Duward A — Render Deploy Guide

Project: GPT Workout Planner
Repo: final-project-angldu6
Goal: Put your mobile-friendly Flask workout planner online for Demo Day.

This guide is tailored to your current repo. Your app has app.py, planner.py, workouts/options.json, workouts/history.json, templates, pyproject.toml, and uv.lock. It needs gunicorn, an OpenAI environment variable, and render.yaml.

Before You Start

Make sure the app works locally:

uv sync
uv run flask --app app run --debug

Open the preview, submit a goal like build muscle, choose a location, and confirm a workout plan appears.

Step 1 — Add the Production Server

Render should run your Flask app with gunicorn.

uv add gunicorn

This updates pyproject.toml and uv.lock.

Step 2 — Add .env.example

Your app uses OpenAI() after load_dotenv(), so Render needs this environment variable:

OPENAI_API_KEY

Create .env.example at the project root:

OPENAI_API_KEY=

Keep your real .env file private. Do not commit the actual key.

Step 3 — Create render.yaml

Create a new file at the project root named render.yaml:

services:
  - type: web
    name: gpt-workout-planner
    env: python
    plan: free
    buildCommand: uv sync --frozen && uv cache prune --ci
    startCommand: uv run gunicorn app:app
    autoDeploy: true
    envVars:
      - key: OPENAI_API_KEY
        sync: false

Your workouts/options.json file is committed, so Render can load the same workout choices as your local app.

Step 4 — Commit and Push

In Source Control, stage and commit:

  • pyproject.toml
  • uv.lock
  • .env.example
  • render.yaml

Use a message like:

add render deploy config

Then click Sync Changes.

Step 5 — Create the Render Service

  1. Go to render.com and sign in with GitHub.
  2. Click New + → Web Service.
  3. Connect final-project-angldu6.
  4. Confirm these settings:
    • Environment: Python
    • Build Command: uv sync --frozen && uv cache prune --ci
    • Start Command: uv run gunicorn app:app
    • Plan: Free
  5. In Environment Variables, add your real OPENAI_API_KEY.
  6. Click Create Web Service.

Step 6 — Test the Live Site

When Render finishes, open the live URL and test the core flow:

  1. Submit a clear goal like build muscle.
  2. Try both location choices.
  3. Confirm the generated plan appears.
  4. Open the previous workouts page.
  5. Try clearing history.

If the app crashes after submit, check that OPENAI_API_KEY is set in Render.

Demo Day Notes

Your app writes recent workout history to workouts/history.json. On Render's free tier, file changes made by visitors can disappear after a redeploy. For demo day, this is fine: open the app before presenting, generate one or two fresh workouts, and show the history from that live session.