starts with u and the token starts with a.