diff --git a/tools/server/server-context.cpp b/tools/server/server-context.cpp
index b79a5270b5..d5f363a392 100644
--- a/tools/server/server-context.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server-context.cpp
@@ -455,6 +455,127 @@ struct server_slot {
     }
 };
 
+//
+// checkpoint persistence helpers for hybrid/recurrent models
+//
+// Hybrid models (e.g. Qwen3.5, Jamba, Falcon-H1) use recurrent layers whose
+// state cannot be partially restored from the KV cache alone.  The server
+// creates "context checkpoints" during prompt processing that snapshot the
+// full recurrent state at regular intervals.  These checkpoints live in
+// server_prompt::checkpoints and are essential to avoid a full prompt
+// re-processing when the slot is reused.
+//
+// The built-in /slots save/restore API persists the raw KV+recurrent memory
+// via llama_state_seq_{save,load}_file, but does NOT persist the checkpoint
+// metadata.  The two helpers below fill that gap: they write/read a small
+// companion file (<filename>.checkpoints) next to the main slot save file.
+//
+// File format (binary, little-endian):
+//   uint32  magic    = 0x4C4C4350  ("LLCP")
+//   uint32  version  = 1
+//   uint32  n_checkpoints
+//   For each checkpoint:
+//     int32   pos_min
+//     int32   pos_max
+//     int64   n_tokens
+//     uint64  data_size
+//     uint8   data[data_size]
+//
+
+static bool slot_checkpoints_save(const std::string & filepath,
+                                  const std::list<server_prompt_checkpoint> & checkpoints) {
+    if (checkpoints.empty()) {
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    const std::string cp_path = filepath + ".checkpoints";
+    FILE * fp = fopen(cp_path.c_str(), "wb");
+    if (!fp) {
+        SRV_WRN("failed to open checkpoint file for writing: %s\n", cp_path.c_str());
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    const uint32_t magic   = 0x4C4C4350;
+    const uint32_t version = 1;
+    const uint32_t n_cp    = (uint32_t) checkpoints.size();
+
+    bool ok = true;
+    ok = ok && fwrite(&magic,   sizeof(magic),   1, fp) == 1;
+    ok = ok && fwrite(&version, sizeof(version), 1, fp) == 1;
+    ok = ok && fwrite(&n_cp,    sizeof(n_cp),    1, fp) == 1;
+
+    for (const auto & cp : checkpoints) {
+        const uint64_t data_size = cp.data.size();
+        ok = ok && fwrite(&cp.pos_min,  sizeof(cp.pos_min),  1, fp) == 1;
+        ok = ok && fwrite(&cp.pos_max,  sizeof(cp.pos_max),  1, fp) == 1;
+        ok = ok && fwrite(&cp.n_tokens, sizeof(cp.n_tokens), 1, fp) == 1;
+        ok = ok && fwrite(&data_size,   sizeof(data_size),   1, fp) == 1;
+        if (data_size > 0) {
+            ok = ok && fwrite(cp.data.data(), 1, data_size, fp) == data_size;
+        }
+    }
+
+    fclose(fp);
+
+    if (!ok) {
+        SRV_WRN("failed to write checkpoint data to %s\n", cp_path.c_str());
+        std::remove(cp_path.c_str());
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    SRV_INF("saved %u context checkpoints to %s\n", n_cp, cp_path.c_str());
+    return true;
+}
+
+static bool slot_checkpoints_load(const std::string & filepath,
+                                  std::list<server_prompt_checkpoint> & checkpoints) {
+    const std::string cp_path = filepath + ".checkpoints";
+    FILE * fp = fopen(cp_path.c_str(), "rb");
+    if (!fp) {
+        return true;  // no checkpoint file is not an error
+    }
+
+    uint32_t magic = 0, version = 0, n_cp = 0;
+    bool ok = true;
+    ok = ok && fread(&magic,   sizeof(magic),   1, fp) == 1;
+    ok = ok && fread(&version, sizeof(version), 1, fp) == 1;
+    ok = ok && fread(&n_cp,    sizeof(n_cp),    1, fp) == 1;
+
+    if (!ok || magic != 0x4C4C4350 || version != 1) {
+        SRV_WRN("invalid checkpoint file header: %s\n", cp_path.c_str());
+        fclose(fp);
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    checkpoints.clear();
+
+    for (uint32_t i = 0; i < n_cp && ok; i++) {
+        server_prompt_checkpoint cp;
+        uint64_t data_size = 0;
+        ok = ok && fread(&cp.pos_min,  sizeof(cp.pos_min),  1, fp) == 1;
+        ok = ok && fread(&cp.pos_max,  sizeof(cp.pos_max),  1, fp) == 1;
+        ok = ok && fread(&cp.n_tokens, sizeof(cp.n_tokens), 1, fp) == 1;
+        ok = ok && fread(&data_size,   sizeof(data_size),   1, fp) == 1;
+        if (ok && data_size > 0) {
+            cp.data.resize(data_size);
+            ok = ok && fread(cp.data.data(), 1, data_size, fp) == data_size;
+        }
+        if (ok) {
+            checkpoints.push_back(std::move(cp));
+        }
+    }
+
+    fclose(fp);
+
+    if (!ok) {
+        SRV_WRN("failed to read checkpoint data from %s\n", cp_path.c_str());
+        checkpoints.clear();
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    SRV_INF("restored %u context checkpoints from %s\n", n_cp, cp_path.c_str());
+    return true;
+}
 
 
 //
@@ -1822,6 +1943,9 @@ private:
                     const llama_tokens & tokens = slot->prompt.tokens.get_text_tokens();
                     const size_t nwrite = llama_state_seq_save_file(ctx, filepath.c_str(), slot->id, tokens.data(), token_count);
 
+                    // persist context checkpoints alongside the slot state
+                    slot_checkpoints_save(filepath, slot->prompt.checkpoints);
+
                     const int64_t t_end = ggml_time_us();
                     const double t_save_ms = (t_end - t_start) / 1000.0;
 
@@ -1869,6 +1993,9 @@ private:
                     slot->prompt.tokens.clear();
                     slot->prompt.tokens.insert(tokens);
 
+                    // restore context checkpoints if a companion file exists
+                    slot_checkpoints_load(filepath, slot->prompt.checkpoints);
+
                     const int64_t t_end = ggml_time_us();
                     const double t_restore_ms = (t_end - t_start) / 1000.0;