Docker deployment setup

[ramonechen]

What?

This pull request "Dockerizes" the API repository and turns it into a service that runs as part of a larger Docker network for production.

The addition of a Docker Compose file also streamlines the development environment setup by removing the need to manually install dependencies and run multiple commands. Now, the only steps needed to start the development environment is to install Docker, create the .env file, and run a docker compose run command.

• The Compose file pulls a MySQL database service definition from the organization's .github repository, which creates a data volume that persists between environment start/stops.
• This volume can be shared with the SIS scraper's development environment, which uses the same MySQL database service.

A new GitHub Actions workflow has also been added to automatically build and publish a Docker image to the organization's GitHub Container Registry upon merging with the main branch.

These README has also been filled in to include instructions for development environment setup.

Why?

I wanted to learn Docker and use it to streamline both development and production processes across all of our repositories. This initiative massively simplifies development environment setup and deployment and reduces overall toil.

How?

The addition of docker-compose.yml, Dockerfile, and .dockerignore gives Docker the blueprint for both building the scraper into a Docker image for production and running the same image in a development environment.

The addition of .github/workflows/image-publish.yml enables automatic building and pushing of Docker images to the organization's GHCR.

Development environment setup instructions have also been added to README.md.

Testing?

The build process and development environment runs without issue across various cases.

Anything Else?

Have a nice day.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR adds Docker-based development and deployment scaffolding for the FastAPI service, including local Compose orchestration and GitHub Actions automation to publish a container image to GHCR.

Changes:

• Add Docker build/runtime configuration (Dockerfile, .dockerignore) and a Compose-based dev environment.
• Update environment variable handling by moving the example .env template to the repo root and updating settings loading.
• Add/adjust GitHub Actions workflows for image publishing and Black formatting checks via reusable workflows.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 9 out of 9 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
example.env	New root-level environment variable template for .env.
docker-compose.yml	Adds Compose dev environment with external included DB service and API service config.
app/example.env	Removes old app-local .env template.
app/dependencies.py	Updates settings to load .env from repo root and ignore extra env vars.
README.md	Adds Docker-based development setup instructions.
Dockerfile	Defines container build/run steps for the FastAPI app.
.github/workflows/image-publish.yml	Adds reusable-workflow-based Docker image build/publish on main pushes.
.github/workflows/black-check.yml	Switches Black check to a reusable workflow.
.dockerignore	Limits Docker build context to required Python source and requirements.

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[jzgom067]

As we discussed, you should update this section to include the caveat of only one of the scraper and API being able to use the database container at once.