diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 07d46f0ac..64a6de30e 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -167,6 +167,7 @@ fo = "fo"
 nd = "nd"
 eles = "eles"
 datas = "datas"
+ser = "ser"
 ure = "ure"
 
 [tool.uv]
diff --git a/tests/entrypoints/openai/cpu/__init__.py b/tests/entrypoints/openai/cpu/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/tests/entrypoints/openai/cpu/test_render.py b/tests/entrypoints/openai/cpu/test_render.py
index 11389a2e4..7aacf4564 100644
--- a/tests/entrypoints/openai/cpu/test_render.py
+++ b/tests/entrypoints/openai/cpu/test_render.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import httpx
 import pytest
 import pytest_asyncio
 
-from tests.utils import RemoteOpenAIServer
+from tests.utils import RemoteLaunchRenderServer
 
 MODEL_NAME = "hmellor/tiny-random-LlamaForCausalLM"
 
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ MODEL_NAME = "hmellor/tiny-random-LlamaForCausalLM"
 def server():
     args: list[str] = []
 
-    with RemoteOpenAIServer(MODEL_NAME, args) as remote_server:
+    with RemoteLaunchRenderServer(MODEL_NAME, args) as remote_server:
         yield remote_server
 
 
@@ -43,23 +43,20 @@ async def test_completion_render_basic(client):
     assert response.status_code == 200
     data = response.json()
 
-    # Verify response structure
+    # Verify response structure - list of GenerateRequest
     assert isinstance(data, list)
     assert len(data) > 0
 
-    # Verify first prompt
+    # Verify first prompt is a GenerateRequest
     first_prompt = data[0]
-    assert "prompt_token_ids" in first_prompt
-    assert "prompt" in first_prompt
-    assert isinstance(first_prompt["prompt_token_ids"], list)
-    assert len(first_prompt["prompt_token_ids"]) > 0
-    assert isinstance(first_prompt["prompt"], str)
-
-    # Verify prompt text is preserved
-    assert (
-        "When should a chat-completions handler return an empty string?"
-        in first_prompt["prompt"]
-    )
+    assert "token_ids" in first_prompt
+    assert "sampling_params" in first_prompt
+    assert "model" in first_prompt
+    assert "request_id" in first_prompt
+    assert isinstance(first_prompt["token_ids"], list)
+    assert len(first_prompt["token_ids"]) > 0
+    assert first_prompt["model"] == MODEL_NAME
+    assert first_prompt["request_id"].startswith("cmpl-")
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
@@ -84,36 +81,15 @@ async def test_chat_completion_render_basic(client):
     assert response.status_code == 200
     data = response.json()
 
-    # Verify response structure - should be [conversation, engine_prompts]
-    assert isinstance(data, list)
-    assert len(data) == 2
+    # Verify response structure - should be a GenerateRequest
+    assert isinstance(data, dict)
+    assert "token_ids" in data
+    assert isinstance(data["token_ids"], list)
+    assert len(data["token_ids"]) > 0
 
-    conversation, engine_prompts = data
-
-    # Verify conversation
-    assert isinstance(conversation, list)
-    assert len(conversation) > 0
-    assert conversation[0]["role"] == "user"
-    assert "empty string" in conversation[0]["content"]
-
-    # Verify engine_prompts
-    assert isinstance(engine_prompts, list)
-    assert len(engine_prompts) > 0
-
-    first_prompt = engine_prompts[0]
-    assert "prompt_token_ids" in first_prompt
-    assert "prompt" in first_prompt
-    assert isinstance(first_prompt["prompt_token_ids"], list)
-    assert len(first_prompt["prompt_token_ids"]) > 0
-
-    # Verify chat template was applied (should have instruction markers)
-    assert "[INST]" in first_prompt["prompt"]
-    assert "[/INST]" in first_prompt["prompt"]
-
-    # Verify token IDs are correctly preserved as integers
-    token_ids = first_prompt["prompt_token_ids"]
+    # Verify token IDs are integers and BOS token is present
+    token_ids = data["token_ids"]
     assert all(isinstance(tid, int) for tid in token_ids)
-    # Verify BOS token (usually 1 for LLaMA models)
     assert token_ids[0] == 1
 
 
@@ -131,15 +107,18 @@ async def test_completion_render_multiple_prompts(client):
     assert response.status_code == 200
     data = response.json()
 
-    # Should return two prompts
+    # Should return two GenerateRequest items
     assert isinstance(data, list)
     assert len(data) == 2
 
-    # Verify both prompts have required fields
+    # Verify both prompts have GenerateRequest fields
     for prompt in data:
-        assert "prompt_token_ids" in prompt
-        assert "prompt" in prompt
-        assert len(prompt["prompt_token_ids"]) > 0
+        assert "token_ids" in prompt
+        assert "sampling_params" in prompt
+        assert "model" in prompt
+        assert "request_id" in prompt
+        assert len(prompt["token_ids"]) > 0
+        assert prompt["request_id"].startswith("cmpl-")
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
@@ -160,17 +139,49 @@ async def test_chat_completion_render_multi_turn(client):
     assert response.status_code == 200
     data = response.json()
 
