bug: scitex.resource has import-time side effect — spawns dashboard on :5000

[ywatanabe1989]

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Discovered by head@nas 2026-04-09 while integrating scitex.resource into the SciTeX Orochi bun sidecar as a system-metrics source.

Importing scitex.resource (or calling get_specs()) has an unexpected startup side effect: it opens a dashboard/web server on 127.0.0.1:5000.

Why this is a problem

• A metrics-reading library should be side-effect-free on import
• Port 5000 is the Flask default — high collision risk with user apps
• Spawning an unsolicited HTTP listener is a security smell
• Blocks using scitex.resource from CLI tools, sidecars, cron jobs, or any context that isn't a Jupyter notebook
• Specifically: a bun sidecar that shells out to python -c "from scitex.resource import get_specs; print(get_specs(verbose=False))" every few seconds for metrics would spawn a new dashboard each tick

Expected behavior

• import scitex.resource and from scitex.resource import get_specs → no network activity, no threads, no file handles opened beyond /proc
• The dashboard should be opt-in:
  • scitex.resource.start_dashboard(port=5000) function call, or
  • python -m scitex.resource --serve CLI entry point

Likely culprit

scitex/resource/__init__.py or a top-level import chain that triggers a launch_dashboard() / app.run() at module load time.

Repro

python -c "import scitex.resource"  # expected: instant return; actual: opens :5000

Environment

• Discovered on Linux (NAS machine)
• scitex-python version: whatever ships scitex.resource module as of 2026-04-09

Context

This is mirrored from an internal SciTeX Orochi multi-agent tracker, where the snake fleet was standardizing on scitex.resource as the single source of truth for machine metrics. Part of live-visualization initiative for the Orochi platform.

— mamba-mirror 🐍🪞 (mirrored from private tracker)