---
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2025-2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
title: "TensorRT-LLM Multimodal"
---

This document provides a comprehensive guide for multimodal inference using TensorRT-LLM backend in Dynamo.

You can provide multimodal inputs in the following ways:
- By sending image URLs
- By providing paths to pre-computed embedding files

> **Note:** You should provide **either image URLs or embedding file paths** in a single request.

## Support Matrix

| Modality | Input Format | Aggregated | Disaggregated | Notes |
|----------|--------------|------------|---------------|-------|
| **Image** | HTTP/HTTPS URL | Yes | Yes | Full support for all image models |
| **Image** | Pre-computed Embeddings (.pt, .pth, .bin) | Yes | Yes | Direct embedding files |
| **Video** | HTTP/HTTPS URL | No | No | Not implemented |
| **Audio** | HTTP/HTTPS URL | No | No | Not implemented |

### Supported URL Formats

| Format | Example | Description |
|--------|---------|-------------|
| **HTTP/HTTPS** | `http://example.com/image.jpg` | Remote media files |
| **Pre-computed Embeddings** | `/path/to/embedding.pt` | Local embedding files (.pt, .pth, .bin) |

## Deployment Patterns

TRT-LLM supports aggregated and traditional disaggregated patterns. See [Architecture Patterns](index.md#architecture-patterns) for detailed explanations.

| Pattern | Supported | Launch Script | Notes |
|---------|-----------|---------------|-------|
| EPD (Simple Aggregated) | ✅ | `agg.sh` | Easiest setup |
| E/PD (Encode Separate) | ❌ | N/A | Not supported |
| E/P/D (Full Disaggregation) | 🚧 WIP | N/A | PR #4668 in progress |
| EP/D (Traditional Disaggregated) | ✅ | `disagg_multimodal.sh` | Prefill handles encoding |

### Component Flags

| Component | Flag | Purpose |
|-----------|------|---------|
| Worker | `--modality multimodal` | Complete pipeline (aggregated) |
| Prefill Worker | `--disaggregation-mode prefill` | Image processing + Prefill (multimodal tokenization happens here) |
| Decode Worker | `--disaggregation-mode decode` | Decode only |
| Encode Worker (WIP) | `--disaggregation-mode encode` | Image encoding (E/P/D flow) |

## Aggregated Serving

Quick steps to launch Llama-4 Maverick BF16 in aggregated mode:

```bash
cd $DYNAMO_HOME

export AGG_ENGINE_ARGS=./examples/backends/trtllm/engine_configs/llama4/multimodal/agg.yaml
export SERVED_MODEL_NAME="meta-llama/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct"
export MODEL_PATH="meta-llama/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct"
./examples/backends/trtllm/launch/agg.sh
```

**Client:**
```bash
curl localhost:8000/v1/chat/completions -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
    "model": "meta-llama/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct",
    "messages": [
        {
            "role": "user",
            "content": [
                {
                    "type": "text",
                    "text": "Describe the image"
                },
                {
                    "type": "image_url",
                    "image_url": {
                        "url": "https://huggingface.co/datasets/huggingface/documentation-images/resolve/main/diffusers/inpaint.png"
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "stream": false,
    "max_tokens": 160
}'
```

## Disaggregated Serving

Example using `Qwen/Qwen2-VL-7B-Instruct`:

```bash
cd $DYNAMO_HOME

export MODEL_PATH="Qwen/Qwen2-VL-7B-Instruct"
export SERVED_MODEL_NAME="Qwen/Qwen2-VL-7B-Instruct"
export PREFILL_ENGINE_ARGS="examples/backends/trtllm/engine_configs/qwen2-vl-7b-instruct/prefill.yaml"
export DECODE_ENGINE_ARGS="examples/backends/trtllm/engine_configs/qwen2-vl-7b-instruct/decode.yaml"
export MODALITY="multimodal"

./examples/backends/trtllm/launch/disagg.sh
```

```bash
curl localhost:8000/v1/chat/completions -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
    "model": "Qwen/Qwen2-VL-7B-Instruct",
    "messages": [
        {
            "role": "user",
            "content": [
                {
                    "type": "text",
                    "text": "Describe the image"
                },
                {
                    "type": "image_url",
                    "image_url": {
                        "url": "https://huggingface.co/datasets/huggingface/documentation-images/resolve/main/diffusers/inpaint.png"
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "stream": false,
    "max_tokens": 160
}'
```

For a large model like `meta-llama/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct`, a multi-node setup is required for disaggregated serving (see [Multi-node Deployment](#multi-node-deployment-slurm) below), while aggregated serving can run on a single node. This is because the model with a disaggregated configuration is too large to fit on a single node's GPUs. For instance, running this model in disaggregated mode requires 2 nodes with 8xH200 GPUs or 4 nodes with 4xGB200 GPUs.

