made querying async

app/services/company_querying.py

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import asyncio
 import hashlib
 import logging
 import os
@@ -116,11 +117,18 @@ Return ONLY the SQL query, no explanations or markdown.""",
         """Generate cache key from normalized question."""
         return hashlib.md5(question.lower().strip().encode()).hexdigest()
 
-    def process_query(self, question: str) -> PaginatedResponse[CompanyData]:
-        """Process a query by generating and executing SQL directly.
+    # synchronous helper is provided below as `_process_query_sync` and an
+    # async wrapper `process_query` runs it in a thread. This keeps the
+    # FastAPI event loop non-blocking while reusing the existing sync code.
+    async def process_query(self, question: str) -> PaginatedResponse[CompanyData]:
+        """Async wrapper for process_query. Runs blocking work in a thread to avoid
+        blocking the event loop.
+        """
+        return await asyncio.to_thread(self._process_query_sync, question)
 
-        Args:
-            question: The natural language query to process
+    def _process_query_sync(self, question: str) -> PaginatedResponse[CompanyData]:
+        """Synchronous implementation of process_query. This is run in a thread by
+        the async wrapper above.
         """
         cache_key = self._get_cache_key(question)