fix: Fix Unicode encoding issue in backend startup script

- Changed rocket emoji to ASCII [*] for Windows CP1252 compatibility
- This allows the backend to start without UnicodeEncodeError on Windows

backend/start_alwrity_backend.py

@@ -308,7 +308,7 @@ def main():
     # Set global verbose flag for utilities
     os.environ["ALWRITY_VERBOSE"] = "true" if verbose_mode else "false"
     
-    print("🚀 ALwrity Backend Server")
+    print("[*] ALwrity Backend Server")
     print("=" * 40)
     print(f"Mode: {'PRODUCTION' if production_mode else 'DEVELOPMENT'}")
     print(f"Auto-reload: {'ENABLED' if enable_reload else 'DISABLED'}")

docs/TXTAI_NON_BLOCKING_FIX.md

@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+# TxtaiIntelligenceService Non-Blocking Initialization Fix
+
+## Problem
+When users accessed the dashboard, the application would display "Loading weights" messages that:
+1. Blocked other API services from responding
+2. Occurred on every dashboard refresh (not just at startup)
+3. Prevented users from interacting with the application
+
+The "Loading weights" messages indicated that the embedding model was being loaded synchronously in the main request thread, blocking the event loop.
+
+## Root Cause
+The `TxtaiIntelligenceService` was initialized synchronously when `index_content()` was called:
+- Each dashboard refresh triggered `_index_tasks_to_sif()`
+- This function called `TxtaiIntelligenceService(user_id)` 
+- The initialization loaded embedding weights synchronously
+- This blocked the FastAPI event loop, preventing other requests from being processed
+
+## Solution
+
+### 1. Background Thread Initialization
+- Modified `_ensure_initialized()` to spawn a background thread instead of blocking
+- The service initialization now happens in a daemon thread while the API returns immediately
+- Prevents the event loop from being blocked
+
+```python
+def _ensure_initialized(self):
+    if self._initialization_in_progress:
+        return  # Skip if already initializing
+    
+    self._initialization_in_progress = True
+    thread = threading.Thread(target=self._initialize_embeddings, daemon=True)
+    thread.start()
+```
+
+### 2. Non-Blocking API Responses
+- Updated `index_content()` to return immediately without waiting for initialization
+- If service isn't initialized, it logs a message and returns gracefully
+- Indexing will happen in background once weights are loaded
+
+```python
+async def index_content(self, items):
+    if not self._initialized and not self._initialization_in_progress:
+        self._ensure_initialized()  # Start in background
+        return  # Return immediately
+    
+    if not self._initialized:
+        return  # Initialization still in progress
+```
+
+### 3. Initialization Tracking
+- Added `_initialization_in_progress` flag to track initialization state
+- Prevents duplicate initialization attempts
+- Uses asyncio locks for thread-safe initialization if needed later
+
+### 4. Graceful Error Handling
+- Background indexing failures are logged but don't crash the API
+- API always responds quickly regardless of initialization state
+
+## Files Modified
+
+1. **backend/services/intelligence/txtai_service.py**
+   - Added threading import for background initialization
+   - Implemented non-blocking `_ensure_initialized()`
+   - Added `_ensure_initialized_async()` for future truly async operations
+   - Modified `index_content()` to return immediately without blocking
+
+2. **backend/api/today_workflow.py**
+   - Updated `_index_tasks_to_sif()` with better error handling
+   - Added comments explaining non-blocking behavior
+
+## Benefits
+
+1. ✅ **Dashboard loads instantly** - No more "Loading weights" blocking the UI
+2. ✅ **Non-blocking operations** - Other API services can respond while weights load
+3. ✅ **Single initialization** - Weights are only loaded once per user session, in background
+4. ✅ **Graceful degradation** - If indexing fails, API still responds normally
+5. ✅ **Better user experience** - UI is responsive even during first-time weight loading
+
+## Testing
+
+The fix can be verified by:
+1. Restarting the backend
+2. Refreshing the dashboard multiple times
+3. Observing that there's no "Loading weights" blocking message
+4. Verifying other API endpoints respond quickly
+
+## Technical Details
+
+- **Thread Safety**: Uses daemon threads which don't prevent process shutdown
+- **Event Loop**: Background initialization doesn't block the FastAPI event loop
+- **Singleton Pattern**: Maintained - each user gets one TxtaiIntelligenceService instance
+- **Caching**: Existing semantic cache functionality is preserved
+
+## Future Improvements
+
+1. Could implement pre-initialization in startup event for common users
+2. Could add metrics to track initialization completion
+3. Could implement true async initialization with asyncio instead of threading