diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 3d6e884..71a2be8 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -23,14 +23,11 @@ LLAMA_MODEL_FILE=Qwen3.8-27B-UD-Q4_K_XL.gguf
 LLAMA_GPU_LAYERS=999
 # 262144 = this model's true max (max_position_embeddings in Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B's
 # config.json) — the largest --ctx-size llama.cpp will even accept for it.
-# fp16 KV cache at full context is ~16GB (262,144 x 64KiB/token), on top of
-# 17.6GB weights = ~33.6GB, which does NOT fit the 32GB R9700 — expect
-# llama-server to fail to allocate and refuse to start at this setting.
-# Chosen anyway per explicit request to run at the model's real ceiling
-# rather than a VRAM-safe value. To actually get a working max: quantize the
-# KV cache (--cache-type-k/v q8_0, roughly halves it to ~8GB, fits with room
-# to spare) or drop back to 131072 (128K), the last known-good value
-# (~25.6GB total, ~6GB headroom) — see docs/research/qwen3.8-27b-quant.md.
+# fp16 KV cache at full context would be ~16GB, on top of 17.6GB weights =
+# ~33.6GB, which does NOT fit the 32GB R9700 on its own. docker-compose.yml
+# now runs --cache-type-k/v q8_0, which roughly halves KV memory (~8GB at
+# this size) — total ~25.6GB, ~6GB headroom, the same footprint the old
+# 131072 fp16 setting used. See docs/research/qwen3.8-27b-quant.md.
 LLAMA_CTX_SIZE=262144
 # Concurrent request slots. Was implicitly 4 (llama.cpp's compiled-in
 # default) with no flag set — under concurrent subagent fan-out, 4 requests
@@ -39,7 +36,9 @@ LLAMA_CTX_SIZE=262144
 # cancels the request (see issue-tracker notes on the timeout/cancel loop).
 # Dropped to 2 so each slot gets more compute and finishes prefill sooner;
 # raise back toward 4 if throughput (not latency) becomes the bottleneck
-# instead.
+# instead. Each slot gets LLAMA_CTX_SIZE / LLAMA_PARALLEL tokens of context —
+# real sessions have hit ~66K tokens, so don't drop LLAMA_CTX_SIZE without
+# checking that per-slot number stays comfortably above observed usage.
 LLAMA_PARALLEL=2
 
 # --- Lazytainer ---
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 51f82f4..6650c9d 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -18,9 +18,11 @@ services:
       --host 0.0.0.0
       --port 8080
       --n-gpu-layers ${LLAMA_GPU_LAYERS:-999}
-      --ctx-size ${LLAMA_CTX_SIZE:-131072}
+      --ctx-size ${LLAMA_CTX_SIZE:-262144}
       --parallel ${LLAMA_PARALLEL:-2}
       --flash-attn on
+      --cache-type-k q8_0
+      --cache-type-v q8_0
       --jinja
     # No published host port: llama-server is reached only via the omniroute
     # gateway on the ai-stack docker network now — see issue #15. Its