Knowledge BaseModular ComponentsBackendsTensorRT-LLM

TensorRT-LLM Sidecar

Run Dynamo beside a stock TensorRT-LLM engine through native gRPC.

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Experimental. The TensorRT-LLM sidecar, launcher, packaging, and feature coverage can change without notice.

dynamo-trtllm-sidecar is a CPU-only Dynamo worker that connects to TensorRT-LLM’s native gRPC service. It preserves the upstream engine process and argument surface while using Dynamo for request handling and distributed serving. See the Sidecar Backends page for the common architecture.

Readiness

Deployment pathAggregatedDisaggregated
Local launcherValidated on one GPUNot supported
Kubernetes exampleValidatedNot supported

This table covers launch topology only. The TensorRT-LLM feature matrix describes the in-process backend; sidecar feature parity is still under evaluation. The current native gRPC contract does not provide the prefill/decode handoff needed for disaggregated serving. See the TensorRT-LLM sidecar README for other protocol limitations.

Launch Locally

From a Dynamo source checkout, build or install Dynamo so dynamo-trtllm-sidecar is on PATH. Install a TensorRT-LLM release that provides tensorrt_llm.commands.serve --grpc.

Start Dynamo’s local discovery services, then run the aggregated launcher:

$docker compose -f dev/docker-compose.yml up -d
$./lib/sidecar/trtllm/launch/agg.sh --model Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B

The launcher starts the Dynamo frontend, TensorRT-LLM engine, and sidecar. It binds TensorRT-LLM’s native gRPC endpoint to loopback.

Verify the frontend:

$curl localhost:8000/v1/chat/completions \
>  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>  -d '{
>    "model": "Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B",
>    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
>    "max_tokens": 32
>  }'

Deploy on Kubernetes

No published TensorRT-LLM sidecar image is available yet. Follow the Kubernetes quick start to build the CPU-only sidecar image and pair it with a stock upstream TensorRT-LLM image. The source tree includes an aggregated deployment manifest.