diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
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+++ b/.dockerignore
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+# Git
+.git
+.gitignore
+.github
+
+# Python artifacts
+__pycache__/
+*.py[cod]
+*.pyo
+*.pyd
+.Python
+*.egg-info/
+dist/
+build/
+*.egg
+
+# Virtual environments
+venv/
+.venv/
+env/
+.env/
+
+# IDE / editors
+.vscode/
+.idea/
+*.swp
+*.swo
+*~
+
+# OS files
+.DS_Store
+Thumbs.db
+
+# Logs & temp
+*.log
+*.tmp
+
+# Test / CI
+.pytest_cache/
+htmlcov/
+.coverage
+
+# Docs & media (optional, remove if app needs them at runtime)
+README.md
+media/
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
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+++ b/Dockerfile
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+# Use official Python slim image for smaller size
+FROM python:3.10-slim
+
+# Set environment variables
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
+    PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1
+
+# Set working directory
+WORKDIR /app
+
+# Install system dependencies
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    build-essential \
+    curl \
+    git \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# Copy requirements first for better Docker layer caching
+COPY requirements.txt .
+
+# Install Python dependencies
+# Note: PyQt6 is excluded since we're running headless (Streamlit web UI only)
+# Note: en_core_web_sm is already included in requirements.txt as a wheel download
+RUN pip install --upgrade pip && \
+    grep -v "^PyQt6" requirements.txt > requirements_web.txt && \
+    pip install -r requirements_web.txt
+
+# Download additional NLTK data required by the app
+RUN python -c "import nltk; nltk.download('punkt'); nltk.download('wordnet'); nltk.download('averaged_perceptron_tagger'); nltk.download('punkt_tab')"
+
+# Copy the application source code
+COPY . .
+
+# Expose Streamlit's default port
+EXPOSE 8501
+
+# Health check
+HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=10s --start-period=30s --retries=3 \
+    CMD curl -f http://localhost:8501/_stcore/health || exit 1
+
+# Run the Streamlit app
+CMD ["streamlit", "run", "main.py", \
+     "--server.port=8501", \
+     "--server.address=0.0.0.0", \
+     "--server.headless=true", \
+     "--browser.gatherUsageStats=false"]
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
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+++ b/docker-compose.yml
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+version: "3.9"
+
+services:
+  ai-text-humanizer:
+    build:
+      context: .
+      dockerfile: Dockerfile
+    image: ai-text-humanizer-app:latest
+    container_name: ai-text-humanizer
+    ports:
+      - "8501:8501"
+    environment:
+      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
+    restart: unless-stopped
+    healthcheck:
+      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8501/_stcore/health"]
+      interval: 30s
+      timeout: 10s
+      retries: 3
+      start_period: 40s
+    volumes:
+      # Optional: mount local code for development (comment out for production)
+      # - .:/app
+      # Persist NLTK data to avoid re-downloading on container restart
+      - nltk_data:/root/nltk_data
+
+volumes:
+  nltk_data:
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index b52a567..eff4e30 100644
Binary files a/requirements.txt and b/requirements.txt differ