Authentication context isn’t automatically available in Apps. Notebooks automatically inject workspace host and token for mlflow when you use mlflow.set_tracking_uri("databricks") and mlflow.set_registry_uri("databricks-uc"). In Databricks Apps, you typically must supply credentials explicitly via environment variables (for example, DATABRICKS_HOST and DATABRICKS_TOKEN) or by using a Databricks CLI profile in the URIs (for example, databricks-uc://<profile>).
The app runs under an app service principal or (if configured) on-behalf-of the user. That identity must have UC privileges on the model’s catalog/schema (USE CATALOG, USE SCHEMA) and read access to the registered model to download artifacts through MLflow APIs.
put your mlflow.pyfunc.load_model(...) in try/except and display exceptions with st.exception(e) to diagnose the root cause instead of failing silently.