diff --git a/app/Dockerfile b/app/Dockerfile
index 142fa61..10cd030 100644
--- a/app/Dockerfile
+++ b/app/Dockerfile
@@ -1,11 +1,16 @@
 FROM python:3.11-slim
 
-# Keep python fast and quiet, and pip lean
+# Keep python fast/quiet and pip lean
 ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
     PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
-    PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1
+    PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1 \
+    LANG=C.UTF-8 \
+    LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 \
+    # sensible defaults (can be overridden by .env)
+    WHISPER_MODEL=large-v3 \
+    WHISPER_PRECISION=int8
 
-# System deps (ffmpeg for media, jq for scripts, poppler-utils for PDFs, curl for healthcheck)
+# System deps: ffmpeg for media, curl for healthcheck, jq for scripts, poppler-utils for PDFs
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     ffmpeg \
     curl \
@@ -15,18 +20,18 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# Upgrade pip first, then install deps
+# Upgrade pip toolchain then install Python deps
 COPY requirements.txt .
-RUN python -m pip install --upgrade pip \
- && pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt \
+RUN python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel \ 
+ && pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt \ 
  && pip check || true
 
 # App code
 COPY app.py worker.py ./
 RUN pip install --no-cache-dir gunicorn==22.0.0
 
-# Basic container health check (relies on curl)
-HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --retries=3 CMD curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8080/ || exit 1
+# Healthcheck against the app's /health endpoint
+HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --retries=3 CMD curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8080/health || exit 1
 
 EXPOSE 8080
 CMD ["gunicorn", "-b", "0.0.0.0:8080", "app:app", "--workers", "2", "--threads", "4"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/app/app.py b/app/app.py
index 46051d1..7c90a76 100644
--- a/app/app.py
+++ b/app/app.py
@@ -68,11 +68,24 @@ doSearch();
 """
 
 def meili_search(qstr, limit=30):
-    if not qstr.strip(): return []
-    r = requests.post(f"{MEILI_URL}/indexes/library/search",
-                      headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {MEILI_KEY}","Content-Type":"application/json"},
-                      data=json.dumps({"q": qstr, "limit": limit}))
-    return r.json().get("hits", [])
+    if not qstr.strip():
+        return []
+    try:
+        r = requests.post(
+            f"{MEILI_URL}/indexes/library/search",
+            headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {MEILI_KEY}", "Content-Type": "application/json"},
+            data=json.dumps({"q": qstr, "limit": limit}),
+            timeout=5,
+        )
+        if r.status_code != 200:
+            return []
+        return r.json().get("hits", [])
+    except Exception:
+        return []
+
+@app.get("/health")
+def health():
+    return "ok"
 
 @app.get("/")
 def index():
diff --git a/app/worker.py b/app/worker.py
index 5e04436..bfac00b 100644
--- a/app/worker.py
+++ b/app/worker.py
@@ -18,7 +18,14 @@ TRN.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
 LIB.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
 TMP.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
 
-model = WhisperModel(MODEL_NAME, compute_type=COMPUTE)
+# Lazy Whisper model loader so the worker can start even if model download/setup is slow
+_model = None
+
+def get_model():
+    global _model
+    if _model is None:
+        _model = WhisperModel(MODEL_NAME, compute_type=COMPUTE)
+    return _model
 
 def log(feed):
     try:
@@ -45,6 +52,7 @@ def yt_dlp(url, outdir):
     return sorted(media, key=lambda p: p.stat().st_mtime)[-1:]
 
 def transcribe(media_path: Path):
+    model = get_model()
     segments, info = model.transcribe(str(media_path), vad_filter=True, language="auto")
     title = media_path.stem
     base = TRN / title
@@ -83,10 +91,21 @@ def index_meili(json_path: Path):
         "segments": doc.get("segments", []),
         "meta": {"language": doc.get("language", "")}
     }
-    r = requests.post(f"{MEILI_URL}/indexes/library/documents",
-                      headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {MEILI_KEY}", "Content-Type":"application/json"},
-                      data=orjson.dumps(payload))
-    r.raise_for_status()
+    import time
+    for attempt in range(5):
+        try:
+            r = requests.post(
+                f"{MEILI_URL}/indexes/library/documents",
+                headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {MEILI_KEY}", "Content-Type":"application/json"},
+                data=orjson.dumps(payload),
+                timeout=15,
+            )
+            r.raise_for_status()
+            break
+        except Exception:
+            if attempt == 4:
+                raise
+            time.sleep(2 * (attempt + 1))
 
 import tldextract, trafilatura, requests as _requests
 
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index fdf95cd..96621cb 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-version: "3.9"
 services:
   podx-web:
     build: ./app
@@ -26,7 +25,7 @@ services:
   podx-worker:
     build: ./app
     container_name: podx-worker
-    command: ["python", "worker.py"]
+    command: ["rq", "worker", "-u", "redis://redis:6379/0", "default"]
     env_file: [.env]
     environment:
       MEILI_URL: http://meili:7700
@@ -36,6 +35,7 @@ services:
       TMP_ROOT: /tmpdl
       WHISPER_MODEL: large-v3
       WHISPER_PRECISION: int8
+      PYTHONPATH: /app
     volumes:
       - ${LIBRARY_HOST_DIR:-./library}:/library
       - ${TRANSCRIPTS_HOST_DIR:-./transcripts}:/transcripts