-    conversation, engine_prompts = data
-
-    # Verify all messages preserved
-    assert len(conversation) == 3
-    assert conversation[0]["role"] == "user"
-    assert conversation[1]["role"] == "assistant"
-    assert conversation[2]["role"] == "user"
-
     # Verify tokenization occurred
-    assert len(engine_prompts) > 0
-    assert len(engine_prompts[0]["prompt_token_ids"]) > 0
+    assert isinstance(data, dict)
+    assert "token_ids" in data
+    assert isinstance(data["token_ids"], list)
+    assert len(data["token_ids"]) > 0
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_chat_completion_render_with_stream_true(client):
+    """Render accepts stream params but still returns JSON (non-streamed)."""
+
+    response = await client.post(
+        "/v1/chat/completions/render",
+        json={
+            "model": MODEL_NAME,
+            "stream": True,
+            "stream_options": {
+                "include_usage": True,
+                "continuous_usage_stats": True,
+            },
+            "messages": [
+                {
+                    "role": "user",
+                    "content": "Stream options should be accepted by /render.",
+                }
+            ],
+        },
+    )
+
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    assert response.headers.get("content-type", "").startswith("application/json")
+
+    data = response.json()
+    assert isinstance(data, dict)
+    assert "token_ids" in data
+    assert isinstance(data["token_ids"], list)
+    assert len(data["token_ids"]) > 0
+
+    # /render should preserve stream fields on the returned token-in request.
+    assert data.get("stream") is True
+    assert isinstance(data.get("stream_options"), dict)
+    assert data["stream_options"].get("include_usage") is True
+    assert data["stream_options"].get("continuous_usage_stats") is True
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
@@ -224,3 +235,31 @@ async def test_completion_render_no_generation(client):
     assert response.status_code == 200
     # Render should be fast (< 1 second) since no generation
     assert elapsed < 1.0
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_chat_completion_render_with_sampling_params(client):
+    """Verify sampling params are correctly returned by /render."""
+    response = await client.post(
+        "/v1/chat/completions/render",
+        json={
+            "model": MODEL_NAME,
+            "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Test sampling params"}],
+            "temperature": 0.123,
+            "top_p": 0.456,
+            "frequency_penalty": 1.1,
+        },
+    )
+
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    data = response.json()
+
+    assert "sampling_params" in data
+    sampling_params = data["sampling_params"]
+
+    assert sampling_params.get("temperature") == 0.123
+    assert sampling_params.get("top_p") == 0.456
+    assert sampling_params.get("frequency_penalty") == 1.1
+
+    # Check that internal fields are not present
+    assert "_all_stop_token_ids" not in sampling_params
diff --git a/tests/entrypoints/openai/cpu/test_render_multimodal.py b/tests/entrypoints/openai/cpu/test_render_multimodal.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..459a965c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/entrypoints/openai/cpu/test_render_multimodal.py
@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright contributors to the vLLM project
+
+"""Multimodal tests for the /render endpoints that expose prompt preprocessing."""
+
+import httpx
+import pytest
+import pytest_asyncio
+
+from tests.utils import RemoteOpenAIServer
+from vllm.multimodal.utils import encode_image_url
+
+VISION_MODEL_NAME = "Qwen/Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct"
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope="module")
+def vision_server():
+    """Vision-capable server used for multimodal /render tests."""
+
+    args = [
+        "--enforce-eager",
+        "--max-model-len",
+        "100",
+        "--max-num-seqs",
+        "1",
+        "--limit-mm-per-prompt.image",
+        "1",
+        "--limit-mm-per-prompt.video",
+        "0",
+    ]
+
+    env_overrides: dict[str, str] = {}
+
+    with RemoteOpenAIServer(
+        VISION_MODEL_NAME,
+        args,
+        env_dict=env_overrides,
+    ) as remote_server:
+        yield remote_server
+
+
+@pytest_asyncio.fixture
+async def vision_client(vision_server):
+    async with httpx.AsyncClient(
+        base_url=vision_server.url_for(""), timeout=60.0
+    ) as http_client:
+        yield http_client
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_chat_completion_render_with_base64_image_url(
+    vision_client,
+    local_asset_server,
+):
+    """Render a multimodal chat request and verify tokens are returned."""
+
+    image = local_asset_server.get_image_asset("RGBA_comp.png")
+    data_url = encode_image_url(image, format="PNG")
+
+    assert data_url.startswith("data:image/")
+    assert ";base64," in data_url
+
+    response = await vision_client.post(
+        "/v1/chat/completions/render",
+        json={
+            "model": VISION_MODEL_NAME,
+            "messages": [
+                {
+                    "role": "user",
+                    "content": [
+                        {"type": "image_url", "image_url": {"url": data_url}},
+                        {"type": "text", "text": "What's in this image?"},
+                    ],
+                }
+            ],
+        },
+    )
+
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+
+    data = response.json()
+    assert isinstance(data, dict)
+    assert "token_ids" in data
+    assert isinstance(data["token_ids"], list)
+    assert len(data["token_ids"]) > 0
+
+    # Verify multimodal features are populated
+    assert "features" in data
+    features = data["features"]
+    assert features is not None
+
+    # mm_hashes: should have an "image" key with a list of hash strings
+    assert "mm_hashes" in features
+    assert "image" in features["mm_hashes"]
+    image_hashes = features["mm_hashes"]["image"]
+    assert isinstance(image_hashes, list)
+    assert len(image_hashes) > 0
+    assert all(isinstance(h, str) for h in image_hashes)
+
+    # mm_placeholders: should have an "image" key with offset/length dicts
+    assert "mm_placeholders" in features
+    assert "image" in features["mm_placeholders"]
+    image_placeholders = features["mm_placeholders"]["image"]
+    assert isinstance(image_placeholders, list)
+    assert len(image_placeholders) > 0
+    for p in image_placeholders:
+        assert "offset" in p
+        assert "length" in p
+        assert isinstance(p["offset"], int)
+        assert isinstance(p["length"], int)
+        assert p["length"] > 0
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_tokenize_matches_render_for_multimodal_input(
+    vision_client,
+    local_asset_server,
+):
+    """`/tokenize` should match `/v1/chat/completions/render` token output."""
+
+    image = local_asset_server.get_image_asset("RGBA_comp.png")
+    data_url = encode_image_url(image, format="PNG")
+
+    messages = [
+        {
+            "role": "user",
+            "content": [
+                {"type": "image_url", "image_url": {"url": data_url}},
+                {"type": "text", "text": "What's in this image?"},
+            ],
+        }
+    ]
+
+    render_response = await vision_client.post(
+        "/v1/chat/completions/render",
+        json={
+            "model": VISION_MODEL_NAME,
+            "messages": messages,
+        },
+    )
+    assert render_response.status_code == 200
+    render_data = render_response.json()
+
+    tokenize_response = await vision_client.post(
+        "/tokenize",
+        json={
+            "model": VISION_MODEL_NAME,
+            "messages": messages,
+        },
+    )
+    assert tokenize_response.status_code == 200
+    tokenize_data = tokenize_response.json()
+
+    assert tokenize_data["tokens"] == render_data["token_ids"]
+    assert tokenize_data["count"] == len(render_data["token_ids"])
diff --git a/tests/entrypoints/openai/test_launch_render.py b/tests/entrypoints/openai/test_launch_render.py
index 069e61f84..12e95e219 100644
--- a/tests/entrypoints/openai/test_launch_render.py
+++ b/tests/entrypoints/openai/test_launch_render.py
@@ -42,21 +42,12 @@ async def test_chat_render_basic(client):
     assert response.status_code == 200
     data = response.json()
 