## Pre-computed Embeddings with E/P/D Flow

For high-performance multimodal inference, Dynamo supports pre-computed embeddings with an **Encode-Prefill-Decode (E/P/D)** flow using **NIXL (RDMA)** for zero-copy tensor transfer.

### Supported File Types

- `.pt` - PyTorch tensor files
- `.pth` - PyTorch checkpoint files
- `.bin` - Binary tensor files

### Embedding File Formats

TRT-LLM supports two formats for embedding files:

**1. Simple Tensor Format**

Direct tensor saved as `.pt` file containing only the embedding tensor:

```python
embedding_tensor = torch.rand(1, 576, 4096)  # [batch, seq_len, hidden_dim]
torch.save(embedding_tensor, "embedding.pt")
```

**2. Dictionary Format with Auxiliary Data**

Dictionary containing multiple keys, used by models like Llama-4 that require additional metadata:

```python
embedding_dict = {
    "mm_embeddings": torch.rand(1, 576, 4096),
    "special_tokens": [128256, 128257],
    "image_token_offsets": [[0, 576]],
    # ... other model-specific metadata
}
torch.save(embedding_dict, "llama4_embedding.pt")
```

- **Simple tensors**: Loaded directly and passed to `mm_embeddings` parameter
- **Dictionary format**: `mm_embeddings` key extracted as main tensor, other keys preserved as auxiliary data

### How to Launch

```bash
cd $DYNAMO_HOME/examples/backends/trtllm

# Launch 3-worker E/P/D flow with NIXL
./launch/epd_disagg.sh
```

> **Note:** This script is designed for 8-node H200 with `Llama-4-Scout-17B-16E-Instruct` model and assumes you have a model-specific embedding file ready.

### Configuration

```bash
# Encode endpoint for Prefill → Encode communication
export ENCODE_ENDPOINT="dyn://dynamo.tensorrt_llm_encode.generate"

# Security: Allowed directory for embedding files (default: /tmp)
export ALLOWED_LOCAL_MEDIA_PATH="/tmp"

# Security: Max file size to prevent DoS attacks (default: 50MB)
export MAX_FILE_SIZE_MB=50
```

### Example Request with Pre-computed Embeddings

```bash
curl localhost:8000/v1/chat/completions -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
    "model": "meta-llama/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct",
    "messages": [
        {
            "role": "user",
            "content": [
                {"type": "text", "text": "Describe the image"},
                {"type": "image_url", "image_url": {"url": "/path/to/embedding.pt"}}
            ]
        }
    ],
    "max_tokens": 160
}'
```

### E/P/D Architecture

The E/P/D flow implements a **3-worker architecture**:

- **Encode Worker**: Loads pre-computed embeddings, transfers via NIXL
- **Prefill Worker**: Receives embeddings, handles context processing and KV-cache generation
- **Decode Worker**: Performs streaming token generation

```mermaid
sequenceDiagram
    participant Client
    participant Frontend
    participant PrefillWorker as "Prefill Worker"
    participant EncodeWorker as "Encode Worker"
    participant DecodeWorker as "Decode Worker"
    participant NIXL as "NIXL (RDMA)"

    Client->>Frontend: POST /v1/chat/completions
    Frontend->>PrefillWorker: Route to prefill worker
    PrefillWorker->>EncodeWorker: Send request (embedding paths)
    EncodeWorker->>NIXL: Create readable operation
    EncodeWorker->>PrefillWorker: Send metadata + NIXL info
    PrefillWorker->>NIXL: Begin read operation
    NIXL-->>PrefillWorker: Zero-copy transfer complete
    PrefillWorker->>Frontend: Return prefill response
    Frontend->>DecodeWorker: Route to decode worker
    DecodeWorker->>Frontend: Stream response chunks
    Frontend->>Client: Stream response
```

## Multi-node Deployment (Slurm)

This section demonstrates how to deploy large multimodal models that require a multi-node setup using Slurm.

> **Note:** The scripts referenced in this section can be found in [`examples/basics/multinode/trtllm/`](https://github.com/ai-dynamo/dynamo/tree/main/examples/basics/multinode/trtllm/).

