Input	Output
NIfTI channels	Segmentation and optional probabilities

Use with MedMLX

The MedMLX MCP server is the lowest-friction way to use this package. It installs this runtime, downloads published weights on first use (MRSegmentator needs a local weights_path), and lets an AI agent describe, check and run nnunet-liver, nnunet-pancreas, nnunet-brats2021, nnunet-autopet and mrsegmentator for you.

uv tool install --python 3.13 "medmlx[segment,mcp]"
MEDMLX="$(uv tool dir --bin --color never)/medmlx"
mkdir -p "$HOME/medmlx-work"
claude mcp add --scope user medmlx -- "$MEDMLX" serve --root "$HOME/medmlx-work"

For Codex, use codex mcp add medmlx -- "$MEDMLX" serve --root "$HOME/medmlx-work". Other MCP clients take the same command and arguments. The same install provides the medmlx CLI, for example medmlx describe nnunet-liver.

To download the liver model ahead of time:

medmlx setup nnunet-liver

For AI agents: prefer the MedMLX MCP tools (list_models, describe_model, model_readiness, run_model, get_job) over writing Python against this package.

Install

uv venv --python 3.13
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "nnunet-mlx>=0.7.0"

Run

from nnunet_mlx.named_models import liver

result = liver(image_path="ct.nii.gz", output_dir="out")
print(result["outputs"]["mask"])

Omitting weights_path downloads MedMLX/nnunet-liver-mlx into the shared MedMLX cache on first use; interrupted downloads resume and later runs work offline. With MedMLX installed, medmlx setup nnunet-liver downloads it ahead of time. To use your own copy, pass a published bundle folder as weights_path. details.weights_revision records the downloaded commit, or null for a folder without a MedMLX download record.

Supports 2D and 3D PlainConvUNet and ResidualEncoderUNet. Supply input channels in the model’s expected order.

Named models

MedMLX model	Python runner	Inputs	Weights
nnunet-liver	nnunet_mlx.named_models.liver(image_path=...)	CT	MedMLX/nnunet-liver-mlx
nnunet-autopet	nnunet_mlx.named_models.autopet(image_paths=[ct, pet])	Co-registered CT and SUV PET, in that order	MedMLX/nnunet-autopet-mlx
nnunet-pancreas	nnunet_mlx.named_models.pancreas(image_path=...)	CT	MedMLX/nnunet-pancreas-mlx
nnunet-brats2021	nnunet_mlx.named_models.brats(t1_path=..., t1ce_path=..., t2_path=..., flair_path=...)	Four co-registered MRI	MedMLX/nnunet-brats-mlx
mrsegmentator	nnunet_mlx.named_models.mrsegmentator(image_path=..., weights_path=...)	MRI	Local weights_path only

All runners take output_dir, weights_path and overwrite, and return the label map as outputs["mask"]. Pancreas labels are background 0, pancreas 1 and cancer 2. BraTS keeps the original BAMF labels: background 0, edema 1, non-enhancing 2, empty 3 and enhancing 4. AutoPET and BraTS average their five released folds, as upstream does; brats(fold=...) selects one. Liver ships one fold and pancreas one fold_all model. MRSegmentator averages all five folds; fast=True uses fold 0 and fold= selects one. It runs without mirroring and with torch-order-fp32 arithmetic.

Model folders

nnunet_mlx.medmlx.run runs any native MLX model folder within the supported configurations below. Keep the complete folder layout:

mlx-model/
├── plans.json
├── dataset.json
├── conversion.json  # optional export metadata; not read by inference
└── fold_0/
    └── checkpoint_final/
        ├── state.json
        └── weights.safetensors

Argument	Default	Meaning
weights_path	required	Model folder root
image_paths	required	.nii or .nii.gz images, one per modality in dataset.json channel order
output_dir	required	Output directory; created if missing
overwrite	False	Replace existing outputs instead of refusing
configuration	3d_fullres	Plans configuration
folds	every numeric fold	Integers to ensemble, or ["all"] for fold_all
checkpoint_name	checkpoint_final	Checkpoint directory in each fold
source_profile	nnunet-v2.8.1-default	Compatibility profile, see below
arithmetic	native	Or torch-order-fp32, for the profiles that require it
step_fraction	0.5	Sliding-window step, in (0, 1]
use_mirroring	True	Use the checkpoint's mirroring test-time augmentation
save_probabilities	False	Also write class or region probabilities

