diff --git a/crates/xserv-server/src/api.rs b/crates/xserv-server/src/api.rs
index 73eacc6..c7a7d70 100644
--- a/crates/xserv-server/src/api.rs
+++ b/crates/xserv-server/src/api.rs
@@ -331,6 +331,10 @@ async fn chat_non_stream(state: Arc<AppState>, req: ChatRequest) -> Response {
         }
     }
 
+    let fr_value = match normalize_finish_reason(&finish_reason) {
+        Some(s) => serde_json::Value::String(s.to_string()),
+        None => serde_json::Value::Null,
+    };
     Json(serde_json::json!({
         "id": id,
         "object": "chat.completion",
@@ -339,7 +343,7 @@ async fn chat_non_stream(state: Arc<AppState>, req: ChatRequest) -> Response {
         "choices": [{
             "index": 0,
             "message": { "role": "assistant", "content": content },
-            "finish_reason": finish_reason,
+            "finish_reason": fr_value,
         }],
         "usage": {
             "prompt_tokens": prompt_token_count,
@@ -412,8 +416,11 @@ fn chat_stream(state: Arc<AppState>, req: ChatRequest) -> Response {
                             make_chunk(&id, &model_name, created, None, Some("assistant"), None);
                         let _ = sse_tx.send(Ok(Event::default().data(chunk))).await;
                     }
-                    let chunk =
-                        make_chunk(&id, &model_name, created, None, None, Some(&finish_reason));
+                    // Only "stop" and "length" are OpenAI-standard values. Internal
+                    // codes like "error" (client-stalled from tp/pp engine) map to
+                    // null so SDK clients see a clean stream close.
+                    let fr = normalize_finish_reason(&finish_reason);
+                    let chunk = make_chunk(&id, &model_name, created, None, None, fr);
                     let _ = sse_tx.send(Ok(Event::default().data(chunk))).await;
                     let _ = sse_tx
                         .send(Ok(Event::default().data("[DONE]".to_string())))
@@ -442,6 +449,22 @@ fn validate_request(req: &ChatRequest, model_name: &str) -> Option<Response> {
         return Some(bad_request("max_tokens must be greater than 0"));
     }
 
+    if let Some(t) = req.temperature {
+        if !t.is_finite() || t < 0.0 {
+            return Some(bad_request("temperature must be a finite value >= 0"));
+        }
+    }
+    if let Some(p) = req.top_p {
+        if !p.is_finite() || !(0.0..=1.0).contains(&p) {
+            return Some(bad_request("top_p must be in [0, 1]"));
+        }
+    }
+    if let Some(k) = req.top_k {
+        if k > 1_000_000 {
+            return Some(bad_request("top_k must be <= 1_000_000"));
+        }
+    }
+
     None
 }
 
@@ -453,9 +476,14 @@ fn submit_to_engine(state: &AppState, req: GenerateRequest) -> Result<(), Respon
         .engine_sender
         .lock()
         .unwrap_or_else(|e| e.into_inner());
-    sender
-        .send(req)
-        .map_err(|_| service_unavailable("inference engine is not available"))
+    sender.try_send(req).map_err(|err| match err {
+        std::sync::mpsc::TrySendError::Full(_) => {
+            service_unavailable("inference engine is busy, retry later")
+        }
+        std::sync::mpsc::TrySendError::Disconnected(_) => {
+            service_unavailable("inference engine is not available")
+        }
+    })
 }
 
 fn service_unavailable(message: impl Into<String>) -> Response {
@@ -532,3 +560,14 @@ fn sampling_params(req: &ChatRequest) -> SamplingParams {
         top_p: req.top_p.unwrap_or(1.0),
     }
 }
+
+/// Map engine finish_reason strings to OpenAI-standard values. Any engine-internal
+/// code (e.g. "error" from tp/pp client-stall) collapses to None so SDK clients see
+/// a clean null instead of an unknown value.
+fn normalize_finish_reason(fr: &str) -> Option<&'static str> {
+    match fr {
+        "stop" => Some("stop"),
+        "length" => Some("length"),
+        _ => None,
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/xserv-server/src/main.rs b/crates/xserv-server/src/main.rs
index 88e9ed0..2610a4c 100644
--- a/crates/xserv-server/src/main.rs
+++ b/crates/xserv-server/src/main.rs
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ mod tp_engine;
 
 use axum::{
     Extension, Router,
+    extract::DefaultBodyLimit,
     routing::{get, post},
 };
 use engine::GenerateRequest;
@@ -15,7 +16,7 @@ use xserv_model::ModelConfig;
 pub struct AppState {
     pub model_name: String,
     pub chat_template: api::ChatTemplate,
-    pub engine_sender: Mutex<mpsc::Sender<GenerateRequest>>,
+    pub engine_sender: Mutex<mpsc::SyncSender<GenerateRequest>>,
     pub engine_tokenizer: Mutex<xserv_tokenizer::Tokenizer>,
     pub max_seq_len: usize,
 }
@@ -104,8 +105,10 @@ async fn main() {
 
     let tokenizer = xserv_tokenizer::Tokenizer::from_file(&model_dir.join("tokenizer.json"));
 
-    // Unbounded channel: allows multiple requests to queue up
-    let (tx, rx) = mpsc::channel::<GenerateRequest>();
+    // Bounded channel to backpressure incoming requests when the engine falls
+    // behind, instead of letting them pile up in RAM. try_send in the API
+    // handler surfaces this as 503 to the client.
+    let (tx, rx) = mpsc::sync_channel::<GenerateRequest>(256);
 
     let model_dir_clone = model_dir.clone();
     std::thread::spawn(move || {
@@ -140,6 +143,7 @@ async fn main() {
         .route("/health", get(api::health))
         .route("/v1/models", get(api::list_models))
         .route("/v1/chat/completions", post(api::chat_completions))
+        .layer(DefaultBodyLimit::max(4 * 1024 * 1024))
         .layer(Extension(state));
 
     let addr = format!("0.0.0.0:{port}");