Serve a model with MAX

max serve launches an OpenAI-compatible HTTP server for a model. It handles tokenization, batching, KV cache, and the whole serving stack. You point it at a checkpoint and, if the model isn't built into MAX, at a custom architecture package. This skill takes you from "no environment" to "server answering requests," and helps you choose flags that fit the specific model instead of guessing.

The guiding principle: start from the smallest command that could work, then add flags only when the model or the hardware forces you to. MAX auto-detects most things (dtype, sequence length, device defaults). Over-specifying flags is the most common way people turn a working serve into a broken one.

Use this skill when you want to run, launch, or host a model on MAX: bring up an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, serve a built-in or a custom/ported architecture, or debug a max serve startup failure.