Deploying the LLM Grader on Render

🚀 Overview

LLM grader is generally hosted on a server. We suggest Render that can directly load from a GitHub repository and a persistent disk. Render handles the build, environment, and hosting automatically, so deployment is simple and repeatable.

A Render deployment consists of:

• a Web Service running the Flask application
• a Persistent Disk mounted at /var/data
• environment variables for admin authentication and configuration
• automatic redeploys on Git pushes

The grader stores uploaded solution packages on the persistent disk, so course content survives restarts and redeploys. Before starting you will need to create a Render account, by linking your GitHub to the Render.

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📁 1. Prepare Your Repository

Your GitHub repository should contain:

llmgrader/
    app.py
    requirements.txt
    llmgrader/
        routes/
        services/
        templates/
        static/
        ...

Make sure:

• requirements.txt includes all dependencies
• gunicorn is listed (Render uses it to run the app)
• the app exposes app at the top level (e.g., in app.py)

Example app.py entry point:

from llmgrader import create_app
app = create_app()

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🧱 2. Create a Persistent Disk on Render

In the Render dashboard:

1. Go to Disks
2. Click New Disk
3. Name it something like grader-data
4. Choose a size (1–2 GB is plenty)
5. Set the mount path to:

/var/data

This directory will store:

• extracted solution packages
• logs (if you choose to write any)
• future assets such as images

Render guarantees that /var/data persists across deploys.

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🌐 3. Create the Web Service

1. Click New → Web Service
2. Connect your GitHub repo
3. Use these settings:

Environment:

Python 3.x

Build Command:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Start Command:

gunicorn app:app

Instance Type:

• Start with Starter or Basic
• Upgrade later if needed

Persistent Disk:

• Attach the disk you created
• Mount it at /var/data

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🔐 4. Set Environment Variables

In the Render service settings, add:

Variable	Suggested value	Remarks
LLMGRADER_ADMIN_PASSWORD	Any	Password for entering admin pages
PYTHON_VERSION	3.12.3	Update with python version
LLMGRADER_STORAGE_PATH	/var/data/	Root for persistent storage

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🔄 5. Deploy and Verify

Render will:

• clone your repo
• install dependencies
• start the app with Gunicorn
• mount the persistent disk

Once deployed, render assign your service a unique URL such as:

https://llmgrader-xxxx.onrender.com

Use the URL shown in your Render dashboard.

🛠️ 6. Redeploying

Render redeploys automatically when you push to the main branch.
You can also trigger a manual deploy from the dashboard.

Uploads and course content remain intact because they live on the persistent disk.

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🧹 7. Cleaning or Resetting the Disk (Optional)

If you ever need to reset the grader:

• SSH into the instance (Render Shell)
• Remove the contents of /var/data/soln_repo
• Or delete and recreate the disk from the dashboard

This does not affect your code deployment.

Once you are deployed, you can upload the course package

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Go to setting the admin password