If you want to use web frameworks other than Streamlit, you are free to do so, but you're responsible for learning them on your own. This means:

• Learning the framework: Read official documentation, understand core concepts, and work through tutorials independently
• Handling production concerns: Set up deployment, configure CORS, implement authentication, manage environment variables, and optimize performance
• Debugging: Troubleshoot errors, resolve integration issues between frontend and backend, and fix deployment problems yourself
• Staying updated: Keep track of breaking changes, update dependencies, and adapt to new best practices

This document provides a simple reference implementation using FastAPI + React to get you started, but assumes you have basic web development knowledge.

Part 1: Setting Up FastAPI Backend

Prerequisite

• VSCode
• Python 3.11.x
• Node.js 18+ (for frontend)

Setting Up Virtual Environment

Using virtual environments keeps project dependencies separate from the system Python and other projects. Create a virtual environment named venv.

python -m venv venv

Activate the virtual environment:

source venv/bin/activate
# deactivate if you want to get out of the environment

Install Dependencies within the virtual environment:

pip install fastapi uvicorn openai python-dotenv pydantic

This will install packages within the virtual environment, not contaminating your global package space. You can run pip list to confirm the installed packages.