diff --git a/grounded_sam2_local_demo.py b/grounded_sam2_local_demo.py
index 49992541..18b6bf25 100644
--- a/grounded_sam2_local_demo.py
+++ b/grounded_sam2_local_demo.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 TEXT_PROMPT = "car. tire."
 IMG_PATH = "notebooks/images/truck.jpg"
 SAM2_CHECKPOINT = "./checkpoints/sam2.1_hiera_large.pt"
-SAM2_MODEL_CONFIG = "configs/sam2.1/sam2.1_hiera_l.yaml"
+SAM2_MODEL_CONFIG = "./sam2/configs/sam2.1/sam2.1_hiera_l.yaml"
 GROUNDING_DINO_CONFIG = "grounding_dino/groundingdino/config/GroundingDINO_SwinT_OGC.py"
 GROUNDING_DINO_CHECKPOINT = "gdino_checkpoints/groundingdino_swint_ogc.pth"
 BOX_THRESHOLD = 0.35
diff --git a/sam2/build_sam.py b/sam2/build_sam.py
index 7cfc4513..1ff287b0 100644
--- a/sam2/build_sam.py
+++ b/sam2/build_sam.py
@@ -8,10 +8,13 @@
 import os
 
 import torch
-from hydra import compose
+from hydra import compose, initialize_config_dir
 from hydra.utils import instantiate
+from hydra.core.global_hydra import GlobalHydra
 from omegaconf import OmegaConf
 
+from pathlib import Path
+
 import sam2
 
 # Check if the user is running Python from the parent directory of the sam2 repo
@@ -73,27 +76,59 @@ def build_sam2(
     ckpt_path=None,
     device="cuda",
     mode="eval",
-    hydra_overrides_extra=[],
+    hydra_overrides_extra=None,
     apply_postprocessing=True,
+    config_root=".",
     **kwargs,
 ):
+    """
+    Builds SAM 2 model with support for loading config files from any local directory.
+    Compatible with Hydra >= 1.3.2.
+    
+    Args:
+        config_file (str): Name of the Hydra config YAML file (e.g., "config.yaml").
+        ckpt_path (str): Path to the model checkpoint to load.
+        device (str): Device to place the model on ("cuda" or "cpu").
+        mode (str): "eval" or "train" mode for the model.
+        hydra_overrides_extra (list): Additional Hydra override strings.
+        apply_postprocessing (bool): Whether to apply extra SAM-specific config tweaks.
+        config_root (str): Path to the directory containing Hydra config files.
+        **kwargs: Additional unused arguments (for compatibility).
+    
+    Returns:
+        torch.nn.Module: The instantiated and loaded model.
+    """
+
+    hydra_overrides_extra = hydra_overrides_extra.copy() if hydra_overrides_extra else []
 
     if apply_postprocessing:
-        hydra_overrides_extra = hydra_overrides_extra.copy()
         hydra_overrides_extra += [
-            # dynamically fall back to multi-mask if the single mask is not stable
             "++model.sam_mask_decoder_extra_args.dynamic_multimask_via_stability=true",
             "++model.sam_mask_decoder_extra_args.dynamic_multimask_stability_delta=0.05",
             "++model.sam_mask_decoder_extra_args.dynamic_multimask_stability_thresh=0.98",
         ]
-    # Read config and init model
-    cfg = compose(config_name=config_file, overrides=hydra_overrides_extra)
+
+    config_root = str(Path(config_root).resolve())
+
+    try:
+        if GlobalHydra.instance().is_initialized():
+            GlobalHydra.instance().clear()
+
+        with initialize_config_dir(config_dir=config_root, job_name="build_sam2"):
+            cfg = compose(config_name=config_file, overrides=hydra_overrides_extra)
+            logging.info(f"Successfully loaded config: {config_file}")
+    except Exception as e:
+        logging.error(f"Failed to load config '{config_file}' from '{config_root}': {e}")
+        raise
+
     OmegaConf.resolve(cfg)
     model = instantiate(cfg.model, _recursive_=True)
     _load_checkpoint(model, ckpt_path)
     model = model.to(device)
+
     if mode == "eval":
         model.eval()
+
     return model