feat: vLLM pre/postprocessing in-framework (#4529)

Signed-off-by: jthomson04 <jwillthomson19@gmail.com>

components/src/dynamo/common/utils/input_params.py

+#  SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2025 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+#  SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+
+class InputParamManager:
+    def __init__(self, tokenizer):
+        self.tokenizer = tokenizer
+
+    def get_input_param(self, request: dict, use_tokenizer: bool):
+        """
+        Get the input parameter for the request.
+        """
+
+        if use_tokenizer:
+            print(f"Request: {request}")
+            if self.tokenizer is None:
+                raise ValueError("Tokenizer is not available")
+
+            if "messages" in request:
+                return self.tokenizer.apply_chat_template(
+                    request["messages"], tokenize=False, add_generation_prompt=True
+                )
+            elif "prompt" in request:
+                return request["prompt"]
+            elif "text" in request:
+                return request["text"]
+            else:
+                raise ValueError("No input parameter found in request")
+
+        return request.get("token_ids")

components/src/dynamo/sglang/args.py

@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ DYNAMO_ARGS: Dict[str, Dict[str, Any]] = {
         "flags": ["--use-sglang-tokenizer"],
         "action": "store_true",
         "default": False,
-        "help": "Use SGLang's tokenizer. This will skip tokenization of the input and output and only v1/chat/completions will be available when using the dynamo frontend. Cannot be used with --custom-jinja-template.",
+        "help": "Use SGLang's tokenizer for pre and post processing. This bypasses Dynamo's preprocessor and only v1/chat/completions will be available through the Dynamo frontend. Cannot be used with --custom-jinja-template.",
     },
     "multimodal-processor": {
         "flags": ["--multimodal-processor"],

components/src/dynamo/sglang/health_check.py

@@ -53,7 +53,9 @@ class SglangHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
     Provides SGLang defaults and inherits environment override support from base class.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, engine: Optional[sgl.Engine] = None) -> None:
+    def __init__(
+        self, engine: Optional[sgl.Engine] = None, use_text_input: bool = False
+    ) -> None:
         """Initialize SGLang health check payload with model-specific BOS token.
 
         Args:
@@ -62,7 +64,6 @@ class SglangHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
         bos_token_id = _get_bos_token_id_from_engine(engine)
 
         self.default_payload = {
-            "token_ids": [bos_token_id],
             "stop_conditions": {
                 "max_tokens": 1,  # Generate only 1 token
                 "ignore_eos": False,
@@ -75,6 +76,12 @@ class SglangHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
             "eos_token_ids": [],
             "annotations": [],
         }
+
+        if use_text_input:
+            self.default_payload["prompt"] = "Test"
+        else:
+            self.default_payload["token_ids"] = [bos_token_id]
+
         super().__init__()
 
 
@@ -84,7 +91,9 @@ class SglangPrefillHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
     The prefill handler expects a wrapped structure with 'request' and 'sampling_params'.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, engine: Optional[sgl.Engine] = None) -> None:
+    def __init__(
+        self, engine: Optional[sgl.Engine] = None, use_text_input: bool = False
+    ) -> None:
         """Initialize SGLang prefill health check payload with proper wrapped structure.
 
         Args:
@@ -93,9 +102,7 @@ class SglangPrefillHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
         bos_token_id = _get_bos_token_id_from_engine(engine)
 
         self.default_payload = {
-            "request": {
-                "token_ids": [bos_token_id],
-            },
+            "request": {},
             "sampling_params": {
                 "max_new_tokens": 1,  # Generate only 1 token
                 "temperature": 0.0,
@@ -104,4 +111,10 @@ class SglangPrefillHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
                 "ignore_eos": False,
             },
         }
+
+        if use_text_input:
+            self.default_payload["request"]["prompt"] = "Test"  # type: ignore
+        else:
+            self.default_payload["request"]["token_ids"] = [bos_token_id]  # type: ignore
+
         super().__init__()

