avoid auth_request for internal calls

Hi,

I have a docker-compose based system, with nginx as the application gateway.
I am also using the auth_request for the authentication mechanism.
Nginx is also used for direct files access using the "alias" with the mounted volume path.

My problem is: some of my internal services also require direct files access, but I do not want them to require the authentication...
How can I add some sort of rules or conditions in my nginx config which bypasses the auth_request based on whether the source of the request is from the docker-compose services domain vs. from the outside?
I have been looking around but failed to find a solution for this.

Any way to do this?

Thank you very much!!
Gil