diff --git a/bench/_kv_aware_k3_e2e_client.py b/bench/_kv_aware_k3_e2e_client.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e40d1157
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bench/_kv_aware_k3_e2e_client.py
@@ -0,0 +1,226 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+###############################################################################
+# Copyright (c) 2026, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved.
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+###############################################################################
+"""End-to-end kv-aware split test against a live two-worker Kimi-K3 fleet.
+
+Replays multi-turn agent sessions through the router with per-session causal
+pacing (a turn completes before the next turn of that session is issued) and
+reports the traffic split measured the way the field report measured it: from
+each engine's own ``vllm:prefix_cache_queries_total`` delta, not from router
+metrics.
+
+Sessions are built from a corpus of real K3-tokenized source files, so each
+turn re-sends the conversation so far plus new content and shares a long
+prefix with the previous turn.
+
+    python3 bench/_kv_aware_k3_e2e_client.py \
+        --router http://localhost:8000 \
+        --workers http://node:30000 http://node:30001 \
+        --requests 448 --concurrency 1
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import argparse
+import asyncio
+import json
+import random
+import re
+import sys
+import time
+from collections import defaultdict
+
+import httpx
+
+_QUERIES = "vllm:prefix_cache_queries_total"
+_HITS = "vllm:prefix_cache_hits_total"
+
+
+def _scrape(text: str, metric: str) -> float:
+    """Sum every series of ``metric`` in a Prometheus exposition payload."""
+    total = 0.0
+    for line in text.splitlines():
+        if line.startswith("#") or not line.startswith(metric):
+            continue
+        # metric{labels} value   |   metric value
+        m = re.match(rf"{re.escape(metric)}(?:\{{[^}}]*\}})?\s+([0-9.eE+-]+)$", line.strip())
+        if m:
+            total += float(m.group(1))
+    return total
+
+
+async def counters(client: httpx.AsyncClient, url: str) -> tuple[float, float]:
+    r = await client.get(f"{url}/metrics", timeout=30.0)
+    r.raise_for_status()
+    return _scrape(r.text, _QUERIES), _scrape(r.text, _HITS)
+
+
+def load_docs(root: str, min_chars: int = 4000, limit: int = 200) -> list[str]:
+    """Real source files, big enough that a prompt spans several router blocks."""
+    import pathlib
+
+    out: list[str] = []
+    for f in sorted(pathlib.Path(root).rglob("*.py")):
+        try:
+            t = f.read_text(errors="ignore")
+        except OSError:
+            continue
+        if len(t) >= min_chars:
+            out.append(t[:12000])
+        if len(out) >= limit:
+            break
+    return out
+
+
+def build_sessions(docs: list[str], n_requests: int, seed: int) -> list[dict]:
+    """Multi-turn agent sessions over real source files, as chat requests.
+
+    A shared system prompt, then per-session divergence (one source file), then
+    per-turn growth -- the shape the Mooncake toolagent trace has and the shape
+    that makes turn N share a long prefix with turn N-1.
+
+    Prompts must clear the router's index block size (768 tokens here) or they
+    hash to zero blocks and the cache term has nothing to work with: the first
+    run of this produced request_blocks=0 on every pick and a 0% hit rate, which
+    looks like a routing result but is really an undersized prompt.
+    """
+    rng = random.Random(seed)
+    # ~3.5k tokens of shared preamble, so even turn 0 spans several blocks and
+    # every session in the run shares a real prefix.