components/src/dynamo/sglang/main.py

@@ -168,8 +168,10 @@ async def init(runtime: DistributedRuntime, config: Config):
     handler = DecodeWorkerHandler(
         component, engine, config, publisher, prefill_client, prefill_router_client
     )
-
-    health_check_payload = SglangHealthCheckPayload(engine).to_dict()
+    print(f"Config: {config}")
+    health_check_payload = SglangHealthCheckPayload(
+        engine, use_text_input=dynamo_args.use_sglang_tokenizer
+    ).to_dict()
 
     logging.info(
         f"Registering model with endpoint types: {dynamo_args.dyn_endpoint_types}"
@@ -319,7 +321,9 @@ async def init_embedding(runtime: DistributedRuntime, config: Config):
     ready_event = asyncio.Event()
 
     handler = EmbeddingWorkerHandler(component, engine, config, publisher)
-    health_check_payload = SglangHealthCheckPayload(engine).to_dict()
+    health_check_payload = SglangHealthCheckPayload(
+        engine, use_text_input=dynamo_args.use_sglang_tokenizer
+    ).to_dict()
 
     try:
         # Start endpoint immediately and register model concurrently

components/src/dynamo/sglang/request_handlers/handler_base.py

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ from sglang.srt.tracing import trace as sglang_trace
 from sglang.srt.utils import get_local_ip_auto
 
 from dynamo._core import Client, Component, Context
+from dynamo.common.utils.input_params import InputParamManager
 from dynamo.sglang.args import Config
 from dynamo.sglang.publisher import DynamoSglangPublisher
 
@@ -54,6 +55,12 @@ class BaseWorkerHandler(ABC):
         self.skip_tokenizer_init = config.server_args.skip_tokenizer_init
         self.enable_trace = config.server_args.enable_trace
 
+        self.input_param_manager = InputParamManager(
+            self.engine.tokenizer_manager.tokenizer
+            if not self.skip_tokenizer_init
+            else None
+        )
+
     @abstractmethod
     async def generate(self, request: Dict[str, Any], context: Context):
         """Generate response from request.
@@ -72,23 +79,13 @@ class BaseWorkerHandler(ABC):
         pass
 
     def _get_input_param(self, request: Dict[str, Any]) -> Dict[str, Any]:
-        """Get the appropriate input parameter for SGLang engine.
-
-        Args:
-            request: Request dict with token_ids or messages.
-
-        Returns:
-            Dict with either input_ids or prompt for engine.
-        """
-        if self.skip_tokenizer_init:
-            return {"input_ids": request["token_ids"]}
-        else:
-            # use sglang's chat templating itself but leave tokenization to the
-            # interal engine's TokenizerManager
-            prompt = self.engine.tokenizer_manager.tokenizer.apply_chat_template(
-                request["messages"], tokenize=False, add_generation_prompt=True
+        request_input = self.input_param_manager.get_input_param(
+            request, use_tokenizer=not self.skip_tokenizer_init
         )
-            return {"prompt": prompt}
+
+        return {
+            "prompt" if isinstance(request_input, str) else "input_ids": request_input
+        }
 
     @staticmethod
     def _generate_bootstrap_room() -> int:

components/src/dynamo/vllm/args.py

@@ -69,6 +69,9 @@ class Config:
     # dump config to file
     dump_config_to: Optional[str] = None
 
+    # Use vLLM's tokenizer for pre/post processing
+    use_vllm_tokenizer: bool = False
+
     def has_connector(self, connector_name: str) -> bool:
         """
         Check if a specific connector is enabled.
@@ -201,6 +204,12 @@ def parse_args() -> Config:
         default=os.environ.get("DYN_REQUEST_PLANE", "nats"),
         help="Determines how requests are distributed from routers to workers. 'tcp' is fastest [nats|http|tcp]",
     )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--use-vllm-tokenizer",
+        action="store_true",
+        default=False,
+        help="Use vLLM's tokenizer for pre and post processing. This bypasses Dynamo's preprocessor and only v1/chat/completions will be available through the Dynamo frontend.",
+    )
     add_config_dump_args(parser)
 
     parser = AsyncEngineArgs.add_cli_args(parser)
@@ -303,6 +312,7 @@ def parse_args() -> Config:
     config.mm_prompt_template = args.mm_prompt_template
     config.store_kv = args.store_kv
     config.request_plane = args.request_plane
+    config.use_vllm_tokenizer = args.use_vllm_tokenizer
 
