diff --git a/.github/filters.yaml b/.github/filters.yaml
index 378b95d1c48b..e18cfef99e0a 100644
--- a/.github/filters.yaml
+++ b/.github/filters.yaml
@@ -195,6 +195,7 @@ sglang:
   - 'examples/backends/sglang/**'
   - 'components/src/dynamo/sglang/**'
   - 'components/src/dynamo/sglang_sidecar/**'
+  - 'lib/sglang-sidecar/**'
   - 'container/templates/sglang_*'
   - 'container/deps/sglang/**'
   - '!**/*.md'
diff --git a/lib/sglang-sidecar/Cargo.toml b/lib/sglang-sidecar/Cargo.toml
index 545430f707f4..11a495bad972 100644
--- a/lib/sglang-sidecar/Cargo.toml
+++ b/lib/sglang-sidecar/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ authors.workspace = true
 license.workspace = true
 homepage.workspace = true
 repository.workspace = true
-description = "Dynamo SGLang sidecar backend — drives an out-of-process SGLang engine over its native gRPC service through the backend-common LLMEngine trait."
+description = "Dynamo SGLang sidecar for an out-of-process engine exposed through its native gRPC service."
 
 [package.metadata.cargo-machete]
 # Referenced by the protobuf client generated into OUT_DIR at build time.
diff --git a/lib/sglang-sidecar/README.md b/lib/sglang-sidecar/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b06eec6403a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/sglang-sidecar/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+# SGLang sidecar executable
+
+`dynamo-sglang-sidecar` connects Dynamo's unified worker lifecycle to an
+out-of-process SGLang engine through SGLang's native gRPC service.
+
+Build and run it directly from the Dynamo workspace:
+
+```bash
+cargo build --release -p dynamo-sglang-sidecar
+./target/release/dynamo-sglang-sidecar \
+    --sglang-endpoint http://127.0.0.1:30001
+```
+
+Distribution and container packaging for the standalone executable are
+intentionally deferred to a follow-up change.
+
+## SGLang-managed contract
+
+An SGLang launcher can supervise the executable directly after its native gRPC
+listener is ready:
+
+```bash
+python3 -m sglang.launch_server \
+    <args> \
+    --grpc-port 30001 \
+    --sidecar-executable dynamo-sglang-sidecar
+```
+
+The corresponding SGLang implementation should:
+
+1. Resolve the executable without invoking a shell.
+2. Spawn `dynamo-sglang-sidecar --sglang-endpoint <loopback-url>` only after
+   native gRPC is listening. Preserve the parent environment so Dynamo's
+   namespace, discovery, and observability settings reach the worker.
+3. Keep the executable as the directly supervised child. A spawn wrapper may
+   install SGLang's parent-death handling and then call `os.execvp`, which
+   preserves the child PID across the exec.
+4. Treat an unexpected or non-zero child exit as fatal to the SGLang server.
+5. On shutdown, send `SIGTERM`, wait for Dynamo's graceful lifecycle, and then
+   kill the remaining process tree if the deadline expires.
+
+The supervisor timeout must be configurable. Its default must exceed Dynamo's
+combined release-mode shutdown budget: the 5-second
+`DYN_GRACEFUL_SHUTDOWN_GRACE_PERIOD_SECS` default plus the 30-second
+`DYN_WORKER_GRACEFUL_SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT` default. A 40-second default leaves a
+small supervision margin. Operators that increase either Dynamo value must
+increase the SGLang timeout as well.
+
+SGLang's gRPC discovery response supplies the model identity and aggregated,
+prefill, or decode role, so the managed executable needs only the endpoint
+argument. Prefill deployments may additionally set
+`SGLANG_DISAGGREGATION_BOOTSTRAP_HOST` when the discovered address is not
+routable from decode workers.
diff --git a/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/args.rs b/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/args.rs
index d488788b2c38..ba03fcb548be 100644
--- a/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/args.rs
+++ b/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/args.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2025-2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
-//! Command-line arguments and transport configuration for the SGLang gRPC sidecar.
+//! Command-line arguments and transport configuration for the SGLang sidecar.
 
