What Spaces Actually Are

A Space is a Git repo that runs an app

Behind the URL huggingface.co/spaces/{org}/{name} is a Git-backed repository with one file that matters: a manifest declaring the SDK (gradio, streamlit, docker, or static). Push to the repo, and HF builds and runs the app on managed hardware. Free CPU tier; paid GPU tiers up to A100 / H100.

Three SDK families

Gradio — component-first Python UI. Easiest path for ML demos. Auto-generates an inputs/outputs UI from a Python function signature.
Streamlit — script-first Python UI. Better for dashboards and richer state. Slightly more code than Gradio for the same demo.
Docker — arbitrary container. Anything you can put in a Dockerfile. Required for non-Python apps, custom Nginx, custom GPU drivers, FastAPI servers.
Static — HTML / CSS / JS hosted, no runtime. Good for documentation, landing pages, model showcases.

What Spaces are not

Not a general PaaS. Not a database backend (no persistent disk on free tier; persistent storage on paid tiers is limited). Not a long-running task queue. Spaces is for "one app, often a model demo, served from the Hub" — great for that, weak for everything else.

Code

Minimum Space manifest (README.md front-matter)·yaml

---
title: My HF Demo
emoji: 🤗
colorFrom: blue
colorTo: green
sdk: gradio
sdk_version: 4.44.0
app_file: app.py
pinned: false
license: apache-2.0
---

# My HF Demo

The README body is rendered above the running app on the Space page.

Create a Space programmatically·python

from huggingface_hub import HfApi

api = HfApi()
api.create_repo(
    repo_id="yourname/my-demo",
    repo_type="space",
    space_sdk="gradio",
    private=True,
)
api.upload_file(
    path_or_fileobj="app.py",
    path_in_repo="app.py",
    repo_id="yourname/my-demo",
    repo_type="space",
)

A Space is a Git repo that runs an app

Three SDK families

What Spaces are not

Code

External links

Exercise

Progress

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