-    assert isinstance(data, list)
-    assert len(data) == 2
-
-    conversation, engine_prompts = data
-
-    assert isinstance(conversation, list)
-    assert conversation[0]["role"] == "user"
-
-    assert isinstance(engine_prompts, list)
-    assert len(engine_prompts) > 0
-    first_prompt = engine_prompts[0]
-    assert "prompt_token_ids" in first_prompt
-    assert "prompt" in first_prompt
-    assert isinstance(first_prompt["prompt_token_ids"], list)
-    assert all(isinstance(t, int) for t in first_prompt["prompt_token_ids"])
+    # Response should be a GenerateRequest dict
+    assert isinstance(data, dict)
+    assert "token_ids" in data
+    assert isinstance(data["token_ids"], list)
+    assert len(data["token_ids"]) > 0
+    assert all(isinstance(t, int) for t in data["token_ids"])
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
@@ -74,14 +65,12 @@ async def test_chat_render_multi_turn(client):
     )
 
     assert response.status_code == 200
-    conversation, engine_prompts = response.json()
+    data = response.json()
 
-    assert len(conversation) == 3
-    assert conversation[0]["role"] == "user"
-    assert conversation[1]["role"] == "assistant"
-    assert conversation[2]["role"] == "user"
-    assert len(engine_prompts) > 0
-    assert len(engine_prompts[0]["prompt_token_ids"]) > 0
+    assert isinstance(data, dict)
+    assert "token_ids" in data
+    assert isinstance(data["token_ids"], list)
+    assert len(data["token_ids"]) > 0
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
@@ -118,11 +107,13 @@ async def test_completion_render_basic(client):
     assert len(data) > 0
 
