From a2fd9b1ce6243f4fc947eae9ac293fe5e6f97353 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Daniel Bedeleanu <bede@tfm.ro>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:29:15 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] fix(6): update standalone start_server.sh to use Python
 virtual environment

- Create .venv automatically if missing
- Activate virtual environment before pip install
- Fixes PEP 668 externally-managed-environment error on Python 3.12
- Virtual environment isolated from system Python packages
---
 start_server.sh | 10 ++++++++++
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)

diff --git a/start_server.sh b/start_server.sh
index 78ba96df..8011f321 100755
--- a/start_server.sh
+++ b/start_server.sh
@@ -104,6 +104,16 @@ if [[ ! -f "requirements.txt" ]]; then
   log_error "backend/requirements.txt not found"
 fi
 
+# Create and use Python virtual environment
+VENV_DIR="../.venv"
+if [[ ! -d "$VENV_DIR" ]]; then
+  log_info "  Creating Python virtual environment..."
+  python3 -m venv "$VENV_DIR" || log_error "Failed to create virtual environment"
+fi
+
+# Activate virtual environment
+source "$VENV_DIR/bin/activate"
+
 # Install dependencies if needed
 if ! python3 -c "import fastapi" &> /dev/null; then
   log_info "  Installing Python dependencies..."