+    system = (
+        "You are a senior systems engineer reviewing AMD ROCm inference code.\n"
+        "Answer precisely, cite the code you are given, and prefer concrete "
+        "detail over generalities.\n"
+    ) + "".join(f"Review guideline {i}: check correctness, then performance.\n" for i in range(300))
+    rng.shuffle(docs)
+
+    reqs: list[dict] = []
+    sid = 0
+    while len(reqs) < n_requests and docs:
+        doc = docs[sid % len(docs)]
+        sid += 1
+        messages = [
+            {"role": "system", "content": system},
+            {"role": "user", "content": f"Here is a file to review:\n\n{doc}"},
+        ]
+        for turn in range(rng.randint(3, 8)):
+            messages = messages + [
+                {"role": "assistant", "content": f"Reviewed section {turn}. " * 60},
+                {"role": "user", "content": f"Now explain section {turn + 1} in detail. " * 60},
+            ]
+            reqs.append(
+                {
+                    "session": sid,
+                    "turn": turn,
+                    "payload": {
+                        "model": "kimi-k3",
+                        "messages": list(messages),
+                        "max_tokens": 8,
+                        "temperature": 0.0,
+                        "stream": False,
+                    },
+                }
+            )
+            if len(reqs) >= n_requests:
+                break
+    return reqs[:n_requests]
+
+
+async def run(args) -> int:
+    docs = load_docs(args.corpus_dir)
+    print(f"corpus: {len(docs)} source files from {args.corpus_dir}")
+    reqs = build_sessions(docs, args.requests, args.seed)
+    n_sessions = len({r["session"] for r in reqs})
+    print(f"trace: {len(reqs)} requests over {n_sessions} sessions")
+    print(f"       policy under test: whatever the router was launched with")
+    print(f"       concurrency={args.concurrency} (1 = the reported serial case)\n")
+
+    async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=httpx.Timeout(args.timeout)) as client:
+        before = [await counters(client, w) for w in args.workers]
+
+        # Per-session causal pacing: turns of one session are strictly ordered,
+        # and `concurrency` bounds how many sessions are in flight at once.
+        by_session: dict[int, list[dict]] = defaultdict(list)
+        for r in reqs:
+            by_session[r["session"]].append(r)
+        sem = asyncio.Semaphore(args.concurrency)
+        failures = 0
+        lat: list[float] = []
+
+        done = 0
+
+        async def one_session(turns: list[dict]) -> None:
+            nonlocal failures, done
+            async with sem:
+                for r in turns:
+                    t0 = time.perf_counter()
+                    try:
+                        resp = await client.post(
+                            f"{args.router}/v1/chat/completions",
+                            json=r["payload"],
+                            timeout=args.request_timeout,
+                        )
+                        if resp.status_code != 200:
+                            failures += 1
+                            if failures <= 3:
+                                print(f"  HTTP {resp.status_code}: {resp.text[:200]}")
+                        else:
+                            lat.append(time.perf_counter() - t0)
+                    except Exception as exc:  # noqa: BLE001 - report and continue
+                        failures += 1
+                        if failures <= 3:
+                            print(f"  error: {exc}", flush=True)
+                    finally:
+                        done += 1
+                        if done % 25 == 0:
+                            print(f"  {done}/{len(reqs)} ...", flush=True)
+
+        t_start = time.perf_counter()
+        await asyncio.gather(*(one_session(t) for t in by_session.values()))
+        elapsed = time.perf_counter() - t_start
+
+        after = [await counters(client, w) for w in args.workers]
+
+    print(f"completed {len(lat)}/{len(reqs)} in {elapsed:.1f}s ({failures} failures)\n")
+
+    deltas = [(a[0] - b[0], a[1] - b[1]) for b, a in zip(before, after)]
+    total_q = sum(d[0] for d in deltas)
+    print(f"{'worker':>34} | {'queries':>9} | {'share':>6} | {'hit rate':>8}")
+    print("-" * 34 + "-+-" + "-" * 9 + "-+-" + "-" * 6 + "-+-" + "-" * 8)
+    for w, (dq, dh) in zip(args.workers, deltas):
+        share = dq / total_q if total_q else 0.0
+        hr = dh / dq if dq else 0.0
+        print(f"{w:>34} | {dq:>9.0f} | {share:>5.1%} | {hr:>7.1%}")
+
+    if not total_q:
+        print("\nno prefix-cache queries recorded -- are these the right worker URLs?")
+        return 2
+    worst = max(d[0] for d in deltas) / total_q
+    overall_hr = sum(d[1] for d in deltas) / total_q
+    print(f"\noverall block hit rate: {overall_hr:.1%}")
+    print(f"worst-worker share:     {worst:.1%}  (ideal {1 / len(args.workers):.1%})")
+    if worst > 0.99:
+        print("\nPINNED: one worker took essentially all traffic.")
+        return 1
+    print("\nSPREAD: traffic reached every worker.")