     first_prompt = data[0]
-    assert "prompt_token_ids" in first_prompt
-    assert "prompt" in first_prompt
-    assert isinstance(first_prompt["prompt_token_ids"], list)
-    assert len(first_prompt["prompt_token_ids"]) > 0
-    assert "Once upon a time" in first_prompt["prompt"]
+    assert "token_ids" in first_prompt
+    assert "sampling_params" in first_prompt
+    assert "model" in first_prompt
+    assert "request_id" in first_prompt
+    assert isinstance(first_prompt["token_ids"], list)
+    assert len(first_prompt["token_ids"]) > 0
+    assert first_prompt["request_id"].startswith("cmpl-")
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
@@ -142,9 +133,12 @@ async def test_completion_render_multiple_prompts(client):
     assert len(data) == 2
 
     for prompt in data:
-        assert "prompt_token_ids" in prompt
-        assert "prompt" in prompt
-        assert len(prompt["prompt_token_ids"]) > 0
+        assert "token_ids" in prompt
+        assert "sampling_params" in prompt
+        assert "model" in prompt
+        assert "request_id" in prompt
+        assert len(prompt["token_ids"]) > 0
+        assert prompt["request_id"].startswith("cmpl-")
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py
index 2487fe567..002ae62b8 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/api_server.py
@@ -368,6 +368,7 @@ async def init_app_state(
         request_logger=request_logger,
         chat_template=resolved_chat_template,
         chat_template_content_format=args.chat_template_content_format,
+        default_chat_template_kwargs=args.default_chat_template_kwargs,
         trust_request_chat_template=args.trust_request_chat_template,
     )
 
@@ -457,6 +458,9 @@ async def init_render_app_state(
 
     state.openai_serving_models = model_registry
 
+    # Expose tokenization via the render handler (no engine required).
+    state.openai_serving_tokenization = state.openai_serving_render
+
     state.vllm_config = vllm_config
     # Disable stats logging — there is no engine to poll.
     state.log_stats = False
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/engine/protocol.py b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/engine/protocol.py
index 02dad6c1f..8f6cdb3e6 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/engine/protocol.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/engine/protocol.py
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ from pydantic import (
 
 from vllm.entrypoints.chat_utils import make_tool_call_id
 from vllm.logger import init_logger
-from vllm.sampling_params import SamplingParams
 from vllm.utils import random_uuid
 from vllm.utils.import_utils import resolve_obj_by_qualname
 
@@ -269,53 +268,3 @@ class GenerationError(Exception):
     def __init__(self, message: str = "Internal server error"):
         super().__init__(message)
         self.status_code = HTTPStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR
-
-
-####### Tokens IN <> Tokens OUT #######
-class GenerateRequest(BaseModel):
-    request_id: str = Field(
-        default_factory=random_uuid,
-        description=(
-            "The request_id related to this request. If the caller does "
-            "not set it, a random_uuid will be generated. This id is used "
-            "through out the inference process and return in response."
-        ),
-    )
-    token_ids: list[int]
-    """The token ids to generate text from."""
-
-    # features: MultiModalFeatureSpec
-    # TODO (NickLucche): implement once Renderer work is completed
-    features: str | None = None
-    """The processed MM inputs for the model."""
-
-    sampling_params: SamplingParams
-    """The sampling parameters for the model."""
-
-    model: str | None = None
-
-    stream: bool | None = False
-    stream_options: StreamOptions | None = None
-    cache_salt: str | None = Field(
-        default=None,
-        description=(
-            "If specified, the prefix cache will be salted with the provided "
-            "string to prevent an attacker to guess prompts in multi-user "
-            "environments. The salt should be random, protected from "
-            "access by 3rd parties, and long enough to be "
-            "unpredictable (e.g., 43 characters base64-encoded, corresponding "
-            "to 256 bit)."
-        ),
-    )
-    priority: int = Field(
-        default=0,
-        description=(
-            "The priority of the request (lower means earlier handling; "
-            "default: 0). Any priority other than 0 will raise an error "
-            "if the served model does not use priority scheduling."
-        ),
-    )
-    kv_transfer_params: dict[str, Any] | None = Field(
-        default=None,
-        description="KVTransfer parameters used for disaggregated serving.",
-    )
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/server_utils.py b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/server_utils.py
index b21126472..1453d8083 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/openai/server_utils.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/openai/server_utils.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
 from http import HTTPStatus
 
 import pydantic
-from fastapi import FastAPI, HTTPException, Request, Response
+from fastapi import FastAPI, HTTPException, Request
 from fastapi.exceptions import RequestValidationError
 from fastapi.responses import JSONResponse
 from starlette.concurrency import iterate_in_threadpool
@@ -350,7 +350,8 @@ async def engine_error_handler(
         server=req.app.state.server,
         engine=req.app.state.engine_client,
     )
-    return Response(status_code=HTTPStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
+    err = create_error_response(exc)
+    return JSONResponse(err.model_dump(), status_code=err.error.code)
 
 
 async def exception_handler(req: Request, exc: Exception):
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/serve/disagg/protocol.py b/vllm/entrypoints/serve/disagg/protocol.py
index da13ea0cd..c4d510297 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/serve/disagg/protocol.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/serve/disagg/protocol.py
@@ -2,20 +2,55 @@
 # SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright contributors to the vLLM project
 from typing import Any
 
