[code-kasha]

Summary

Makes the app deployable as a single Docker container on free hosting for a 3-month demo, and fixes production error logging.

Production errors are now logged

Django's default logging writes to the console only when DEBUG is on. Otherwise it emails ADMINS, and none are configured, so every 500 traceback in production was silently dropped (confirmed with a probe). Production now logs everything to stderr with a timestamp, level and logger name. Request errors always get through, and the level for everything else is set with LOG_LEVEL (default INFO).

One container serves everything

• Django serves the built React app's index.html for every path outside /api/, /admin/ and /static/, so deep links like /leads/7 survive a reload. WhiteNoise serves the assets: Vite's hashed /assets/* files get a one-year immutable cache, and everything is pre-gzipped.
• The frontend calls /api on the same origin, so there's no CORS setup.
• The dashboard's Open Swagger link was hard-coded to http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/docs/. It's now built from VITE_API_URL.
• On Render, ALLOWED_HOSTS and the CORS/CSRF origin lists default to the service's own host when unset. Explicit values still win.

Docker

• Dockerfile: a Node stage builds the frontend, then a Python 3.12 stage runs gunicorn as a non-root user.
• docker-entrypoint.sh: runs migrate and ensure_superuser, then starts gunicorn. Both setup steps are idempotent, so they run on every start.
• manage.py ensure_superuser: creates the first admin from the DJANGO_SUPERUSER_* variables. Free hosting has no shell to run createsuperuser. The command never resets an existing account.
• docker-compose.yml: docker compose up --build runs the production image against a local Postgres.
• CI: a new Docker image job builds the image and smoke-tests the running container: an SPA route, admin static files, a 401 from the API, and admin login.

Hosting: Render (app) + Neon (Postgres), both free with no card

• render.yaml is a blueprint for a free Docker web service in Singapore. Render generates SECRET_KEY, and you enter DATABASE_URL and the admin credentials in the dashboard.
• The database is on Neon, because Render's free Postgres is deleted 30 days after creation. Neon's free tier doesn't expire (0.5 GB).
• docs/DEPLOY.md covers the step-by-step setup, free-tier behaviour (the app sleeps after 15 minutes idle and takes about a minute to wake), operating the demo, tearing it down, and every environment variable.

Also: the README's prerequisites now say Python 3.12+ (it said 3.11+), and there's a new Deployment section.

Testing

• Backend: 80 passed. Frontend: 69 passed. All checks pass locally.
• Checked outside Docker, with the image's layout (the image itself couldn't be built in the dev sandbox, whose proxy breaks TLS inside builds; the new CI job builds it):
  • frontend built with VITE_API_URL=/api, then collectstatic with production settings
  • the real docker-entrypoint.sh against Postgres 17 applied 34 migrations and created the admin; a second start left the admin unchanged
  • SPA routes, gzipped and immutable-cached assets, admin static files and the API all respond correctly
  • a full browser run worked: login redirect, creating a lead, a status change, and a deep-link reload
  • with only RENDER_EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME set, the app starts and still rejects foreign Host headers

To deploy

Follow docs/DEPLOY.md: create a Neon project, then New → Blueprint in Render and paste three values.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_018oMHDqDASywmwc7ncmxtCY

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Generated by Claude Code