fix: make Workspace importable in slim mode

Move all heavy imports in workspace.py (Project, folderparser, PIL,
active_learning_utils, image_utils, model_processor, two_stage_utils)
to lazy imports inside the methods that use them. Workspace now imports
cleanly without PIL/opencv, so vision events, search, folders, and
workflows all work in slim installs.

Update test mock paths to match the new import locations.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: rvirani1

roboflow/__init__.py

@@ -10,15 +10,14 @@
 
 from roboflow.adapters import rfapi
 from roboflow.config import API_URL, APP_URL, DEMO_KEYS, load_roboflow_api_key
+from roboflow.core.workspace import Workspace
 from roboflow.util.general import write_line
 
 try:
     from roboflow.core.project import Project
-    from roboflow.core.workspace import Workspace
     from roboflow.models import CLIPModel, GazeModel  # noqa: F401
 except ImportError:
     Project = None  # type: ignore[assignment,misc]
-    Workspace = None  # type: ignore[assignment,misc]
     CLIPModel = None  # type: ignore[assignment,misc]
     GazeModel = None  # type: ignore[assignment,misc]
 
@@ -233,11 +232,6 @@ def auth(self):
             return self
 
     def workspace(self, the_workspace=None):
-        if Workspace is None:
-            raise ImportError(
-                "Workspace requires additional dependencies. Install the full package: pip install roboflow"
-            )
-
         sys.stdout.write("\r" + "loading Roboflow workspace...")
         sys.stdout.write("\n")
         sys.stdout.flush()

roboflow/core/workspace.py

@@ -14,15 +14,7 @@
 
 from roboflow.adapters import rfapi, vision_events_api
 from roboflow.adapters.rfapi import AnnotationSaveError, ImageUploadError, RoboflowError
-from roboflow.config import API_URL, APP_URL, CLIP_FEATURIZE_URL, DEMO_KEYS
-from roboflow.core.project import Project
-from roboflow.util import folderparser
-from roboflow.util.active_learning_utils import check_box_size, clip_encode, count_comparisons
-from roboflow.util.general import extract_zip as _extract_zip
-from roboflow.util.image_utils import load_labelmap
-from roboflow.util.model_processor import process
-from roboflow.util.two_stage_utils import ocr_infer
-from roboflow.util.versions import normalize_yolo_model_type
+from roboflow.config import API_URL, APP_URL, DEMO_KEYS
 
 
 class Workspace:
@@ -63,6 +55,8 @@ def projects(self):
         Returns:
             List of Project objects.
         """
+        from roboflow.core.project import Project
+
         projects_array = []
         for a_project in self.project_list:
             proj = Project(self.__api_key, a_project, self.model_format)
@@ -82,6 +76,8 @@ def project(self, project_id):
         Returns:
             Project Object
         """
+        from roboflow.core.project import Project
+
         sys.stdout.write("\r" + "loading Roboflow project...")
         sys.stdout.write("\n")
         sys.stdout.flush()
@@ -112,6 +108,8 @@ def create_project(self, project_name, project_type, project_license, annotation
         Returns:
             Project Object
         """  # noqa: E501 // docs
+        from roboflow.core.project import Project
+
         data = {
             "name": project_name,
             "type": project_type,
@@ -142,6 +140,9 @@ def clip_compare(self, dir: str = "", image_ext: str = ".png", target_image: str
             dict: a key:value mapping of image_name:comparison_score_to_target
         """  # noqa: E501 // docs
 
+        from roboflow.config import CLIP_FEATURIZE_URL
+        from roboflow.util.active_learning_utils import clip_encode
+
         # list to store comparison results in
         comparisons = []
         # grab all images in a given directory with ext type
@@ -248,6 +249,8 @@ def two_stage_ocr(
         """  # noqa: E501 // docs
         from PIL import Image
 
+        from roboflow.util.two_stage_utils import ocr_infer
+
         results = []
 
         # create PIL image for cropping
@@ -310,6 +313,9 @@ def upload_dataset(
             num_retries (int, optional): number of times to retry uploading an image if the upload fails. Defaults to 0.
             is_prediction (bool, optional): whether the annotations provided in the dataset are predictions and not ground truth. Defaults to False.
         """  # noqa: E501 // docs
+        from roboflow.util import folderparser
+        from roboflow.util.image_utils import load_labelmap
+
         if dataset_format != "NOT_USED":
             print("Warning: parameter 'dataset_format' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release")
         project, created = self._get_or_create_project(
@@ -463,6 +469,9 @@ def active_learning(
             use_localhost: (bool) = determines if local http format used or remote endpoint
             local_server: (str) = local http address for inference server, use_localhost must be True for this to be used
         """  # noqa: E501 // docs
+        from roboflow.config import CLIP_FEATURIZE_URL
+        from roboflow.util.active_learning_utils import check_box_size, clip_encode, count_comparisons
+
         if inference_endpoint is None:
             inference_endpoint = []
         if conditionals is None:
@@ -611,6 +620,9 @@ def deploy_model(
             filename (str, optional): The name of the weights file. Defaults to "weights/best.pt".
         """
 
+        from roboflow.util.model_processor import process
+        from roboflow.util.versions import normalize_yolo_model_type
+
         if not project_ids:
             raise ValueError("At least one project ID must be provided")
 
