diff --git a/stacks/vllm/.env.example b/stacks/vllm/.env.example
index 7340fd3..f72a5ef 100644
--- a/stacks/vllm/.env.example
+++ b/stacks/vllm/.env.example
@@ -119,3 +119,7 @@ GRANITE_KV_CACHE_DTYPE=fp8
 # leftover room on full-chapter context (max-len 131072). KV 15.0 GiB = 196,560 tokens
 # = 1.50x @ 131072; GPU-1 lands ~6.7 GB headroom (char-rp 30 + granite 27 + selene 17 + trio).
 GRANITE_GPU_MEM_UTIL=0.27
+# Concurrency cap — set VERY HIGH 2026-07-16 (was vLLM default 128) so the KV pool is
+# the only bound. granite is the fleet fan-out summarizer/classifier (many concurrent
+# SHORT calls); default 128 capped below the KV bound (~192 @ 1K-tok). VRAM-neutral.
+GRANITE_MAX_NUM_SEQS=1024
diff --git a/stacks/vllm/compose.yaml b/stacks/vllm/compose.yaml
index 9db106c..527aa2f 100644
--- a/stacks/vllm/compose.yaml
+++ b/stacks/vllm/compose.yaml
@@ -233,6 +233,12 @@ services:
       - ${GRANITE_GPU_MEM_UTIL}
       - --max-model-len
       - ${GRANITE_MAX_MODEL_LEN}
+      # Very high so the KV pool (not the seq cap) is the only concurrency bound —
+      # granite is the fleet fan-out summarizer/classifier (many concurrent SHORT
+      # calls). vLLM's default resolves to 128, capping below the KV bound
+      # (~192 @ 1K-tok); 1024 unblocks it (VRAM-neutral — KV pool is util-bound).
+      - --max-num-seqs
+      - ${GRANITE_MAX_NUM_SEQS}
       - --dtype
       - auto
       # CUDA graphs ENABLED (no --enforce-eager) for decode throughput. Made