+    return 0
+
+
+def main() -> int:
+    ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    ap.add_argument("--router", required=True, help="router base URL")
+    ap.add_argument("--workers", nargs="+", required=True, help="engine base URLs (/metrics)")
+    ap.add_argument("--corpus-dir", default="infera")
+    ap.add_argument("--requests", type=int, default=448)
+    ap.add_argument("--concurrency", type=int, default=1)
+    ap.add_argument("--seed", type=int, default=0)
+    ap.add_argument("--timeout", type=float, default=600.0)
+    ap.add_argument("--request-timeout", type=float, default=120.0)
+    return asyncio.run(run(ap.parse_args()))
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/bench/_kv_aware_k3_launch_w.sh b/bench/_kv_aware_k3_launch_w.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a9f26795
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bench/_kv_aware_k3_launch_w.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Launch ONE Kimi-K3 TP8 mixed worker on this host, for the two-node kv-aware
+# split reproduction. Run it on each of the two nodes.
+#
+#   WORKER_ID=w0 MODELS=/mnt/nvme3-bench/models ETCD=chi2832:2379 bash _kv_aware_k3_launch_w.sh
+#   WORKER_ID=w1 MODELS=/mnt/nvme-raid/models   ETCD=chi2832:2379 bash _kv_aware_k3_launch_w.sh
+#
+# TP8 is not a tuning choice, it is forced twice over:
+#   * the DSpark latent-MoE tail kernel refuses anything else
+#     ("requires TP=8, got TP=4")
+#   * AITER MLA needs 1-15 heads or a multiple of 16; K3's 96 heads over TP4
+#     gives 24, which is neither
+#   * 1.5T of weights over 4x288GB MI355X does not fit regardless
+# So one worker occupies a whole 8-GPU node, and two workers means two nodes.
+#
+# Mirrors examples/recipes/kimi-k3-optimized/aggregated/deploy.yaml: same image
+# digest, same env block, same engine flags. Run as plain docker rather than
+# through the operator because these nodes are not in the k8s cluster.
+set -euo pipefail
+
+WORKER_ID="${WORKER_ID:?set WORKER_ID (w0|w1)}"
+MODELS="${MODELS:?set MODELS (host dir containing moonshotai/Kimi-K3)}"
+ETCD="${ETCD:?set ETCD (host:2379)}"
+PORT="${PORT:-30000}"
+ADVERTISE="${ADVERTISE:-$(hostname)}"
+
+ENGINE=johnqin2025/kimi-k3-dspark@sha256:5f3007aff1bc231eceb9f024e56ee80e44f9ca101a521aa50fe6bfa6c979d6b8
+OVERLAY="${OVERLAY:-inferaimage/infera-overlay:v0.2.5}"
+
+docker rm -f "k3-$WORKER_ID" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+rm -rf /tmp/k3-overlay && mkdir -p /tmp/k3-overlay
+docker run --rm -v /tmp/k3-overlay:/out "$OVERLAY" >/dev/null
+echo "overlay staged"
+
+# --kv-event-transport zmq is REQUIRED: the default is nats, and with no broker
+# the worker never finishes registering. The ZMQ port is auto-allocated by the
+# launcher and self-advertised in the etcd record, so it is not pinned here.
+# --advertise-host must be the routable hostname: the router and the peer node
+# both dial it, and 127.0.0.1 would only work same-host.
+docker run -d --name "k3-$WORKER_ID" --network host --ipc host --shm-size 32g \
+  --device /dev/kfd --device /dev/dri --group-add video \
+  --cap-add SYS_PTRACE --security-opt seccomp=unconfined \
+  -e VLLM_ROCM_USE_AITER=1 \
+  -e VLLM_ROCM_USE_AITER_FP4BMM=1 \
+  -e AITER_SITUV2_A8W4=1 \
+  -e AITER_BF16_FP8_MOE_BOUND=0 \
+  -e HIP_FORCE_DEV_KERNARG=1 \
+  -e HSA_NO_SCRATCH_RECLAIM=1 \
+  -e HSA_ENABLE_IPC_MODE_LEGACY=1 \
+  -e SAFETENSORS_FAST_GPU=1 \
+  -e VLLM_USE_BREAKABLE_CUDAGRAPH=0 \
+  -e VLLM_ENABLE_K3_LATENT_MOE_TAIL_FUSION=1 \
+  -e VLLM_ROCM_USE_KIMI_K3_PREROUTE_BF16=0 \
+  -e VLLM_ROCM_USE_KIMI_K3_PREROUTE_FP8=1 \