@@ -805,6 +817,8 @@ def search_export(
             ValueError: If both *dataset* and *annotation_group* are provided.
             RoboflowError: On API errors or export timeout.
         """
+        from roboflow.util.general import extract_zip as _extract_zip
+
         if dataset is not None and annotation_group is not None:
             raise ValueError("dataset and annotation_group are mutually exclusive; provide only one")
 

tests/test_project.py

@@ -61,15 +61,15 @@ def _setup_upload_dataset_mocks(
 
         # Create the mock objects
         mocks = {
-            "parser": patch("roboflow.core.workspace.folderparser.parsefolder", return_value=test_dataset),
-            "upload": patch("roboflow.core.workspace.Project.upload_image", side_effect=upload_image_side_effect)
+            "parser": patch("roboflow.util.folderparser.parsefolder", return_value=test_dataset),
+            "upload": patch("roboflow.core.project.Project.upload_image", side_effect=upload_image_side_effect)
             if upload_image_side_effect
-            else patch("roboflow.core.workspace.Project.upload_image", return_value=image_return),
+            else patch("roboflow.core.project.Project.upload_image", return_value=image_return),
             "save_annotation": patch(
-                "roboflow.core.workspace.Project.save_annotation", side_effect=save_annotation_side_effect
+                "roboflow.core.project.Project.save_annotation", side_effect=save_annotation_side_effect
             )
             if save_annotation_side_effect
-            else patch("roboflow.core.workspace.Project.save_annotation", return_value=annotation_return),
+            else patch("roboflow.core.project.Project.save_annotation", return_value=annotation_return),
             "get_project": patch(
                 "roboflow.core.workspace.Workspace._get_or_create_project", return_value=(self.project, project_created)
             ),
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ def test_project_upload_dataset(self):
                 "extra_mocks": [
                     (
                         "load_labelmap",
-                        "roboflow.core.workspace.load_labelmap",
+                        "roboflow.util.image_utils.load_labelmap",
                         {"return_value": {"old_label": "new_label"}},
                     )
                 ],
@@ -650,13 +650,13 @@ def capture_annotation_calls(annotation_path, **kwargs):
             return ({"success": True}, 0.1, 0)
 
         mocks = {
-            "parser": patch("roboflow.core.workspace.folderparser.parsefolder", return_value=parsed_dataset),
+            "parser": patch("roboflow.util.folderparser.parsefolder", return_value=parsed_dataset),
             "upload": patch(
-                "roboflow.core.workspace.Project.upload_image",
+                "roboflow.core.project.Project.upload_image",
                 return_value=({"id": "test-id", "success": True}, 0.1, 0),
             ),
             "save_annotation": patch(
-                "roboflow.core.workspace.Project.save_annotation", side_effect=capture_annotation_calls
+                "roboflow.core.project.Project.save_annotation", side_effect=capture_annotation_calls
             ),
             "get_project": patch(
                 "roboflow.core.workspace.Workspace._get_or_create_project", return_value=(self.project, False)
@@ -737,13 +737,13 @@ def capture_annotation_calls(annotation_path, **kwargs):
             return ({"success": True}, 0.1, 0)
 
         mocks = {
-            "parser": patch("roboflow.core.workspace.folderparser.parsefolder", return_value=parsed_dataset),
+            "parser": patch("roboflow.util.folderparser.parsefolder", return_value=parsed_dataset),
             "upload": patch(
-                "roboflow.core.workspace.Project.upload_image",
+                "roboflow.core.project.Project.upload_image",
                 return_value=({"id": "test-id", "success": True}, 0.1, 0),
             ),
             "save_annotation": patch(
-                "roboflow.core.workspace.Project.save_annotation", side_effect=capture_annotation_calls
+                "roboflow.core.project.Project.save_annotation", side_effect=capture_annotation_calls
             ),
             "get_project": patch(
                 "roboflow.core.workspace.Workspace._get_or_create_project", return_value=(self.project, False)

tests/test_slim_compat.py

@@ -51,31 +51,18 @@ class TestSlimGracefulDegradation(unittest.TestCase):
     In a full install they verify the guard exists but doesn't fire.
     """
 
-    def test_workspace_and_project_attributes_exist(self):
-        """Workspace and Project are either real classes or None sentinels."""
+    def test_workspace_always_available(self):
+        """Workspace imports cleanly even in slim mode."""
         import roboflow
 
-        # In full install these are classes; in slim they're None
-        ws = roboflow.Workspace
-        proj = roboflow.Project
-        self.assertTrue(ws is None or callable(ws))
-        self.assertTrue(proj is None or callable(proj))
+        self.assertIsNotNone(roboflow.Workspace)
+        self.assertTrue(callable(roboflow.Workspace))
 
-    def test_roboflow_workspace_guard(self):
-        """If Workspace is None (slim), calling workspace() raises ImportError."""
+    def test_project_guarded(self):
+        """Project is either a real class (full) or None (slim)."""
         import roboflow
 
-        if roboflow.Workspace is not None:
-            self.skipTest("Full install, Workspace is available")
-
-        rf = roboflow.Roboflow.__new__(roboflow.Roboflow)
-        rf.api_key = "test"
-        rf.current_workspace = "test"
-        rf.model_format = "yolov8"
-
-        with self.assertRaises(ImportError) as ctx:
-            rf.workspace()
-        self.assertIn("pip install roboflow", str(ctx.exception))
+        self.assertTrue(roboflow.Project is None or callable(roboflow.Project))
 
     def test_roboflow_project_guard(self):
         """If Project is None (slim), calling project() raises ImportError."""

tests/test_vision_events.py

@@ -18,10 +18,7 @@ class TestVisionEvents(unittest.TestCase):
     WORKSPACE = "test-ws"
 
     def _make_workspace(self):
-        try:
-            from roboflow.core.workspace import Workspace
-        except ImportError:
-            self.skipTest("Workspace requires PIL (not available in slim install)")
+        from roboflow.core.workspace import Workspace
 
         info = {
             "workspace": {