 use std::path::PathBuf;
 use std::time::Duration;
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ use std::time::Duration;
 #[derive(clap::Parser, Debug, Clone)]
 #[command(
     name = "dynamo-sglang-sidecar",
-    about = "Dynamo SGLang sidecar — drives an out-of-process SGLang native gRPC server."
+    about = "Dynamo sidecar for an out-of-process SGLang native gRPC server."
 )]
 pub struct Args {
     /// `host:port` (or URL) of SGLang's native `sglang.runtime.v1` service.
@@ -120,7 +120,19 @@ pub fn normalize_endpoint(raw: &str) -> Result<String, String> {
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
-    use super::normalize_endpoint;
+    use super::{Args, normalize_endpoint};
+    use clap::Parser;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn parses_sglang_managed_executable_args() {
+        let args = Args::try_parse_from([
+            "dynamo-sglang-sidecar",
+            "--sglang-endpoint",
+            "http://127.0.0.1:30001",
+        ])
+        .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(args.sglang_endpoint, "http://127.0.0.1:30001");
+    }
 
     #[test]
     fn normalizes_bare_and_grpc_endpoints() {
diff --git a/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/engine.rs b/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/engine.rs
index f46fb4d15265..9cfe2e020be7 100644
--- a/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/engine.rs
+++ b/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/engine.rs
@@ -63,6 +63,10 @@ impl SglangSidecarEngine {
         }
         .map_err(|err| client::invalid_arg(err.to_string()))?;
 
+        Self::from_parsed_args(args)
+    }
+
+    pub fn from_parsed_args(args: Args) -> Result<(Self, WorkerConfig), DynamoError> {
         let endpoint = normalize_endpoint(&args.sglang_endpoint).map_err(client::invalid_arg)?;
         let transport = args.transport();
         let discovery = bootstrap_discover(&endpoint, &transport)?;
diff --git a/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/main.rs b/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/main.rs
index fe592db37c83..e020158b6e6c 100644
--- a/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/main.rs
+++ b/lib/sglang-sidecar/src/main.rs
@@ -3,13 +3,18 @@
 
 //! Entry point for the `dynamo-sglang-sidecar` binary.
 //!
-//! Mirrors the mocker backend: bootstrap-discover the engine in `from_args`
-//! (building the [`WorkerConfig`](dynamo_backend_common::WorkerConfig) `run`
-//! needs synchronously), then hand the engine to the shared runtime harness.
+//! Mirrors the mocker backend: parse the process CLI with clap, bootstrap-discover
+//! the engine in `from_parsed_args` (building the
+//! [`WorkerConfig`](dynamo_backend_common::WorkerConfig) `run` needs
+//! synchronously), then hand the engine to the shared runtime harness.
 
 use std::sync::Arc;
 
+use clap::Parser;
+use dynamo_sglang_sidecar::args::Args;
+
 fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
-    let (engine, config) = dynamo_sglang_sidecar::SglangSidecarEngine::from_args(None)?;
+    let args = Args::parse();
+    let (engine, config) = dynamo_sglang_sidecar::SglangSidecarEngine::from_parsed_args(args)?;
     dynamo_backend_common::run(Arc::new(engine), config)
 }
diff --git a/lib/sglang-sidecar/tests/executable.rs b/lib/sglang-sidecar/tests/executable.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..fa4e5003e92a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/sglang-sidecar/tests/executable.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2025-2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+use std::process::Command;
+
+#[test]
+fn executable_exposes_sglang_managed_contract() {
+    let output = Command::new(env!("CARGO_BIN_EXE_dynamo-sglang-sidecar"))
+        .arg("--help")
+        .output()
+        .expect("run dynamo-sglang-sidecar --help");
+
+    assert!(
+        output.status.success(),
+        "--help failed: {}",
+        String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stderr)
+    );
+    let stdout = String::from_utf8(output.stdout).expect("help output is UTF-8");
+    assert!(stdout.contains("--sglang-endpoint"));
+    assert!(stdout.contains("SGLANG_GRPC_ENDPOINT"));
+}