# Portable DeepFace Weights Design

**Goal:** Make DeepFace reuse bundled project weights regardless of where the project directory is unpacked.

**Problem:** The current native launcher sets `DEEPFACE_HOME` to a project-local `.deepface` directory. DeepFace then appends its own `.deepface/weights` segment, so runtime lookup becomes `PROJECT_ROOT/.deepface/.deepface/weights`, which bypasses the bundled `weights/deepface` directory and triggers redundant downloads.

**Approach Options:**

1. Copy bundled weights into the current user's default `~/.deepface/weights` directory before startup.
   This matches DeepFace's default lookup behavior and avoids hard-coded absolute paths. It works whether the project lives under `/home/x/people`, `/home/xiaozheng/people`, or any other directory.

2. Keep using `DEEPFACE_HOME` and reshape the project-local directory tree to match DeepFace's nested expectations.
   This avoids duplicating files but is more fragile and easier to break when DeepFace internals change.

**Recommendation:** Use option 1. Update the native setup and launcher scripts to sync `weights/deepface/*.h5` into `~/.deepface/weights` and stop overriding `DEEPFACE_HOME`.

**Validation:** Confirm the RTSP process starts without downloading `retinaface.h5`, `age_model_weights.h5`, or `gender_model_weights.h5`, and verify the launcher still works after changing only the project root path.