diff --git a/llama_stack/providers/impls/meta_reference/inference/config.py b/llama_stack/providers/impls/meta_reference/inference/config.py
index 901a8c7fbe..4e1161cedb 100644
--- a/llama_stack/providers/impls/meta_reference/inference/config.py
+++ b/llama_stack/providers/impls/meta_reference/inference/config.py
@@ -17,13 +17,18 @@
 
 class MetaReferenceInferenceConfig(BaseModel):
     model: str = Field(
-        default="Llama3.1-8B-Instruct",
+        default="Llama3.2-3B-Instruct",
         description="Model descriptor from `llama model list`",
     )
     torch_seed: Optional[int] = None
     max_seq_len: int = 4096
     max_batch_size: int = 1
 
+    # when this is False, we assume that the distributed process group is setup by someone
+    # outside of this code (e.g., when run inside `torchrun`). that is useful for clients
+    # (including our testing code) who might be using llama-stack as a library.
+    create_distributed_process_group: bool = True
+
     @field_validator("model")
     @classmethod
     def validate_model(cls, model: str) -> str:
diff --git a/llama_stack/providers/impls/meta_reference/inference/inference.py b/llama_stack/providers/impls/meta_reference/inference/inference.py
index 6696762c9a..7edc279d03 100644
--- a/llama_stack/providers/impls/meta_reference/inference/inference.py
+++ b/llama_stack/providers/impls/meta_reference/inference/inference.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 )
 
 from .config import MetaReferenceInferenceConfig
+from .generation import Llama
 from .model_parallel import LlamaModelParallelGenerator
 
 # there's a single model parallel process running serving the model. for now,
@@ -36,8 +37,11 @@ def __init__(self, config: MetaReferenceInferenceConfig) -> None:
 
     async def initialize(self) -> None:
         print(f"Loading model `{self.model.descriptor()}`")
-        self.generator = LlamaModelParallelGenerator(self.config)
-        self.generator.start()
+        if self.config.create_distributed_process_group:
+            self.generator = LlamaModelParallelGenerator(self.config)
+            self.generator.start()
+        else:
+            self.generator = Llama.build(self.config)
 
     async def register_model(self, model: ModelDef) -> None:
         raise ValueError("Dynamic model registration is not supported")
@@ -51,7 +55,8 @@ async def list_models(self) -> List[ModelDef]:
         ]
 
     async def shutdown(self) -> None:
-        self.generator.stop()
+        if self.config.create_distributed_process_group:
+            self.generator.stop()
 
     def completion(
         self,
@@ -99,8 +104,9 @@ def chat_completion(
                 f"Model mismatch: {request.model} != {self.model.descriptor()}"
             )
 
-        if SEMAPHORE.locked():
-            raise RuntimeError("Only one concurrent request is supported")
+        if self.config.create_distributed_process_group:
+            if SEMAPHORE.locked():
+                raise RuntimeError("Only one concurrent request is supported")
 
         if request.stream:
             return self._stream_chat_completion(request)
@@ -110,7 +116,7 @@ def chat_completion(
     async def _nonstream_chat_completion(
         self, request: ChatCompletionRequest
     ) -> ChatCompletionResponse:
-        async with SEMAPHORE:
+        def impl():
             messages = chat_completion_request_to_messages(request)
 
             tokens = []
@@ -154,10 +160,16 @@ async def _nonstream_chat_completion(
                 logprobs=logprobs if request.logprobs else None,
             )
 
+        if self.config.create_distributed_process_group:
+            async with SEMAPHORE:
+                return impl()
+        else:
+            return impl()
+
     async def _stream_chat_completion(
         self, request: ChatCompletionRequest
     ) -> AsyncGenerator:
-        async with SEMAPHORE:
+        def impl():
             messages = chat_completion_request_to_messages(request)
 
             yield ChatCompletionResponseStreamChunk(
@@ -272,6 +284,14 @@ async def _stream_chat_completion(
                 )
             )
 
+        if self.config.create_distributed_process_group:
+            async with SEMAPHORE:
+                for x in impl():
+                    yield x
+        else:
+            for x in impl():
+                yield x
+
     async def embeddings(
         self,
         model: str,