-from pydantic import BaseModel, Field
+from pydantic import BaseModel, Field, field_validator
 
 from vllm.config import ModelConfig
 from vllm.entrypoints.openai.chat_completion.protocol import ChatCompletionLogProbs
-from vllm.entrypoints.openai.engine.protocol import (
-    SamplingParams,
-    StreamOptions,
-)
+from vllm.entrypoints.openai.engine.protocol import StreamOptions
 from vllm.logprobs import Logprob
 from vllm.renderers import TokenizeParams
+from vllm.sampling_params import SamplingParams
 from vllm.utils import random_uuid
 
-
 ####### Tokens IN <> Tokens OUT #######
+
+
+class PlaceholderRangeInfo(BaseModel):
+    """Serializable placeholder location for a single multi-modal item."""
+
+    offset: int
+    """Start index of the placeholder tokens in the prompt."""
+
+    length: int
+    """Number of placeholder tokens."""
+
+    # TODO: add ``is_embed: list[bool] | None`` once the /generate side
+    # consumes features — some models (e.g. Qwen-VL) use sparse
+    # placeholder masks that cannot be recomputed from offset+length alone.
+
+
+class MultiModalFeatures(BaseModel):
+    """Lightweight multimodal metadata produced by the render step.
+
+    Carries hashes (for cache lookup / identification) and placeholder
+    positions so the downstream ``/generate`` service knows *where* in
+    the token sequence each multimodal item lives.
+
+    .. note:: Phase 1 — metadata only.
+       Phase 2 should add ``mm_kwargs`` (processed tensor data) using a
+       binary transport so the ``/generate`` side can skip re-processing.
+       The ``/generate`` endpoint must also be updated to inject these
+       features into ``ProcessorInputs`` before passing to
+       ``InputProcessor.process_inputs``.
+    """
+
+    mm_hashes: dict[str, list[str]]
+    """Per-modality item hashes, e.g. ``{"image": ["abc", "def"]}``."""
+
+    mm_placeholders: dict[str, list[PlaceholderRangeInfo]]
+    """Per-modality placeholder ranges in the token sequence."""
+
+
 class GenerateRequest(BaseModel):
     request_id: str = Field(
         default_factory=lambda: f"{random_uuid()}",
@@ -28,10 +63,15 @@ class GenerateRequest(BaseModel):
     token_ids: list[int]
     """The token ids to generate text from."""
 
-    # features: MultiModalFeatureSpec
-    # TODO (NickLucche): implement once Renderer work is completed
-    features: str | None = None
-    """The processed MM inputs for the model."""
+    @field_validator("token_ids")
+    @classmethod
+    def validate_token_ids(cls, v: list[int]) -> list[int]:
+        if any(t < 0 for t in v):
+            raise ValueError("token_ids must not contain negative values")
+        return v
+
+    features: MultiModalFeatures | None = None
+    """Multimodal hashes and placeholder positions (populated for MM inputs)."""
 
     sampling_params: SamplingParams
     """The sampling parameters for the model."""
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/serve/render/api_router.py b/vllm/entrypoints/serve/render/api_router.py
index dd782a97f..d8e613070 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/serve/render/api_router.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/serve/render/api_router.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ from vllm.entrypoints.openai.chat_completion.protocol import ChatCompletionReque
 from vllm.entrypoints.openai.completion.protocol import CompletionRequest
 from vllm.entrypoints.openai.engine.protocol import ErrorResponse
 from vllm.entrypoints.openai.utils import validate_json_request
+from vllm.entrypoints.serve.disagg.protocol import GenerateRequest
 from vllm.entrypoints.serve.render.serving import OpenAIServingRender
 from vllm.logger import init_logger
 
@@ -24,7 +25,7 @@ def render(request: Request) -> OpenAIServingRender | None:
 @router.post(
     "/v1/chat/completions/render",
     dependencies=[Depends(validate_json_request)],
-    response_model=list,
+    response_model=GenerateRequest,
     responses={
         HTTPStatus.BAD_REQUEST.value: {"model": ErrorResponse},
         HTTPStatus.NOT_FOUND.value: {"model": ErrorResponse},
@@ -44,13 +45,13 @@ async def render_chat_completion(request: ChatCompletionRequest, raw_request: Re
     if isinstance(result, ErrorResponse):
         return JSONResponse(content=result.model_dump(), status_code=result.error.code)
 
-    return JSONResponse(content=result)
+    return JSONResponse(content=result.model_dump())
 
