diff --git a/Dockerfile.train b/Dockerfile.train
index 03d94ad..21db2a2 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.train
+++ b/Dockerfile.train
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
 RUN pip install --upgrade pip && \
     pip install unsloth unsloth_zoo trl datasets
 
+# fastapi + uvicorn power scripts/serve_model.py (the inference server).
+RUN pip install fastapi uvicorn
+
 WORKDIR /workspace
 
 # Scripts are mounted at run time (-v $(pwd)/scripts:/scripts), never baked in.
diff --git a/scripts/serve_model.py b/scripts/serve_model.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec98145
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/serve_model.py
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+"""psyc model inference server — loads a psyc adapter once, serves /infer over HTTP.
+
+Run inside the CUDA container (keeps the model resident, serves many requests):
+    docker run --gpus all --rm -p 8771:8771 --entrypoint python \
+        -v $(pwd)/data:/data -v $(pwd)/scripts:/scripts \
+        psyc-trainer /scripts/serve_model.py --adapter /data/adapters/psyc-v4/final
+
+The cockpit (which has no torch) calls this over HTTP to put a real fine-tuned
+model behind a Worker Mesh bot.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+# unsloth must be imported BEFORE transformers.
+from unsloth import FastLanguageModel  # noqa: I001
+
+import argparse
+import re
+
+import uvicorn
+from fastapi import FastAPI
+from pydantic import BaseModel
+
+
+def strip_think(text: str) -> str:
+    """Drop Qwen3.5 thinking-mode blocks so the caller gets just the answer."""
+    return re.sub(r"<think>.*?</think>\s*", "", text, flags=re.DOTALL).strip()
+
+
+class InferRequest(BaseModel):
+    instruction: str
+    input: str
+    max_new_tokens: int = 256
+
+
+class InferResponse(BaseModel):
+    output: str
+    adapter: str
+
+
+def build_app(model: object, tokenizer: object, adapter: str) -> FastAPI:
+    app = FastAPI(title="psyc inference server", version="0.1.0")
+
+    @app.get("/healthz")
+    def healthz() -> dict:
+        return {"status": "ok", "adapter": adapter}
+
+    @app.post("/infer", response_model=InferResponse)
+    def infer(req: InferRequest) -> InferResponse:
+        prompt = f"{req.instruction}\n\n{req.input}"
+        messages = [{"role": "user", "content": [{"type": "text", "text": prompt}]}]
+        inputs = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(
+            messages,
+            tokenize=True,
+            add_generation_prompt=True,
+            return_tensors="pt",
+            enable_thinking=False,
+        ).to(model.device)
+        out = model.generate(input_ids=inputs, max_new_tokens=req.max_new_tokens, do_sample=False)
+        generated = strip_think(tokenizer.decode(out[0][inputs.shape[1]:], skip_special_tokens=True))
+        return InferResponse(output=generated, adapter=adapter)
+
+    return app
+
+
+def main() -> None:
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)
+    parser.add_argument("--adapter", required=True, help="path to adapter final/ dir")
+    parser.add_argument("--base-model", default="unsloth/Qwen3.5-4B")
+    parser.add_argument("--host", default="0.0.0.0")
+    parser.add_argument("--port", type=int, default=8771)
+    parser.add_argument("--max-seq-length", type=int, default=4096)
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    model, tokenizer = FastLanguageModel.from_pretrained(
+        model_name=args.adapter,
+        max_seq_length=args.max_seq_length,
+        dtype=None,
+        load_in_4bit=True,
+    )
+    FastLanguageModel.for_inference(model)
+    app = build_app(model, tokenizer, args.adapter)
+    print(f"[psyc-serve] model ready — adapter {args.adapter}, listening on {args.host}:{args.port}")
+    uvicorn.run(app, host=args.host, port=args.port, log_level="warning")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()