Fix: add missing deps, lazy-load heavy modules in podcast mode

backend/api/__init__.py

@@ -5,7 +5,17 @@ The onboarding endpoints are re-exported from a stable module
 `onboarding.py`.
 """
 
-from .onboarding_endpoints import (
+import os
+
+# Check podcast mode early
+_is_podcast = os.getenv("ALWRITY_ENABLED_FEATURES", "").strip().lower() == "podcast"
+
+# In podcast mode, don't import heavy onboarding endpoints
+# They trigger heavy dependencies (exa_py, etc.)
+if _is_podcast:
+    __all__ = []
+else:
+    from .onboarding_endpoints import (
         health_check,
         get_onboarding_status,
         get_onboarding_progress_full,
@@ -27,9 +37,9 @@ from .onboarding_endpoints import (
         assess_persona_quality,
         regenerate_persona,
         get_persona_generation_options
-)
+    )
 
-__all__ = [
+    __all__ = [
         'health_check',
         'get_onboarding_status',
         'get_onboarding_progress_full',
@@ -51,4 +61,4 @@ __all__ = [
         'assess_persona_quality',
         'regenerate_persona',
         'get_persona_generation_options'
-] 
+    ] 

backend/render-build.sh

@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ httpx>=0.27.2,<0.28.0
 aiohttp>=3.9.0
 openai>=1.3.0
 google-genai>=1.0.0
+exa-py==1.9.1
 gtts>=2.4.0
 pyttsx3>=2.90
 markdown>=3.5.0
@@ -51,6 +52,13 @@ requests>=2.31.0
 beautifulsoup4>=4.12.0
 lxml>=4.9.0
 psutil>=5.9.0
+sentence-transformers>=2.2.2
+google-api-python-client>=2.100.0
+google-auth>=2.23.0
+google-auth-oauthlib>=1.0.0
+pydantic-settings>=2.0.0
+python-dateutil>=2.8.0
+jinja2>=3.1.0
 EOF
     python -m pip install --retries 10 --timeout 120 -r requirements_min.txt
 else