     # Validate custom Jinja template file exists if provided
     if config.custom_jinja_template is not None:

components/src/dynamo/vllm/handlers.py

@@ -5,16 +5,18 @@ import asyncio
 import logging
 import os
 import tempfile
+import time
 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
 from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
 from typing import Any, AsyncGenerator, Dict, Final
 
-from vllm.inputs import TokensPrompt
+from vllm.inputs import TextPrompt, TokensPrompt
 from vllm.lora.request import LoRARequest
 from vllm.outputs import RequestOutput
 from vllm.sampling_params import SamplingParams, StructuredOutputsParams
 from vllm.v1.engine.exceptions import EngineDeadError
 
+from dynamo.common.utils.input_params import InputParamManager
 from dynamo.llm import (
     ModelInput,
     ModelType,
@@ -70,7 +72,7 @@ def build_sampling_params(
     model_max_len: int | None = None,
 ) -> SamplingParams:
     """
-    Build SamplingParams from a PreprocessedRequest.
+    Build SamplingParams from a PreprocessedRequest (internal protocol format).
 
     Args:
         request: The PreprocessedRequest dict with 'sampling_options', 'stop_conditions',
@@ -164,6 +166,61 @@ def build_sampling_params(
     return sampling_params
 
 
+def build_sampling_params_openai(
+    request: Dict[str, Any],
+    default_sampling_params: Dict[str, Any],
+) -> SamplingParams:
+    """
+    Build SamplingParams from an OpenAI-compatible request format.
+
+    Args:
+        request: The OpenAI-style request dict with parameters like temperature, max_tokens, etc.
+        default_sampling_params: Default sampling parameters to initialize with
+
+    Returns:
+        SamplingParams configured from the request
+    """
+    sampling_params = SamplingParams(**default_sampling_params)
+    sampling_params.detokenize = True
+
+    # Map common OpenAI parameters to SamplingParams
+    openai_mapping = {
+        "temperature": "temperature",
+        "top_p": "top_p",
+        "presence_penalty": "presence_penalty",
+        "frequency_penalty": "frequency_penalty",
+        "seed": "seed",
+        "top_k": "top_k",
+        "repetition_penalty": "repetition_penalty",
+        "min_p": "min_p",
+        "length_penalty": "length_penalty",
+        "use_beam_search": "use_beam_search",
+    }
+
+    for req_key, param_key in openai_mapping.items():
+        if req_key in request and request[req_key] is not None:
+            if hasattr(sampling_params, param_key):
+                setattr(sampling_params, param_key, request[req_key])
+
+    # Handle max_tokens
+    if "max_tokens" in request and request["max_tokens"] is not None:
+        sampling_params.max_tokens = request["max_tokens"]
+
+    # Handle stop sequences
+    if "stop" in request and request["stop"] is not None:
+        sampling_params.stop = request["stop"]
+
+    # Handle ignore_eos (custom extension)
+    if "ignore_eos" in request and request["ignore_eos"] is not None:
+        sampling_params.ignore_eos = request["ignore_eos"]
+
+    # Handle min_tokens (custom extension)
+    if "min_tokens" in request and request["min_tokens"] is not None:
+        sampling_params.min_tokens = request["min_tokens"]
+
+    return sampling_params
+
+
 class BaseWorkerHandler(ABC):
     """
     Request handler for the generate and clear_kv_blocks endpoints.
@@ -179,6 +236,7 @@ class BaseWorkerHandler(ABC):
         enable_multimodal: bool = False,
         generate_endpoint=None,
         config=None,
+        use_vllm_tokenizer: bool = False,
     ):
         self.runtime = runtime
         self.component = component
@@ -196,6 +254,14 @@ class BaseWorkerHandler(ABC):
         self.lora_id_for_name: dict[str, int] = {}
         self.lora_name_to_path: dict[str, str] = {}
 