+  -e VLLM_ROCM_USE_KIMI_K3_LATENT_TAIL_FP8=1 \
+  -e KIMI_K3_DUAL_PROJ_FP8_WEIGHT_CACHE_MODIFIER=2 \
+  -e KIMI_K3_SHARED_DOWN_FP8_WEIGHT_CACHE_MODIFIER=2 \
+  -e INFERA_ENGINE_READY_TIMEOUT=7200 \
+  -e HF_HUB_OFFLINE=1 \
+  -v /tmp/k3-overlay:/overlay:ro -v "$MODELS":/models:ro \
+  "$ENGINE" \
+  /overlay/bin/infera-exec python3 -m infera.engine.vllm \
+    --host 0.0.0.0 --port "$PORT" \
+    --advertise-host "$ADVERTISE" \
+    --model /models/moonshotai/Kimi-K3 --served-model-name kimi-k3 \
+    --tensor-parallel-size 8 \
+    --gpu-memory-utilization 0.88 \
+    --trust-remote-code --load-format auto \
+    --kv-cache-dtype auto --enable-prefix-caching \
+    --block-size 16 \
+    --max-num-seqs 64 --max-num-batched-tokens 4096 \
+    --max-model-len 131072 \
+    --kv-event-transport zmq \
+    --request-transport http \
+    --discovery-backend etcd --etcd-endpoint "$ETCD"
+
+echo "k3-$WORKER_ID up on $ADVERTISE:$PORT (TP8), registering into etcd at $ETCD"
+echo "1.5T of weights: first load takes several minutes. docker logs -f k3-$WORKER_ID"
diff --git a/bench/_kv_aware_k3_run_router.sh b/bench/_kv_aware_k3_run_router.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..74d13708
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bench/_kv_aware_k3_run_router.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Run the Python infera.server router in front of the two Kimi-K3 workers
+# started by _kv_aware_k3_launch_workers.sh.
+#
+# The Python server is deliberate: it is what the field report ran. The overlay
+# also ships a Rust infera-router, which is an independent implementation of the
+# same policy.
+#
+#   POLICY=kv-aware      bash bench/_kv_aware_k3_run_router.sh
+#   POLICY=round-robin   bash bench/_kv_aware_k3_run_router.sh   # control arm
+#
+# OVERLAP_WEIGHT sets --kv-overlap-weight; the report tested 0.01, where the
+# decision should reduce to least-loaded.
+set -euo pipefail
+
+MODELS="${MODELS:-/mnt/nvme3-bench/models}"
+ENGINE=johnqin2025/kimi-k3-dspark@sha256:5f3007aff1bc231eceb9f024e56ee80e44f9ca101a521aa50fe6bfa6c979d6b8
+POLICY="${POLICY:-kv-aware}"
+OVERLAP_WEIGHT="${OVERLAP_WEIGHT:-1.0}"
+
+OVERLAY="${OVERLAY:-inferaimage/infera-overlay:v0.2.7}"
+
+docker rm -f k3-router >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+# Stage the router's own overlay copy: the workers may be on a different
+# payload version, and it is the ROUTER that carries the policy under test.
+rm -rf /tmp/k3-overlay-router && mkdir -p /tmp/k3-overlay-router
+docker run --rm -v /tmp/k3-overlay-router:/out "$OVERLAY" >/dev/null
+echo "router overlay: $(docker inspect --format '{{index .RepoDigests 0}}' "$OVERLAY")"
+
+# --kv-event-transport zmq must match the workers': the default is nats, and a
+# router pointed at a broker that is not there simply never populates a view,
+# which reads as "kv-aware routes badly" rather than as a wiring error.
+docker run -d --name k3-router --network host \
+  -v /tmp/k3-overlay-router:/overlay:ro -v "$MODELS":/models:ro \
+  -e HF_HUB_OFFLINE=1 \
+  "$ENGINE" \
+  /overlay/bin/infera-exec python3 -m infera.server \
+    --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 \
+    --discovery-backend etcd --etcd-endpoint "${ETCD:-127.0.0.1:2379}" \
+    --router-policy "$POLICY" \
+    --kv-overlap-weight "$OVERLAP_WEIGHT" \
+    --kv-event-transport zmq \
+    --router-tokenizer-path /models/moonshotai/Kimi-K3 \
+    --request-transport http
+
+echo "router up: policy=$POLICY overlap_weight=$OVERLAP_WEIGHT -> :8000"
+echo "logs: docker logs -f k3-router"