diff --git a/affine/lium_backend.py b/affine/lium_backend.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f8910499
--- /dev/null
+++ b/affine/lium_backend.py
@@ -0,0 +1,276 @@
+"""
+Lium-backed model serving for Affine sampling.
+
+This module provisions short-lived GPU pods on Lium, starts a minimal
+OpenAI-compatible HTTP server inside the pod for a requested model,
+and exposes the server via a local SSH tunnel so existing evaluation
+code can use a base_url like http://127.0.0.1:<port>/v1 unchanged.
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import atexit
+import os
+import random
+import shlex
+import socket
+import subprocess
+import threading
+import time
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+from typing import Dict, Optional
+
+from lium_sdk import Lium, ExecutorInfo, PodInfo
+
+
+_LOCK = threading.Lock()
+_MODEL_TO_SERVER: Dict[str, "ModelServer"] = {}
+_SSH_TUNNELS: Dict[int, subprocess.Popen] = {}
+_LIUM = Lium()
+
+
+def _pick_free_port(start: int = 30000, end: int = 45000) -> int:
+    """Return an available localhost TCP port."""
+    for _ in range(50):
+        port = random.randint(start, end)
+        with socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) as s:
+            try:
+                s.bind(("127.0.0.1", port))
+                return port
+            except OSError:
+                continue
+    # last resort: let the OS pick an ephemeral port
+    with socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) as s:
+        s.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
+        return s.getsockname()[1]
+
+
+def _choose_executor() -> ExecutorInfo:
+    """Choose a Lium executor, preferring GPU types from AFFINE_LIUM_GPU."""
+    prefs = (os.getenv("AFFINE_LIUM_GPU") or "").split(",")
+    prefs = [p.strip().upper() for p in prefs if p.strip()]
+    exs = _LIUM.ls()
+    if prefs:
+        for p in prefs:
+            for e in exs:
+                if e.gpu_type.upper().startswith(p):
+                    return e
+    # Prefer docker-in-docker for easier server setups
+    for e in exs:
+        if getattr(e, "docker_in_docker", False):
+            return e
+    return exs[0]
+
+
+def _build_server_py() -> str:
+    """Inline FastAPI server exposing minimal OpenAI-compatible endpoints."""
+    return r'''
+import os, uvicorn, torch
+from fastapi import FastAPI
+from pydantic import BaseModel
+from typing import List, Optional, Dict, Any
+from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoModelForSeq2SeqLM
+
+MODEL_ID = os.environ.get("AFFINE_MODEL_ID") or "google/flan-t5-small"
+MAX_TOK = int(os.environ.get("AFFINE_MAX_NEW_TOKENS", "64"))
+TEMPERATURE = float(os.environ.get("AFFINE_TEMPERATURE", "0.7"))
+
+tok = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(MODEL_ID, use_fast=True)
+model = None
+try:
+    model = AutoModelForSeq2SeqLM.from_pretrained(MODEL_ID, trust_remote_code=True)
+except Exception:
+    model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(MODEL_ID, trust_remote_code=True)
+
+device = "cuda" if torch.cuda.is_available() else "cpu"
+model = model.to(device)
+if tok.pad_token is None:
+    tok.pad_token = tok.eos_token
+
+app = FastAPI()
+
+class ChatMessage(BaseModel):
+    role: str
+    content: str
+
+class ChatRequest(BaseModel):
+    model: Optional[str] = None
+    messages: List[ChatMessage]
+    temperature: Optional[float] = None
+    max_tokens: Optional[int] = None
+
+class CompRequest(BaseModel):
+    model: Optional[str] = None
+    prompt: str
+    temperature: Optional[float] = None
+    max_tokens: Optional[int] = None
+
+def _gen(prompt: str, max_new: int, temp: float) -> str:
+    encoded = tok(prompt, return_tensors="pt").to(device)
+    with torch.inference_mode():
+        out = model.generate(
+            **encoded,
+            do_sample=(temp > 0),
+            temperature=max(1e-5, temp),
+            max_new_tokens=max_new,
+            pad_token_id=tok.pad_token_id,
+        )
+    return tok.decode(out[0], skip_special_tokens=True)
+
+@app.post("/v1/chat/completions")
+def chat(req: ChatRequest) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+    prompt = "\n".join(m.content for m in req.messages if m.content)
+    ans = _gen(prompt, req.max_tokens or MAX_TOK, req.temperature or TEMPERATURE)
+    return {
+        "id": "chatcmpl",
+        "object": "chat.completion",
+        "choices": [{"index": 0, "message": {"role": "assistant", "content": ans}}],
+        "model": req.model or MODEL_ID,
+    }
+
+@app.post("/v1/completions")
+def completions(req: CompRequest) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+    ans = _gen(req.prompt, req.max_tokens or MAX_TOK, req.temperature or TEMPERATURE)
+    return {
+        "id": "cmpl",
+        "object": "text_completion",
+        "choices": [{"index": 0, "text": ans}],
+        "model": req.model or MODEL_ID,
+    }
+
+def main():