+        self.use_vllm_tokenizer = use_vllm_tokenizer
+
+        # Initialize InputParamManager for text-in-text-out mode
+        tokenizer = None
+        if use_vllm_tokenizer and hasattr(engine, "tokenizer"):
+            tokenizer = engine.tokenizer
+        self.input_param_manager = InputParamManager(tokenizer)
+
     @abstractmethod
     async def generate(self, request, context) -> AsyncGenerator[dict, None]:
         raise NotImplementedError
@@ -775,6 +841,7 @@ class DecodeWorkerHandler(BaseWorkerHandler):
         enable_multimodal: bool = False,
         generate_endpoint=None,
         config=None,
+        use_vllm_tokenizer: bool = False,
     ):
         super().__init__(
             runtime,
@@ -785,6 +852,7 @@ class DecodeWorkerHandler(BaseWorkerHandler):
             enable_multimodal,
             generate_endpoint,
             config,
+            use_vllm_tokenizer,
         )
 
     async def generate(self, request, context):
@@ -792,6 +860,17 @@ class DecodeWorkerHandler(BaseWorkerHandler):
         request_id = context.id()
         logger.debug(f"Decode Request ID: {request_id}")
 
+        if self.use_vllm_tokenizer:
+            # Text-in-text-out mode: use InputParamManager and OpenAI-compatible format
+            async for chunk in self._generate_text_mode(request, context, request_id):
+                yield chunk
+        else:
+            # Token-in-token-out mode: internal protocol format
+            async for chunk in self._generate_token_mode(request, context, request_id):
+                yield chunk
+
+    async def _generate_token_mode(self, request, context, request_id):
+        """Generate tokens using internal protocol format (token-in-token-out)."""
         # Extract and decode multimodal data if present
         multi_modal_data = await self._extract_multimodal_data(request)
 
@@ -865,6 +944,81 @@ class DecodeWorkerHandler(BaseWorkerHandler):
                 self.runtime.shutdown()
                 os._exit(1)
 
+    async def _generate_text_mode(self, request, context, request_id):
+        """Generate text using OpenAI-compatible format (text-in-text-out)."""
+        # Get text input using InputParamManager
+        input_text = self.input_param_manager.get_input_param(
+            request, use_tokenizer=True
+        )
+
+        # Build prompt for vLLM
+        prompt = TextPrompt(prompt=input_text)
+
+        # Build sampling params from OpenAI-style request
+        sampling_params = build_sampling_params_openai(
+            request, self.default_sampling_params
+        )
+
+        dp_rank = request.get("dp_rank", None)
+        openai_request_id = request.get("id") or request.get("request_id", request_id)
+        previous_text = ""
+
+        async with self._abort_monitor(context, request_id):
+            try:
+                gen = self.engine_client.generate(
+                    prompt,
+                    sampling_params,
+                    request_id,
+                    data_parallel_rank=dp_rank,
+                )
+
+                async for res in gen:
+                    if not res.outputs:
+                        yield {
+                            "id": openai_request_id,
+                            "created": int(time.time()),
+                            "object": "chat.completion.chunk",
+                            "model": "unknown",
+                            "choices": [
+                                {
+                                    "index": 0,
+                                    "delta": {"role": "assistant", "content": ""},
+                                    "finish_reason": "error",
+                                }
+                            ],
+                        }
+                        break
+
+                    output = res.outputs[0]
+                    # Calculate the delta text (new text since last chunk)
+                    delta_text = output.text[len(previous_text) :]
+                    previous_text = output.text
+
+                    choice_data = {
+                        "index": 0,
+                        "delta": {
+                            "role": "assistant",
+                            "content": delta_text,
+                        },
+                        "finish_reason": output.finish_reason,
+                    }
+
+                    chunk = {
+                        "id": openai_request_id,
+                        "created": int(time.time()),
+                        "object": "chat.completion.chunk",
+                        "model": "unknown",
+                        "choices": [choice_data],
+                    }
+
+                    yield chunk
+
+            except EngineDeadError as e:
+                logger.error(f"vLLM EngineDeadError: {e}")
+                logger.warning("Initiating Dynamo Runtime shutdown.")
+                self.runtime.shutdown()
+                os._exit(1)
+
 
