diff --git a/components/src/dynamo/vllm/omni/stage_worker.py b/components/src/dynamo/vllm/omni/stage_worker.py
index 6264e769d76c..7b4fed1b306c 100644
--- a/components/src/dynamo/vllm/omni/stage_worker.py
+++ b/components/src/dynamo/vllm/omni/stage_worker.py
@@ -462,7 +462,7 @@ def _to_plain(obj: Any) -> Any:
     runtime = getattr(stage_config, "runtime", None)
     if runtime is not None:
         rt = _to_plain(runtime)
-        rt["devices"] = "0"
+        rt.setdefault("devices", "0")
         result["runtime"] = rt
 
     return result