From aaf7410291603f479635eb618a64aff7c533f488 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Brad Hilton <brad.hilton.nw@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2026 15:22:39 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Defer Tinker backend imports for inference clients

(cherry picked from commit 51d071b1c502258fc2bbdbd3d33ee06db5374511)
---
 src/art/tinker/__init__.py                | 27 ++++++++--
 tests/unit/test_tinker_import_boundary.py | 66 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 89 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 tests/unit/test_tinker_import_boundary.py

diff --git a/src/art/tinker/__init__.py b/src/art/tinker/__init__.py
index b706cd4f5..a74a3d9a8 100644
--- a/src/art/tinker/__init__.py
+++ b/src/art/tinker/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,24 @@
-from .backend import TinkerBackend
-from .renderers import get_renderer_name
-from .server import OpenAICompatibleTinkerServer
+"""Tinker integrations; importing the inference client needs no training extras."""
 
-__all__ = ["TinkerBackend", "get_renderer_name", "OpenAICompatibleTinkerServer"]
+from importlib import import_module
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from .backend import TinkerBackend
+    from .renderers import get_renderer_name
+    from .server import OpenAICompatibleTinkerServer
+
+_EXPORTS = {
+    "TinkerBackend": ".backend",
+    "get_renderer_name": ".renderers",
+    "OpenAICompatibleTinkerServer": ".server",
+}
+__all__ = list(_EXPORTS)
+
+
+def __getattr__(name: str) -> Any:
+    if name not in _EXPORTS:
+        raise AttributeError(f"module {__name__!r} has no attribute {name!r}")
+    value = getattr(import_module(_EXPORTS[name], __name__), name)
+    globals()[name] = value
+    return value
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_tinker_import_boundary.py b/tests/unit/test_tinker_import_boundary.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5d3940ab4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/test_tinker_import_boundary.py
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+"""Exercise the package initializer without importing optional training extras."""
+
+import builtins
+from importlib.util import module_from_spec, spec_from_file_location
+from pathlib import Path
+import sys
+from types import SimpleNamespace
+import unittest
+from unittest.mock import Mock, patch
+
+
+class TinkerImportBoundaryTests(unittest.TestCase):
+    def load_package(self):
+        path = Path(__file__).parents[2] / "src/art/tinker/__init__.py"
+        spec = spec_from_file_location("_tested_tinker", path)
+        assert spec is not None and spec.loader is not None
+        module = module_from_spec(spec)
+        original_import = builtins.__import__
+
+        def import_without_training(name, *args, **kwargs):
+            level = args[3] if len(args) > 3 else kwargs.get("level", 0)
+            if level or name.split(".")[0] not in sys.stdlib_module_names:
+                raise AssertionError(f"Eager optional dependency: {name}")
+            return original_import(name, *args, **kwargs)
+
+        with patch("builtins.__import__", side_effect=import_without_training):
+            spec.loader.exec_module(module)
+        return module
+
+    def test_import_does_not_load_training_exports(self):
+        package = self.load_package()
+        self.assertEqual(
+            package.__all__,
+            ["TinkerBackend", "get_renderer_name", "OpenAICompatibleTinkerServer"],
+        )
+        self.assertFalse(set(package.__all__) & package.__dict__.keys())
+
+    def test_exports_resolve_original_objects_once_on_demand(self):
+        package = self.load_package()
+        objects = {name: object() for name in package.__all__}
+        package.import_module = Mock(return_value=SimpleNamespace(**objects))
+        for name, target in zip(package.__all__, (".backend", ".renderers", ".server")):
+            self.assertIs(getattr(package, name), objects[name])
+            self.assertIs(getattr(package, name), objects[name])
+            package.import_module.assert_called_once_with(target, "_tested_tinker")
+            package.import_module.reset_mock()
+
+    def test_unknown_attribute_does_not_load_dependencies(self):
+        package = self.load_package()
+        package.import_module = Mock()
+        with self.assertRaises(AttributeError):
+            getattr(package, "missing")
+        package.import_module.assert_not_called()
+
+    def test_requested_export_preserves_missing_dependency_error(self):
+        package = self.load_package()
+        error = ModuleNotFoundError("missing training dependency", name="mp_actors")
+        package.import_module = Mock(side_effect=error)
+        with self.assertRaises(ModuleNotFoundError) as raised:
+            getattr(package, "TinkerBackend")
+        self.assertIs(raised.exception, error)
+        self.assertNotIn("TinkerBackend", package.__dict__)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()