How to get list of image paths into dali pipeline?

[Skier23]

I'm looking to do something like this:

@pipeline_def(batch_size=1, num_threads=4, device_id=0)
def custom_pipeline():
    # Triton will provide the input through "DALI_INPUT_0"
    # Here, we expect image paths
    image_paths = fn.external_source(device="cpu", name="DALI_INPUT_0")
    # Load and decode the images
    images = fn.readers.file(file_root="", files=image_paths, device="cpu")
    images = fn.decoders.image(images, device="mixed", output_type=types.RGB)
    # Resize to 384x384 using bicubic interpolation
    images = fn.resize(images, resize_x=384, resize_y=384, interp_type=types.INTERP_CUBIC)
    # Normalize
    images = fn.crop_mirror_normalize(
        images,
        dtype=types.FLOAT,
        mean=[0.485 * 255, 0.456 * 255, 0.406 * 255],
        std=[0.229 * 255, 0.224 * 255, 0.225 * 255],
        output_layout="CHW")
    return images

However, this code has an error: The argument files for operator File should not be a DataNode but a str or list of str

This seems to be because fn.readers.file doesn't support a DataNode which is returned by external_source. So in this case, how would I get the underlying list of strings that external_source contains to fn.readers.file so it can read in all those images?