diff --git a/app/core/config.py b/app/core/config.py
index 57db8eb..75704aa 100644
--- a/app/core/config.py
+++ b/app/core/config.py
@@ -1,16 +1,19 @@
 from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings
 from pathlib import Path
-from typing import Optional
+from typing import Optional, ClassVar
+
+
+# Create DB directory outside of the Settings class
+DB_DIR = Path("/projects/taskmanagerapi-8e2xek/app/storage/db")
+DB_DIR.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
 
 
 class Settings(BaseSettings):
     API_V1_STR: str = "/api/v1"
     PROJECT_NAME: str = "Task Manager API"
-    
+
     # Database settings
-    DB_DIR = Path("/app") / "storage" / "db"
-    DB_DIR.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
     DATABASE_URL: str = f"sqlite:///{DB_DIR}/db.sqlite"
-    
+
 
 settings = Settings()
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/app/db/session.py b/app/db/session.py
index 5c4108d..312f935 100644
--- a/app/db/session.py
+++ b/app/db/session.py
@@ -1,14 +1,8 @@
 from sqlalchemy import create_engine
 from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
-from pathlib import Path
-import os
+from app.core.config import settings
 
-# Use relative path for development environment
-BASE_DIR = Path(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))))
-DB_DIR = BASE_DIR / "app" / "storage" / "db"
-DB_DIR.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
-
-SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL = f"sqlite:///{DB_DIR}/db.sqlite"
+SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL = settings.DATABASE_URL
 
 engine = create_engine(
     SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL,
diff --git a/start.py b/start.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24ea0f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/start.py
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+import os
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
+
+# Add the project root to the Python path
+BASE_DIR = Path(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
+sys.path.insert(0, str(BASE_DIR))
+
+# Import the app from main.py to check if it loads correctly
+from main import app
+
+print("App loaded successfully!")
+print(f"App name: {app.title}")
+print("If you can see this message, the error has been fixed.")
\ No newline at end of file