 class PrefillWorkerHandler(BaseWorkerHandler):
     def __init__(
@@ -877,6 +1031,7 @@ class PrefillWorkerHandler(BaseWorkerHandler):
         enable_multimodal: bool = False,
         generate_endpoint=None,
         config=None,
+        use_vllm_tokenizer: bool = False,
     ):
         super().__init__(
             runtime,
@@ -887,6 +1042,7 @@ class PrefillWorkerHandler(BaseWorkerHandler):
             enable_multimodal,
             generate_endpoint,
             config,
+            use_vllm_tokenizer,
         )
 
     async def generate(self, request, context):
@@ -894,6 +1050,17 @@ class PrefillWorkerHandler(BaseWorkerHandler):
         request_id = context.id()
         logger.debug(f"Prefill Request ID: {request_id}")
 
+        if self.use_vllm_tokenizer:
+            # Text-in-text-out mode: use InputParamManager
+            async for chunk in self._generate_text_mode(request, context, request_id):
+                yield chunk
+        else:
+            # Token-in-token-out mode: internal protocol format
+            async for chunk in self._generate_token_mode(request, context, request_id):
+                yield chunk
+
+    async def _generate_token_mode(self, request, context, request_id):
+        """Generate prefill using internal protocol format (token-in-token-out)."""
         # Extract and decode multimodal data if present
         multi_modal_data = await self._extract_multimodal_data(request)
 
@@ -997,3 +1164,77 @@ class PrefillWorkerHandler(BaseWorkerHandler):
                 raise GeneratorExit(
                     "Prefill engine was shut down during token generation"
                 ) from None
+
+    async def _generate_text_mode(self, request, context, request_id):
+        """Generate prefill using OpenAI-compatible format (text-in-text-out)."""
+        # Get text input using InputParamManager
+        input_text = self.input_param_manager.get_input_param(
+            request, use_tokenizer=True
+        )
+
+        # Build prompt for vLLM
+        prompt = TextPrompt(prompt=input_text)
+
+        # Build sampling params from OpenAI-style request
+        sampling_params = build_sampling_params_openai(
+            request, self.default_sampling_params
+        )
+        sampling_params.detokenize = False  # Prefill doesn't need detokenization
+
+        # Configure for prefill-only mode with remote decode
+        if sampling_params.extra_args is None:
+            sampling_params.extra_args = {}
+        sampling_params.extra_args["kv_transfer_params"] = {
+            "do_remote_decode": True,
+        }
+        sampling_params_defaults = {
+            "do_remote_prefill": False,
+            "remote_engine_id": None,
+            "remote_block_ids": None,
+            "remote_host": None,
+            "remote_port": None,
+        }
+        # Add only missing keys
+        for k, v in sampling_params_defaults.items():
+            sampling_params.extra_args["kv_transfer_params"].setdefault(k, v)
+        # Override for prefill: only generate 1 token
+        sampling_params.max_tokens = 1
+        sampling_params.min_tokens = 1
+
+        dp_rank = request.get("dp_rank", None)
+
+        async with self._abort_monitor(context, request_id, is_prefill=True):
+            try:
+                gen = self.engine_client.generate(
+                    prompt, sampling_params, request_id, data_parallel_rank=dp_rank
+                )
+            except EngineDeadError as e:
+                logger.error(f"vLLM EngineDeadError: {e}")
+                logger.warning("Initiating Dynamo Runtime shutdown.")
+                self.runtime.shutdown()
+                os._exit(1)
+
+            try:
+                async for res in gen:
+                    logger.debug(f"kv transfer params: {res.kv_transfer_params}")
+
+                    token_ids = res.outputs[0].token_ids if res.outputs else []
+
+                    output: Dict[str, Any] = {
+                        "token_ids": list(token_ids),
+                        "disaggregated_params": (
+                            {"kv_transfer_params": res.kv_transfer_params}
+                            if res.kv_transfer_params
+                            else None
+                        ),
+                        "completion_usage": BaseWorkerHandler._build_completion_usage(
+                            request_output=res
+                        ),
+                    }
+
+                    yield output
+            except asyncio.CancelledError:
+                # raise the error because we cannot migrate prefill requests
+                raise GeneratorExit(
+                    "Prefill engine was shut down during token generation"
+                ) from None