+    uvicorn.run(app, host="0.0.0.0", port=8000)
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
+'''
+
+
+@dataclass
+class ModelServer:
+    """Represents a running Lium pod hosting a model HTTP server."""
+    model: str
+    pod: PodInfo
+    local_port: Optional[int] = None
+    public_url: Optional[str] = None
+
+    @property
+    def base_url(self) -> str:
+        """Prefer public URL (reachable from containers) else local tunnel."""
+        if self.public_url:
+            return self.public_url.rstrip("/") + "/v1"
+        if self.local_port:
+            return f"http://127.0.0.1:{self.local_port}/v1"
+        raise RuntimeError("Model server has no reachable URL")
+
+
+def _try_public_url(pod: PodInfo) -> Optional[str]:
+    """Attempt to derive a public HTTP URL from pod port mappings."""
+    try:
+        # Refresh pod info to get latest ports mapping
+        for p in _LIUM.ps():
+            if p.id == pod.id:
+                pod = p
+                break
+        # Common shapes: {"8000": 30123} or {"http":30123}
+        ports = pod.ports or {}
+        port = None
+        if "8000" in ports:
+            port = ports.get("8000")
+        elif "http" in ports:
+            port = ports.get("http")
+        elif isinstance(ports, dict):
+            # Fallback to any int value
+            for v in ports.values():
+                if isinstance(v, int):
+                    port = v
+                    break
+        host = pod.host
+        if host and port:
+            return f"http://{host}:{port}"
+    except Exception:
+        return None
+    return None
+
+
+def _start_server_on_pod(model: str) -> ModelServer:
+    """Provision a pod, start server, and open local SSH tunnel."""
+    ex = _choose_executor()
+    pod_dict = _LIUM.up(executor_id=ex.id, pod_name=f"affine-{int(time.time())}", initial_port_count=1)
+    pod = _LIUM.wait_ready(pod_dict, timeout=900)
+    if not pod:
+        raise RuntimeError("Lium pod failed to become ready")
+
+    # Write server file and start it in background
+    env = {
+        "AFFINE_MODEL_ID": model,
+        "AFFINE_MAX_NEW_TOKENS": os.getenv("AFFINE_MAX_NEW_TOKENS", "64"),
+        "AFFINE_TEMPERATURE": os.getenv("AFFINE_TEMPERATURE", "0.7"),
+    }
+    py_code = _build_server_py()
+    cmd = f"""bash -lc 'python3 -m venv /tmp/venv && . /tmp/venv/bin/activate && pip -q install --upgrade pip && pip -q install torch --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu121 && pip -q install transformers sentencepiece tiktoken fastapi uvicorn && cat > /tmp/affine_serv.py <<PY
+{py_code}
+PY
+nohup bash -lc "(. /tmp/venv/bin/activate; python /tmp/affine_serv.py)" >/tmp/affine_serv.log 2>&1 & disown
+sleep 3
+curl -sSf localhost:8000/docs >/dev/null || (tail -n+1 /tmp/affine_serv.log; exit 1)
+'"""
+    res = _LIUM.exec(pod, command=cmd, env=env)
+    if not res.get("success"):
+        raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to start server: {res.get('stderr')}")
+
+    # Prefer public URL if available; otherwise, open SSH tunnel -> local_port
+    public = _try_public_url(pod)
+    if public:
+        return ModelServer(model=model, pod=pod, public_url=public)
+    local_port = _pick_free_port()
+    user = pod.username or "root"
+    host = pod.host or "localhost"
+    port = pod.ssh_port
+    key = str(_LIUM.config.ssh_key_path)
+    ssh_cmd = [
+        "ssh",
+        "-i", key,
+        "-N",
+        "-o", "StrictHostKeyChecking=no",
+        "-p", str(port),
+        "-L", f"{local_port}:127.0.0.1:8000",
+        f"{user}@{host}",
+    ]
+    proc = subprocess.Popen(ssh_cmd, stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL)
+    _SSH_TUNNELS[local_port] = proc
+    return ModelServer(model=model, pod=pod, local_port=local_port)
+
+
+def ensure_model_server(model: str) -> ModelServer:
+    """Return a live server for model, provisioning if necessary."""
+    with _LOCK:
+        srv = _MODEL_TO_SERVER.get(model)
+        if srv:
+            return srv
+        srv = _start_server_on_pod(model)
+        _MODEL_TO_SERVER[model] = srv
+        return srv
+
+
+def stop_all() -> None:
+    """Terminate SSH tunnels and pods."""
+    with _LOCK:
+        for port, proc in list(_SSH_TUNNELS.items()):
+            try:
+                proc.terminate()
+            except Exception:
+                pass
+            _SSH_TUNNELS.pop(port, None)
+        for model, srv in list(_MODEL_TO_SERVER.items()):
+            try:
+                _LIUM._request("DELETE", f"/pods/{srv.pod.id}")
+            except Exception:
+                pass
+            _MODEL_TO_SERVER.pop(model, None)
+
+
+@atexit.register
+def _cleanup() -> None:
+    stop_all()
+
+
diff --git a/affine/miners.py b/affine/miners.py
index 74ede846..39ed37e7 100644
--- a/affine/miners.py
+++ b/affine/miners.py
@@ -305,21 +305,27 @@ async def _fetch_miner(uid: int) -> Optional["Miner"]:
                 )
 
