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Deployment Guide

InfluencerPy is designed to run continuously in the background to monitor feeds and manage your social media presence. This guide covers how to keep it running and where to host it for free.

Running in the Background

Since InfluencerPy is a CLI application, closing your terminal will stop the bot. Here are two ways to keep it running.

Langfuse Tracing (Optional)

To enable observability for your scouts via Langfuse: 1. Sign up at Langfuse. 2. Get your API keys (Base URL, Public Key, Secret Key). 3. Easy Setup: Run influencerpy and select "Configure Credentials" -> "Langfuse (Tracing)". 4. Manual Setup: Add them to your .env file: 

LANGFUSE_HOST="https://cloud.langfuse.com"
LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY="pk-lf-..."
LANGFUSE_SECRET_KEY="sk-lf-..."
5. When creating a scout, you can enable tracing. If keys are missing, the CLI will offer to help you set them up.

tmux allows you to create a session that keeps running even after you disconnect from your server.

  1. Install tmux: 

    # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install tmux

# macOS
brew install tmux

  2. Start a new session: 

    tmux new -s influencerpy

  3. Run the bot: 

    influencerpy bot

  4. Detach: Press Ctrl+B then D. You can now safely close your terminal.

  5. Reattach: To check on your bot later: 

    tmux attach -s influencerpy

For a more robust setup on Linux servers, use systemd to automatically restart the bot if it crashes or the server reboots.

  1. Create a service file: 

    sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/influencerpy.service

  2. Add the following configuration (adjust paths and user): 

    [Unit]
Description=InfluencerPy Bot
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=your_username
WorkingDirectory=/home/your_username/InfluencerPy
# Ensure the path to 'influencerpy' is correct (e.g., inside venv)
ExecStart=/home/your_username/InfluencerPy/.venv/bin/influencerpy bot
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
EnvironmentFile=/home/your_username/InfluencerPy/.env

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

  3. Enable and Start: 

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable influencerpy
sudo systemctl start influencerpy

  4. Check Logs: 

    sudo journalctl -u influencerpy -f

Free Hosting Options

You don't need an expensive server to run InfluencerPy. Here are some excellent free options:

1. Oracle Cloud Free Tier (Best Performance)

Oracle offers "Always Free" ARM instances that are very powerful. * Specs: Up to 4 ARM Ampere CPUs and 24GB RAM. * Pros: extremely generous resources, fast network. * Cons: Sign-up can be picky about credit cards.

2. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Free Tier

  • Specs: e2-micro instance (2 vCPUs, 1GB RAM).
  • Pros: Reliable, easy integration with other Google services.
  • Cons: Limited RAM (might need swap file).

3. AWS Free Tier

  • Specs: t2.micro or t3.micro (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM) for 12 months.
  • Pros: Industry standard.
  • Cons: Free trial expires after 1 year.

4. DigitalOcean (Droplets)

DigitalOcean provides affordable VPS options. * Pros: Simple deployment, good documentation. * Cons: No permanent free tier (but very affordable starting at $4/month).

Tips for Cloud Deployment

  • Environment Variables: Ensure your .env file is securely copied to the server or variables are set in the deployment environment.
  • Database: By default, InfluencerPy uses SQLite (database.db). If you redeploy or destroy the instance, you will lose data unless you use a persistent volume or switch to a cloud database (PostgreSQL).