Add global MONAI_LABEL_SKIP_SAM flag to skip SAM model loading

monailabel/config.py

@@ -120,6 +120,11 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
         strtobool(os.environ.get("MONAI_LABEL_USE_ITK_FOR_DICOM_SEG", "True"))
     )
 
+    # Skip SAM/SAM2 model download and initialization at server/app startup.
+    # Useful when running apps with their own interactive models (e.g. DeepEdit)
+    # where the generic SAM overhead (VRAM + startup latency) is not wanted.
+    MONAI_LABEL_SKIP_SAM: bool = bool(strtobool(os.environ.get("MONAI_LABEL_SKIP_SAM", "False")))
+
     model_config = SettingsConfigDict(
         env_file=".env",
         case_sensitive=True,

monailabel/sam2/utils.py

@@ -1,7 +1,13 @@
 from monai.utils import optional_import
 
+from monailabel.config import settings
+
 
 def is_sam2_module_available():
+    # Global opt-out: skip SAM entirely (no download, no init) when set,
+    # e.g. MONAI_LABEL_SKIP_SAM=True, instead of per-app `-c sam2 false`.
+    if settings.MONAI_LABEL_SKIP_SAM:
+        return False
     try:
         _, flag = optional_import("sam2")
         return flag