 
 @router.post(
     "/v1/completions/render",
     dependencies=[Depends(validate_json_request)],
-    response_model=list,
+    response_model=list[GenerateRequest],
     responses={
         HTTPStatus.BAD_REQUEST.value: {"model": ErrorResponse},
         HTTPStatus.NOT_FOUND.value: {"model": ErrorResponse},
@@ -67,7 +68,7 @@ async def render_completion(request: CompletionRequest, raw_request: Request):
     if isinstance(result, ErrorResponse):
         return JSONResponse(content=result.model_dump(), status_code=result.error.code)
 
-    return JSONResponse(content=result)
+    return JSONResponse(content=[item.model_dump() for item in result])
 
 
 def attach_router(app: FastAPI) -> None:
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/serve/render/serving.py b/vllm/entrypoints/serve/render/serving.py
index 0ff737824..86533447c 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/serve/render/serving.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/serve/render/serving.py
@@ -24,14 +24,29 @@ from vllm.entrypoints.openai.parser.harmony_utils import (
     parse_chat_inputs_to_harmony_messages,
     render_for_completion,
 )
-from vllm.entrypoints.utils import create_error_response
+from vllm.entrypoints.serve.disagg.protocol import (
+    GenerateRequest,
+    MultiModalFeatures,
+    PlaceholderRangeInfo,
+)
+from vllm.entrypoints.utils import (
+    create_error_response,
+    get_max_tokens,
+)
 from vllm.inputs.data import ProcessorInputs, PromptType, SingletonPrompt, TokensPrompt
 from vllm.logger import init_logger
+from vllm.multimodal.inputs import MultiModalHashes, MultiModalPlaceholderDict
 from vllm.parser import ParserManager
 from vllm.renderers import BaseRenderer, merge_kwargs
-from vllm.renderers.inputs.preprocess import parse_model_prompt, prompt_to_seq
+from vllm.renderers.inputs.preprocess import (
+    extract_prompt_components,
+    extract_prompt_len,
+    parse_model_prompt,
+    prompt_to_seq,
+)
 from vllm.tokenizers import TokenizerLike
 from vllm.tool_parsers import ToolParser
+from vllm.utils import random_uuid
 from vllm.utils.mistral import is_mistral_tokenizer
 from vllm.utils.mistral import mt as _mt
 
@@ -83,10 +98,18 @@ class OpenAIServingRender:
         self.supports_browsing = False
         self.supports_code_interpreter = False
 
+        self.default_sampling_params = model_config.get_diff_sampling_param()
+        mc = model_config
+        self.override_max_tokens = (
+            self.default_sampling_params.get("max_tokens")
+            if mc.generation_config not in ("auto", "vllm")
+            else getattr(mc, "override_generation_config", {}).get("max_new_tokens")
+        )
+
     async def render_chat_request(
         self,
         request: ChatCompletionRequest,
-    ) -> tuple[list[ConversationMessage], list[ProcessorInputs]] | ErrorResponse:
+    ) -> GenerateRequest | ErrorResponse:
         """Validate the model and preprocess a chat completion request.
 
         This is the authoritative implementation used directly by the
@@ -96,7 +119,56 @@ class OpenAIServingRender:
         if error_check_ret is not None:
             logger.error("Error with model %s", error_check_ret)
             return error_check_ret
-        return await self.render_chat(request)
+
+        if request.use_beam_search:
+            return self.create_error_response(
+                "Beam search is not supported by the render endpoint"
+            )
+
+        result = await self.render_chat(request)
+        if isinstance(result, ErrorResponse):
+            return result
+
+        _, engine_prompts = result
+
+        if len(engine_prompts) != 1:
+            return self.create_error_response(
+                f"Expected exactly 1 engine prompt, got {len(engine_prompts)}"
+            )
+
+        engine_prompt = engine_prompts[0]
+
+        prompt_components = extract_prompt_components(self.model_config, engine_prompt)
+        token_ids = prompt_components.token_ids
+        if not token_ids:
+            return self.create_error_response("No token_ids rendered")
+        token_ids = list(token_ids)
+
+        input_length = extract_prompt_len(self.model_config, engine_prompt)
+        max_tokens = get_max_tokens(
+            self.model_config.max_model_len,
+            request.max_completion_tokens
+            if request.max_completion_tokens is not None
+            else request.max_tokens,
+            input_length,
+            self.default_sampling_params,
+            self.override_max_tokens,
+        )
+        params = request.to_sampling_params(max_tokens, self.default_sampling_params)
+
+        request_id = f"chatcmpl-{random_uuid()}"
+
+        return GenerateRequest(
+            request_id=request_id,
+            token_ids=token_ids,
+            features=self._extract_mm_features(engine_prompt),
+            sampling_params=params,
+            model=request.model,
+            stream=bool(request.stream),
+            stream_options=(request.stream_options if request.stream else None),
+            cache_salt=request.cache_salt,
+            priority=request.priority,
+        )
 
     async def render_chat(
         self,
@@ -183,7 +255,7 @@ class OpenAIServingRender:
     async def render_completion_request(
         self,
         request: CompletionRequest,
-    ) -> list[ProcessorInputs] | ErrorResponse:
+    ) -> list[GenerateRequest] | ErrorResponse:
         """Validate the model and preprocess a completion request.
 