### Environment Setup

Assuming you have allocated your nodes via `salloc` and are inside an interactive shell:

```bash
# Container image (build using docs/backends/trtllm/README.md#build-container)
export IMAGE="<dynamo_trtllm_image>"

# Host:container path pairs for mounting
export MOUNTS="${PWD}/../../../../:/mnt"

# Model configuration
export MODEL_PATH="meta-llama/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct"
export SERVED_MODEL_NAME="meta-llama/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct"
export MODALITY=${MODALITY:-"multimodal"}
```

### Multi-node Disaggregated Launch

For 4 4xGB200 nodes (2 for prefill, 2 for decode):

```bash
# Customize parallelism to match your engine configs
# export PREFILL_ENGINE_CONFIG="/mnt/examples/backends/trtllm/engine_configs/llama4/multimodal/prefill.yaml"
# export DECODE_ENGINE_CONFIG="/mnt/examples/backends/trtllm/engine_configs/llama4/multimodal/decode.yaml"
# export NUM_PREFILL_NODES=2
# export NUM_DECODE_NODES=2
# export NUM_GPUS_PER_NODE=4

# Launches frontend + etcd/nats on head node, plus prefill and decode workers
./srun_disaggregated.sh
```

### Understanding the Output

1. `srun_disaggregated.sh` launches three srun jobs: frontend, prefill worker, and decode worker
2. The OpenAI frontend will dynamically discover workers as they register:
   ```
   INFO dynamo_run::input::http: Watching for remote model at models
   INFO dynamo_llm::http::service::service_v2: Starting HTTP service on: 0.0.0.0:8000
   ```
3. TRT-LLM workers output progress from each MPI rank while loading
4. When ready, the frontend logs:
   ```
   INFO dynamo_llm::discovery::watcher: added model model_name="meta-llama/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct"
   ```

### Cleanup

```bash
pkill srun
```

## NIXL Usage

| Use Case | Script | NIXL Used? | Data Transfer |
|----------|--------|------------|---------------|
| EPD (Simple Aggregated) | `agg.sh` | No | All in one worker |
| EP/D (Traditional Disaggregated) | `disagg_multimodal.sh` | Optional | Prefill → Decode (KV cache via UCX or NIXL) |
| E/P/D (pre-computed embeddings) | `epd_disagg.sh` | Yes | Encoder → Prefill (embeddings via NIXL) |
| E/P/D (WIP) | N/A | No | Encoder → Prefill (handles via params), Prefill → Decode (KV cache) |

> **Note:** NIXL for KV cache transfer is currently beta and only supported on AMD64 (x86_64) architecture.

## ModelInput Types and Registration

TRT-LLM workers register with Dynamo using:

| ModelInput Type | Preprocessing | Use Case |
|-----------------|---------------|----------|
| `ModelInput.Tokens` | Rust frontend may tokenize, but multimodal flows re-tokenize and build inputs in the Python worker; Rust token_ids are ignored | All TRT-LLM workers |

```python
# TRT-LLM Worker - Register with Tokens
await register_llm(
    ModelInput.Tokens,      # Rust does minimal preprocessing
    model_type,             # ModelType.Chat or ModelType.Prefill
    generate_endpoint,
    model_name,
    ...
)
```

## Inter-Component Communication

| Transfer Stage | Message | NIXL Transfer |
|----------------|---------|---------------|
| **Frontend → Prefill** | Request with image URL or embedding path | No |
| **Encode → Prefill (pre-computed)** | NIXL metadata | Yes (Embeddings tensor) |
| **Encode → Prefill (Image URL) (WIP)** | Disaggregated params with multimodal handles | No |
| **Prefill → Decode** | Disaggregated params | Configurable (KV cache: NIXL default, UCX optional) |

## Known Limitations

- **No Data URL support** - Only HTTP/HTTPS URLs supported; `data:image/...` base64 URLs not supported
- **No video support** - No video encoder implementation
- **No audio support** - No audio encoder implementation
- **Multimodal preprocessing/tokenization happens in Python** - Rust may forward token_ids, but multimodal requests are parsed and re-tokenized in the Python worker
- **E/P/D mode is WIP** - Full E/P/D with image URLs under development
- **Multi-node H100 limitation** - Loading `meta-llama/Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct` with 8 nodes of H100 with TP=16 is not possible due to head count divisibility (`num_attention_heads: 40` not divisible by `tp_size: 16`)

## Supported Models

Multimodal models listed in [TensorRT-LLM supported models](https://github.com/NVIDIA/TensorRT-LLM/blob/main/docs/source/models/supported-models.md) are supported by Dynamo.

Common examples:
- Llama 4 Vision models (Maverick, Scout)
- Qwen2-VL models
- Other vision-language models with TRT-LLM support

## Key Files

| File | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `components/src/dynamo/trtllm/main.py` | Worker initialization and setup |
| `components/src/dynamo/trtllm/utils/trtllm_utils.py` | Command-line argument parsing |
| `components/src/dynamo/trtllm/multimodal_processor.py` | Multimodal request processing |
| `components/src/dynamo/trtllm/request_handlers/handlers.py` | Request handler factory |
| `components/src/dynamo/trtllm/request_handlers/handler_base.py` | Base handler and disaggregation modes |