             async with meta_sem:
-                chute = await get_chute(chute_id)
+                if os.getenv("AFFINE_USE_LIUM") == "1":
+                    chute = {"name": model, "slug": "lium-local", "revision": miner_revision}
+                else:
+                    chute = await get_chute(chute_id)
 
             if not chute:
                 return None
 
             chute_name = chute.get("name")
-            if model != chute_name:
-                return None
+            if os.getenv("AFFINE_USE_LIUM") != "1":
+                if model != chute_name:
+                    return None
 
-            if uid != 0 and chute_name.split("/")[1].lower()[:6] != "affine":
-                return None
+            if os.getenv("AFFINE_USE_LIUM") != "1":
+                if uid != 0 and chute_name.split("/")[1].lower()[:6] != "affine":
+                    return None
 
             chute_revision = chute.get("revision")
-            if chute_revision is not None and miner_revision != chute_revision:
-                return None
+            if os.getenv("AFFINE_USE_LIUM") != "1":
+                if chute_revision is not None and miner_revision != chute_revision:
+                    return None
 
             return Miner(
                 uid=uid,
diff --git a/affine/tasks.py b/affine/tasks.py
index 5a165dc6..659f6b3b 100644
--- a/affine/tasks.py
+++ b/affine/tasks.py
@@ -61,7 +61,12 @@ def to_payload(self, miner: Optional["Miner"] = None, **kwargs) -> Dict[str, Any
         # Add miner-based defaults if miner is provided
         if miner is not None:
             payload["model"] = miner.model
-            payload["base_url"] = f"https://{miner.slug}.chutes.ai/v1"
+            if os.getenv("AFFINE_USE_LIUM") == "1":
+                from affine.lium_backend import ensure_model_server
+                srv = ensure_model_server(miner.model)
+                payload["base_url"] = srv.base_url
+            else:
+                payload["base_url"] = f"https://{miner.slug}.chutes.ai/v1"
 
         # Allow kwargs to override any default values
         payload.update(kwargs)
@@ -126,6 +131,8 @@ def docker_image(self) -> str:
     @property
     def env_vars(self) -> Dict[str, str]:
         """Return environment variables for this environment"""
+        if os.getenv("AFFINE_USE_LIUM") == "1":
+            return {}
         api_key = os.getenv("CHUTES_API_KEY")
         if not api_key:
             raise ValueError("CHUTES_API_KEY environment variable is required")