Outputs, returned as absolute paths in {"outputs": {...}, "details": {...}}:

Role	File	Content
mask	mask.nii.gz (mask.nii when dataset.json says so)	Label map with the input image's shape and geometry
probabilities	probabilities.npz	Channel-first class or region probabilities (save_probabilities only)
probability_properties	probabilities.pkl	nnU-Net properties for the probability grid (save_probabilities only)

Probabilities stay on the image reader's array grid; read them with their properties sidecar. As in nnU-Net, requesting probabilities makes class models take the argmax after float32 softmax rather than of the logits, so near ties can segment differently. details holds the dataset.json label table, output_kind (binary_mask or label_map), the selected options, checkpoint signatures and timings. The runner does not expose cascade stages; use the CLI's --previous-stage.

Errors are medmlx-core types, each chaining the package's ContractError: InvalidInputError for bad images, options or existing outputs; AssetNotReadyError for a missing, malformed or mismatched model folder; MissingDependencyError when MLX 0.32.4 or a Metal device is unavailable; and ModelExecutionError when reading, predicting or writing the case fails, including a channel-count mismatch.

Command line

Download the published liver model with hf, included by the runtime's medmlx-core dependency, then predict:

hf download MedMLX/nnunet-liver-mlx \
  --revision 574a9c601b9b1a9e906ce985fbd46b106c5b7caa \
  --local-dir mlx-model

nnunet-mlx model predict \
  --model-folder mlx-model \
  --input case_0000.nii.gz \
  --output-prefix predictions/case

Published MLX bundles already contain the converted weights. The model cards describe each bundle's files and terms. The generic CLI defaults to --configuration 3d_fullres and --source-profile nnunet-v2.8.1-default. For another bundle, use its documented plans configuration and compatibility profile. conversion.json is optional export metadata; inference does not require or read it.

Pass one --input per modality in channel order. Without --fold, every numeric fold with the checkpoint is ensembled; --fold all selects fold_all. --previous-stage supplies a cascade's previous-stage segmentation. Every command takes --help, and --json prints machine-readable results.

• nnunet-mlx model predict-folder predicts a dataset folder. --continue-existing skips cases with matching completion receipts and replaces stale ones; it cannot be combined with --overwrite. Receipts compare file size and modification time.
• nnunet-mlx model ensemble averages saved probabilities from several folders, in --input-folder order, and decodes the labels, as nnU-Net's folder ensemble does. Save predictions with --save-probabilities first, and pass --plans-json and --dataset-json from the model folder. Every folder must hold the same .npz cases, each with its .pkl sidecar, on the same grid.
• nnunet-mlx model apply-postprocessing applies a released model's postprocessing.pkl to exported segmentations, as nnUNetv2_apply_postprocessing does. Prediction never applies it automatically.

Supported configurations

Area	Supported
Platform	macOS arm64 with MLX on Metal, float32, one GPU per run
Networks	2D and 3D PlainConvUNet; residual BasicBlockD and BottleneckD encoders with up to 32 outputs in 3D and 26 in 2D
Configurations	2d, 3d_lowres, 3d_fullres and cascades
Inference	Gaussian sliding window, mirroring, fold and configuration ensembles, probability export
Plans	nnU-Net v2.8.1 plans.json and dataset.json, class and region heads

There is no PyTorch, CPU or other fallback: unsupported architectures, plan fields, checkpoints and inputs fail with an error. dataset.json must define channel_names. Labels must be consecutive non-negative integers or ASCII decimal strings; boolean, fractional, padded and Unicode values are rejected even where upstream's int() accepts them. The MedMLX runners and the CLI's predict and predict-folder compute the same thing: uncompiled models, with sliding windows and folds accumulated in float16 as nnU-Net v2.8.1 does. ModelFolderPredictor used directly accumulates in float32 and compiles only where that reproduces uncompiled results exactly: PlainConvUNet with up to 3 outputs, and the normalization and final upsampling of 3D residual BasicBlockD models with up to 27 outputs.