         This is the authoritative implementation used directly by the
@@ -192,7 +264,48 @@ class OpenAIServingRender:
         error_check_ret = await self._check_model(request)
         if error_check_ret is not None:
             return error_check_ret
-        return await self.render_completion(request)
+        result = await self.render_completion(request)
+        if isinstance(result, ErrorResponse):
+            return result
+        generate_requests: list[GenerateRequest] = []
+        for engine_prompt in result:
+            prompt_components = extract_prompt_components(
+                self.model_config, engine_prompt
+            )
+            token_ids = prompt_components.token_ids
+            if not token_ids:
+                return self.create_error_response("No token_ids rendered")
+            token_ids = list(token_ids)
+
+            input_length = extract_prompt_len(self.model_config, engine_prompt)
+            max_tokens = get_max_tokens(
+                self.model_config.max_model_len,
+                request.max_tokens,
+                input_length,
+                self.default_sampling_params,
+                self.override_max_tokens,
+            )
+            params = request.to_sampling_params(
+                max_tokens, self.default_sampling_params
+            )
+
+            request_id = f"cmpl-{random_uuid()}"
+
+            generate_requests.append(
+                GenerateRequest(
+                    request_id=request_id,
+                    token_ids=token_ids,
+                    features=self._extract_mm_features(engine_prompt),
+                    sampling_params=params,
+                    model=request.model,
+                    stream=bool(request.stream),
+                    stream_options=(request.stream_options if request.stream else None),
+                    cache_salt=request.cache_salt,
+                    priority=request.priority,
+                )
+            )
+
+        return generate_requests
 
     async def render_completion(
         self,
@@ -223,6 +336,33 @@ class OpenAIServingRender:
 
         return engine_prompts
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def _extract_mm_features(
+        engine_prompt: ProcessorInputs,
+    ) -> MultiModalFeatures | None:
+        """Extract multimodal metadata from a rendered engine prompt.
+
+        Returns ``None`` for text-only prompts.
+        """
+        if engine_prompt.get("type") != "multimodal":
+            return None
+
+        # At this point engine_prompt is a MultiModalInputs TypedDict.
+        mm_hashes: MultiModalHashes = engine_prompt["mm_hashes"]  # type: ignore[typeddict-item]
+        raw_placeholders: MultiModalPlaceholderDict = engine_prompt["mm_placeholders"]  # type: ignore[typeddict-item]
+
+        mm_placeholders = {
+            modality: [
+                PlaceholderRangeInfo(offset=p.offset, length=p.length) for p in ranges
+            ]
+            for modality, ranges in raw_placeholders.items()
+        }
+
+        return MultiModalFeatures(
+            mm_hashes=mm_hashes,
+            mm_placeholders=mm_placeholders,
+        )
+
     def _make_request_with_harmony(
         self,
         request: ChatCompletionRequest,
diff --git a/vllm/entrypoints/serve/tokenize/serving.py b/vllm/entrypoints/serve/tokenize/serving.py
index 77ce2787c..233674aff 100644
--- a/vllm/entrypoints/serve/tokenize/serving.py
+++ b/vllm/entrypoints/serve/tokenize/serving.py
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ class OpenAIServingTokenization(OpenAIServing):
         request_logger: RequestLogger | None,
         chat_template: str | None,
         chat_template_content_format: ChatTemplateContentFormatOption,
+        default_chat_template_kwargs: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
         trust_request_chat_template: bool = False,
     ) -> None:
         super().__init__(
@@ -45,6 +46,7 @@ class OpenAIServingTokenization(OpenAIServing):
 
         self.chat_template = chat_template
         self.chat_template_content_format: Final = chat_template_content_format
+        self.default_chat_template_kwargs = default_chat_template_kwargs or {}
         self.trust_request_chat_template = trust_request_chat_template
 
     async def create_tokenize(
@@ -79,7 +81,7 @@ class OpenAIServingTokenization(OpenAIServing):
                 request.messages,
                 default_template=self.chat_template,
                 default_template_content_format=self.chat_template_content_format,
-                default_template_kwargs=None,
+                default_template_kwargs=self.default_chat_template_kwargs,
                 tool_dicts=tool_dicts,
             )
         else:
@@ -98,8 +100,9 @@ class OpenAIServingTokenization(OpenAIServing):
                 lora_request=lora_request,
             )
 
