diff --git a/backend/.gitignore b/backend/.gitignore
index daee955..5124e14 100644
--- a/backend/.gitignore
+++ b/backend/.gitignore
@@ -1,10 +1,24 @@
+# credentials
 .env
-__pycache__/
 .venv
+
+# virtualenv
 venv
+VENV
+ENV
+
+# database
+*.db
+
+# logs
+pandaetl.log
+
+# pycache
+__pycache__/
+
+
+# dirs
 /instance/*
 !/instance/
 uploads/
 processed/
-pandaetl.log
-*.db
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/app/api/v1/user.py b/backend/app/api/v1/user.py
index 4652142..87303dc 100644
--- a/backend/app/api/v1/user.py
+++ b/backend/app/api/v1/user.py
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
-import traceback
 from fastapi import APIRouter, Depends, HTTPException
 from requests import Session
-
 from app.database import get_db
 from app.schemas.user import APIKeyRequest, UpdateAPIKeyRequest, UserUpdateRequest
 from app.repositories import user_repository
diff --git a/backend/app/processing/file_preprocessing.py b/backend/app/processing/file_preprocessing.py
index fce19a0..90957e0 100644
--- a/backend/app/processing/file_preprocessing.py
+++ b/backend/app/processing/file_preprocessing.py
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
-import traceback
 from sqlalchemy.orm.exc import ObjectDeletedError
 from app.models.asset_content import AssetProcessingStatus
 from app.database import SessionLocal
diff --git a/backend/app/repositories/project_repository.py b/backend/app/repositories/project_repository.py
index f2c9bd4..b90d787 100644
--- a/backend/app/repositories/project_repository.py
+++ b/backend/app/repositories/project_repository.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ def get_projects(db: Session, page: int = 1, page_size: int = 20):
             models.Project,
             func.count(models.Asset.id).label("asset_count"),  # Count the assets
         )
-        .filter(models.Project.deleted_at == None)
+        .filter(models.Project.deleted_at is None)
         .outerjoin(models.Asset, models.Project.id == models.Asset.project_id)
         .group_by(models.Project.id)
         .offset((page - 1) * page_size)
diff --git a/backend/app/requests.py b/backend/app/requests.py
index bf3e204..a0f4236 100644
--- a/backend/app/requests.py
+++ b/backend/app/requests.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ def request_api_key(email: str):
         logger.error(
             f"Failed to request API key. It returned {response.status_code} code: {response.text}"
         )
-        raise Exception(f"Failed to request API key")
+        raise Exception("Failed to request API key")
 
     try:
         data = response.json()
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ def highlight_sentences_in_pdf(api_token, sentences, file_path, output_path):
         logger.error(
             f"Unable to process file ${file_path} during highlight sentences in pdf. It returned {response.status_code} code: {response.text}"
         )
-        raise Exception(f"Unable to process file!")
+        raise Exception("Unable to process file!")
 
 
 def extract_file_segmentation(api_token, file_path=None, pdf_content=None):
@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ def get_user_usage_data(api_token: str):
         logger.error(
             f"Failed to fetch usage data. It returned {response.status_code} code: {response.text}"
         )
-        raise Exception(f"Failed to fetch usage data")
+        raise Exception("Failed to fetch usage data")
 
     try:
         return response.json()
diff --git a/backend/app/utils.py b/backend/app/utils.py
index 68f6058..28cab24 100644
--- a/backend/app/utils.py
+++ b/backend/app/utils.py
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ def generate_unique_filename(url, extension=".html"):
     url_hash = hashlib.sha256(url.encode("utf-8")).hexdigest()
     unique_id = uuid.uuid4().hex
     filename = f"{url_hash}_{unique_id}{extension}"
-
     return filename
 
 
@@ -43,9 +42,7 @@ def fetch_html_and_save(url, file_path):
     }
 
     response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
-
     response.raise_for_status()
-
     # Get the content of the response
     with open(file_path, "wb") as file:
         file.write(response.content)