--arithmetic torch-order-fp32 (arithmetic="torch-order-fp32") still runs entirely in MLX on Metal. It selects local kernels that sum float32 values in the pinned PyTorch CPU order, which some released models need to reproduce their reference labels exactly. It disables compilation and is accepted only by the profiles that list it.

Compatibility profiles

Models trained with the default nnUNetTrainer use the default profile. A named profile binds the exact dataset, trainer and configuration of a released model from another trainer; select it with --source-profile or source_profile=. Loading checks each checkpoint's trainer, configuration and plans against the selected profile. Profiles cover inference only, not training or segmentation quality.

Profile	Architecture	Configuration	Notes
nnunet-v2.8.1-default ✓	PlainConvUNet, residual BasicBlockD and BottleneckD	any	nnUNetTrainer only
prostate158-2d-100epochs ✓	Residual BasicBlockD	2d	Prostate158; up to 3 outputs
chronoroot2-arabidopsis-2000epochs ✓	Residual BasicBlockD	2d	ChronoRoot2 plant roots; 7 outputs
cads-oar258-open ✓	Residual BasicBlockD	3d_fullres	CADS OAR258; 30 outputs; fold all, no mirroring
smile-abdomenatlasf-2d ✓	Residual BasicBlockD	2d	SMILE AbdomenAtlas; 26 outputs; torch-order-fp32, fold all
totalsegmentator-v2-ct ✓	PlainConvUNet	3d_fullres	TotalSegmentator v2 Dataset291–295, 297, 298 and the Dataset300 body model; torch-order-fp32
mrsegmentator-1.2-base	PlainConvUNet	3d_fullres_bs8	MRSegmentator 1.2; torch-order-fp32
lion-fdg-1.0.4	As released	3d_fullres	LION FDG tumor model (nnUNetTrainerDA5)
lesiontracer-autopet3-2024	Residual BasicBlockD, organ-head variant	3d_fullres_bs3	LesionTracer autoPET III; auxiliary organ heads are excluded at conversion
prostate-mrl-no-mirroring	As released	3d_fullres	Prostate MR-Linac (nnUNetTrainerNoMirroring)

✓ marks profiles whose model inference has been compared with the upstream reference on Metal for a limited set of cases. The others are accepted and run within the limits above, without a published full-model comparison. The original TotalSegmentator v2.0.0-weights plans use older architecture fields; for this profile's identities the architecture is reconstructed in memory with the pinned nnU-Net defaults, and the plans files are unchanged.

Python API

The names exported from nnunet_mlx are the supported Python API:

from nnunet_mlx import ModelFolderPredictor, load_model_bundle

bundle = load_model_bundle("mlx-model", configuration="3d_fullres")
predictor = ModelFolderPredictor(bundle)
result = predictor.predict_case(
    ["case_0000.nii.gz"], "predictions/case", save_probabilities=False, overwrite=False,
)
print(result.metrics)  # synchronized timings, tile counts and processed shapes

read_conversion_manifest optionally validates conversion.json and its payload files for inspection; inference does not call it. Unsupported inputs raise ContractError. Other modules are internal and may change between releases.

Untrusted files

Inference loads safetensors weights, never PyTorch .pth checkpoints. nnU-Net's .pkl sidecars (case properties and probability metadata) are read by a restricted loader that accepts plain Python containers and non-object NumPy metadata up to 64 MiB, and rejects executable globals, extension and persistent-ID opcodes, object arrays, recursion and trailing data. A released postprocessing.pkl may hold one payload up to 1 MiB naming the one supported upstream postprocessing function. These checks cover structure, not provenance: use model folders and .npz/.pkl pairs only from producers you trust. Report vulnerabilities through the MedMLX private reporting form, not a public issue.

License

Apache-2.0. See third-party notices. Model weights retain their publisher terms.

For research and education. Outputs require human review.