components/src/dynamo/vllm/health_check.py

@@ -8,11 +8,15 @@ This module defines the default health check payload for vLLM backends.
 """
 
 import logging
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Optional
 
 from dynamo.health_check import HealthCheckPayload
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from vllm.v1.engine.async_llm import AsyncLLM
+
 
 def _get_bos_token_id_from_engine(engine_client) -> int:
     """
@@ -45,6 +49,36 @@ def _get_bos_token_id_from_engine(engine_client) -> int:
     return 1
 
 
+def _make_default_payload(
+    engine_client: Optional["AsyncLLM"], use_text_input: bool
+) -> dict:
+    sampling_options = {
+        "temperature": 0.0,
+    }
+
+    stop_conditions = {
+        "max_tokens": 1,
+        "stop": None,
+        "stop_token_ids": None,
+        "include_stop_str_in_output": False,
+        "ignore_eos": False,
+    }
+
+    if use_text_input:
+        return {
+            "prompt": "Test",
+            **sampling_options,
+            **stop_conditions,
+        }
+    else:
+        bos_token_id = _get_bos_token_id_from_engine(engine_client)
+        return {
+            "token_ids": [bos_token_id],
+            "sampling_options": sampling_options,
+            "stop_conditions": stop_conditions,
+        }
+
+
 class VllmHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
     """
     vLLM-specific health check payload.
@@ -52,31 +86,18 @@ class VllmHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
     Provides vLLM defaults and inherits environment override support from base class.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, engine_client=None):
+    def __init__(self, engine_client=None, use_text_input: bool = False):
         """
         Initialize vLLM health check payload with vLLM-specific defaults.
 
         Args:
             engine_client: Optional vLLM AsyncLLM engine client to extract BOS token from.
                           If provided, will attempt to use the model's actual BOS token.
+            use_text_input: If True, use text-based input (prompt field) instead of token_ids.
+                           This should match the use_vllm_tokenizer config setting.
         """
-        bos_token_id = _get_bos_token_id_from_engine(engine_client)
 
-        # Set vLLM default payload - minimal request that completes quickly
-        # The handler expects token_ids, sampling_options, and stop_conditions
-        self.default_payload = {
-            "token_ids": [bos_token_id],
-            "sampling_options": {
-                "temperature": 0.0,
-            },
-            "stop_conditions": {
-                "max_tokens": 1,
-                "stop": None,
-                "stop_token_ids": None,
-                "include_stop_str_in_output": False,
-                "ignore_eos": False,
-            },
-        }
+        self.default_payload = _make_default_payload(engine_client, use_text_input)
         super().__init__()
 
 
@@ -87,7 +108,7 @@ class VllmPrefillHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
     The prefill handler expects PreprocessedRequest format with sampling_options and stop_conditions.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, engine_client=None):
+    def __init__(self, engine_client=None, use_text_input: bool = False):
         """
         Initialize vLLM prefill health check payload with proper PreprocessedRequest structure.
 
