diff --git a/deploy_zero_downtime.sh b/deploy_zero_downtime.sh
index 9ca6e50..69e662a 100755
--- a/deploy_zero_downtime.sh
+++ b/deploy_zero_downtime.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # deploy-zero-downtime.sh
+cd /home/exedev/candle_annotator
 
 echo "🔄 Pulling latest code..."
 git pull
diff --git a/services/ml/.env.example b/services/ml/.env.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ebce8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/ml/.env.example
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+DATABASE_URL=postgresql://pg_user:pg_password@localhost:5432/candle_annotator
+# openssl rand -hex 32 add to main .env too
+API_KEY=ML_API_KEY
diff --git a/services/ml/Dockerfile b/services/ml/Dockerfile
index 6da2fa8..76f737c 100644
--- a/services/ml/Dockerfile
+++ b/services/ml/Dockerfile
@@ -29,8 +29,9 @@ COPY . .
 EXPOSE 8001
 
 # Create non-root user and set ownership
-RUN useradd -r -s /bin/false appuser
-RUN chown -R appuser:appuser /app
+RUN useradd -r -s /bin/false appuser && \
+    mkdir -p /app/data/raw /app/data/processed && \
+    chown -R appuser:appuser /app
 
 # Switch to non-root user
 USER appuser