diff --git a/crates/xserv-tensor/src/shape.rs b/crates/xserv-tensor/src/shape.rs
index 5f70dc6..bf89593 100644
--- a/crates/xserv-tensor/src/shape.rs
+++ b/crates/xserv-tensor/src/shape.rs
@@ -18,12 +18,21 @@ pub fn contiguous_strides(shape: &[usize]) -> Dims {
 }
 
 /// Check if the given strides represent contiguous (row-major) layout for the shape.
+/// A stride mismatch on a dimension of size 1 is allowed because that
+/// dimension is never stepped.
 pub fn is_contiguous(shape: &[usize], strides: &[usize]) -> bool {
     if shape.is_empty() {
         return true;
     }
-    let expected = contiguous_strides(shape);
-    strides == expected.as_slice()
+    let ndim = shape.len();
+    let mut expected_stride = 1usize;
+    for d in (0..ndim).rev() {
+        if shape[d] != 1 && strides[d] != expected_stride {
+            return false;
+        }
+        expected_stride *= shape[d];
+    }
+    true
 }
 
 /// Total number of elements given a shape.
diff --git a/crates/xserv-tensor/src/tensor.rs b/crates/xserv-tensor/src/tensor.rs
index a4aeeb1..33965f6 100644
--- a/crates/xserv-tensor/src/tensor.rs
+++ b/crates/xserv-tensor/src/tensor.rs
@@ -120,6 +120,21 @@ impl Tensor {
         }
     }
 
+    /// Zero-copy slice along `dim`: keeps elements `[start, start+len)`.
+    pub fn narrow(&self, dim: usize, start: usize, len: usize) -> Self {
+        assert!(dim < self.ndim());
+        assert!(start + len <= self.shape[dim], "narrow out of bounds");
+        let mut new_shape = self.shape.clone();
+        new_shape[dim] = len;
+        Self {
+            storage: self.storage.clone(),
+            shape: new_shape,
+            strides: self.strides.clone(),
+            offset: self.offset + start * self.strides[dim],
+            dtype: self.dtype,
+        }
+    }
+
     pub fn transpose(&self, dim0: usize, dim1: usize) -> Self {
         assert!(dim0 < self.ndim() && dim1 < self.ndim());
         let mut new_shape = self.shape.clone();