@@ -95,23 +116,5 @@ class VllmPrefillHealthCheckPayload(HealthCheckPayload):
             engine_client: Optional vLLM AsyncLLM engine client to extract BOS token from.
                           If provided, will attempt to use the model's actual BOS token.
         """
-        bos_token_id = _get_bos_token_id_from_engine(engine_client)
-
-        # Prefill handler expects PreprocessedRequest format: token_ids, sampling_options, stop_conditions
-        # The handler will override max_tokens/min_tokens to 1 and add do_remote_decode
-        self.default_payload = {
-            "token_ids": [bos_token_id],
-            "sampling_options": {
-                "temperature": 0.0,
-                "top_p": 1.0,
-                "top_k": -1,
-            },
-            "stop_conditions": {
-                "stop": None,
-                "stop_token_ids": None,
-                "include_stop_str_in_output": False,
-                "ignore_eos": False,
-                "min_tokens": 0,
-            },
-        }
+        self.default_payload = _make_default_payload(engine_client, use_text_input)
         super().__init__()

components/src/dynamo/vllm/main.py

@@ -384,6 +384,7 @@ async def init_prefill(runtime: DistributedRuntime, config: Config):
         enable_multimodal=config.enable_multimodal,
         generate_endpoint=generate_endpoint,
         config=config,
+        use_vllm_tokenizer=config.use_vllm_tokenizer,
     )
     handler.add_temp_dir(prometheus_temp_dir)
 
@@ -418,8 +419,11 @@ async def init_prefill(runtime: DistributedRuntime, config: Config):
 
     # Register prefill model with ModelType.Prefill
     if not config.engine_args.data_parallel_rank:  # if rank is 0 or None then register
+        model_input = (
+            ModelInput.Text if config.use_vllm_tokenizer else ModelInput.Tokens
+        )
         await register_vllm_model(
-            ModelInput.Tokens,
+            model_input,
             ModelType.Prefill,
             generate_endpoint,
             config,
@@ -428,7 +432,9 @@ async def init_prefill(runtime: DistributedRuntime, config: Config):
             migration_limit=0,  # Prefill doesn't support migration
         )
 
-    health_check_payload = VllmPrefillHealthCheckPayload(engine_client).to_dict()
+    health_check_payload = VllmPrefillHealthCheckPayload(
+        engine_client, use_text_input=config.use_vllm_tokenizer
+    ).to_dict()
 
     try:
         logger.debug("Starting serve_endpoint for prefill worker")
@@ -497,6 +503,7 @@ async def init(runtime: DistributedRuntime, config: Config):
         enable_multimodal=config.enable_multimodal,
         generate_endpoint=generate_endpoint,
         config=config,
+        use_vllm_tokenizer=config.use_vllm_tokenizer,
     )
     handler.add_temp_dir(prometheus_temp_dir)
 
@@ -536,6 +543,10 @@ async def init(runtime: DistributedRuntime, config: Config):
             f"Registering model with endpoint types: {config.dyn_endpoint_types}"
         )
 
+        model_input = (
+            ModelInput.Text if config.use_vllm_tokenizer else ModelInput.Tokens
+        )
+
         # Warn if custom template provided but chat endpoint not enabled
         if config.custom_jinja_template and "chat" not in config.dyn_endpoint_types:
             logger.warning(
@@ -544,7 +555,7 @@ async def init(runtime: DistributedRuntime, config: Config):
             )
 
         await register_vllm_model(
-            ModelInput.Tokens,
+            model_input,
             model_type,
             generate_endpoint,
             config,
@@ -553,7 +564,9 @@ async def init(runtime: DistributedRuntime, config: Config):
             migration_limit=config.migration_limit,
         )
 
-    health_check_payload = VllmHealthCheckPayload(engine_client).to_dict()
+    health_check_payload = VllmHealthCheckPayload(
+        engine_client, use_text_input=config.use_vllm_tokenizer
+    ).to_dict()
 
     try:
         logger.debug("Starting serve_endpoint for decode worker")