-            if "prompt_token_ids" in engine_prompt:
-                input_ids.extend(engine_prompt["prompt_token_ids"])  # type: ignore[typeddict-item]
+            prompt_components = self._extract_prompt_components(engine_prompt)
+            if prompt_components.token_ids is not None:
+                input_ids.extend(prompt_components.token_ids)
 
         token_strs = None
         if request.return_token_strs:
diff --git a/vllm/v1/serial_utils.py b/vllm/v1/serial_utils.py
index 0c03de71c..be880bec2 100644
--- a/vllm/v1/serial_utils.py
+++ b/vllm/v1/serial_utils.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ from collections.abc import Callable, Sequence
 from functools import partial
 from inspect import isclass
 from types import FunctionType
-from typing import Any, TypeAlias, get_type_hints
+from typing import Any, ClassVar, TypeAlias, cast, get_type_hints
 
 import cloudpickle
 import msgspec
@@ -460,6 +460,19 @@ def run_method(
 
 
 class PydanticMsgspecMixin:
+    """Make a ``msgspec.Struct`` compatible with Pydantic for both
+    **validation** (JSON/dict -> Struct) and **serialization**
+    (Struct -> JSON-safe dict).
+
+    Subclasses may set ``__pydantic_msgspec_exclude__`` (a ``set[str]``)
+    to list non-underscore field names that should also be stripped from
+    serialized output.  Fields whose names start with ``_`` are always
+    excluded automatically.
+    """
+
+    # Subclasses can override to exclude additional public-but-internal keys.
+    __pydantic_msgspec_exclude__: ClassVar[set[str]] = set()
+
     @classmethod
     def __get_pydantic_core_schema__(
         cls, source_type: Any, handler: GetCoreSchemaHandler
@@ -476,32 +489,62 @@ class PydanticMsgspecMixin:
         # Build the Pydantic typed_dict_field for each msgspec field
         fields = {}
         for name, hint in type_hints.items():
+            if name not in msgspec_fields:
+                # Skip ClassVar and other non-struct annotations.
+                continue
+            # Skip private fields — they are excluded from serialization
+            # and should not appear in the generated JSON/OpenAPI schema.
+            if name.startswith("_"):
+                continue
             msgspec_field = msgspec_fields[name]
 
             # typed_dict_field using the handler to get the schema
             field_schema = handler(hint)
 
             # Add default value to the schema.
+            # Mark fields with defaults as not required so the generated
+            # JSON Schema stays consistent with ``omit_defaults=True``
+            # serialization (fields at their default value may be absent).
             if msgspec_field.default_factory is not msgspec.NODEFAULT:
                 wrapped_schema = core_schema.with_default_schema(
                     schema=field_schema,
                     default_factory=msgspec_field.default_factory,
                 )
-                fields[name] = core_schema.typed_dict_field(wrapped_schema)
+                fields[name] = core_schema.typed_dict_field(
+                    wrapped_schema, required=False
+                )
             elif msgspec_field.default is not msgspec.NODEFAULT:
                 wrapped_schema = core_schema.with_default_schema(
                     schema=field_schema,
                     default=msgspec_field.default,
                 )
-                fields[name] = core_schema.typed_dict_field(wrapped_schema)
+                fields[name] = core_schema.typed_dict_field(
+                    wrapped_schema, required=False
+                )
             else:
                 # No default, so Pydantic will treat it as required
                 fields[name] = core_schema.typed_dict_field(field_schema)
-        return core_schema.no_info_after_validator_function(
+        typed_dict_then_convert = core_schema.no_info_after_validator_function(
             cls._validate_msgspec,
             core_schema.typed_dict_schema(fields),
         )
 
+        # Build a serializer that strips private / excluded fields.
+        serializer = core_schema.plain_serializer_function_ser_schema(
+            cls._serialize_msgspec,
+            info_arg=False,
+        )
+
+        # Accept either an already-constructed msgspec.Struct instance or a
+        # JSON/dict-like payload.
+        return core_schema.union_schema(
+            [
+                core_schema.is_instance_schema(source_type),
+                typed_dict_then_convert,
+            ],
+            serialization=serializer,
+        )
+
     @classmethod
     def _validate_msgspec(cls, value: Any) -> Any:
         """Validate and convert input to msgspec.Struct instance."""
@@ -510,3 +553,25 @@ class PydanticMsgspecMixin:
         if isinstance(value, dict):
             return cls(**value)
         return msgspec.convert(value, type=cls)
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _serialize_msgspec(value: Any) -> Any:
+        """Serialize a msgspec.Struct to a JSON-compatible dict, stripping
+        private (``_``-prefixed) and explicitly excluded fields.
+
+        Uses ``msgspec.to_builtins`` which respects ``omit_defaults=True``,
+        so only fields that differ from their declared defaults are included.
+        """
+        raw = msgspec.to_builtins(value)
+        if not isinstance(raw, dict):
+            return raw
+
+        exclude: set[str] = cast(
+            set[str],
+            getattr(type(value), "__pydantic_msgspec_exclude__", set()),
+        )
+        for key in list(raw):
+            if key.startswith("_") or key in exclude:
+                del raw[key]
+
+        return raw