diff --git a/families/llama/checkpoint_mapper.py b/families/llama/checkpoint_mapper.py
index 7fb1fb8b58..17a74ff53b 100644
--- a/families/llama/checkpoint_mapper.py
+++ b/families/llama/checkpoint_mapper.py
@@ -111,6 +111,8 @@ def load_standard_weights(
         f"Embedding shape {embedding.shape} != ({vocab}, {hidden})"
     )
     weights["embedding"] = embedding.astype(target_dtype)
+    # Jiaxin Deng: keep only the stored embedding while loading decoder layers.
+    del embedding
 
     def _load_layer(layer_idx: int) -> tuple[int, WeightDict, int, int]:
         prefix = f"layer.{layer_idx}"
@@ -128,36 +130,23 @@ def _load_layer(layer_idx: int) -> tuple[int, WeightDict, int, int]:
         layer[f"{prefix}.input_norm"] = input_norm.astype(np.float32)
         layer[f"{prefix}.post_attn_norm"] = post_norm.astype(np.float32)
 
-        # Q/K/V/O projections
-        q_raw = _load_tensor(
-            readers, _layer_key(layer_idx, "self_attn.q_proj.weight", model_prefix)
-        )
-        k_raw = _load_tensor(
-            readers, _layer_key(layer_idx, "self_attn.k_proj.weight", model_prefix)
-        )
-        v_raw = _load_tensor(
-            readers, _layer_key(layer_idx, "self_attn.v_proj.weight", model_prefix)
-        )
-        o_raw = _load_tensor(
-            readers, _layer_key(layer_idx, "self_attn.o_proj.weight", model_prefix)
-        )
-
-        q_hidden = q_raw.shape[0]
-        gate_raw = _load_tensor(
-            readers, _layer_key(layer_idx, "mlp.gate_proj.weight", model_prefix)
-        )
-        layer_mlp_size = gate_raw.shape[0]
-
-        # Transpose all projections [out, in] -> [in, out]
-        q_t = _transpose_2d(q_raw, "q_proj", precision=layer_precision)
-        k_t = _transpose_2d(k_raw, "k_proj", precision=layer_precision)
-        v_t = _transpose_2d(v_raw, "v_proj", precision=layer_precision)
-        o_t = _transpose_2d(o_raw, "o_proj", precision=layer_precision)
-
-        layer[f"{prefix}.w_q"] = q_t
-        layer[f"{prefix}.w_k"] = k_t
-        layer[f"{prefix}.w_v"] = v_t
-        layer[f"{prefix}.w_o"] = o_t
+        # Jiaxin Deng: release each FP32 source before loading the next projection.
+        for source, target in (
+            ("self_attn.q_proj", "w_q"),
+            ("self_attn.k_proj", "w_k"),
+            ("self_attn.v_proj", "w_v"),
+            ("self_attn.o_proj", "w_o"),
+            ("mlp.gate_proj", "w_gate"),
+            ("mlp.up_proj", "w_up"),
+            ("mlp.down_proj", "w_down"),
+        ):
+            raw = _load_tensor(readers, _layer_key(layer_idx, f"{source}.weight", model_prefix))
+            layer[f"{prefix}.{target}"] = _transpose_2d(raw, source, precision=layer_precision)
+            if target == "w_q":
+                q_hidden = raw.shape[0]
+            elif target == "w_gate":
+                layer_mlp_size = raw.shape[0]
+            del raw
 
         # Optional QKV biases (Qwen2 style)
         q_bias_key = _layer_key(layer_idx, "self_attn.q_proj.bias", model_prefix)
@@ -182,16 +171,6 @@ def _load_layer(layer_idx: int) -> tuple[int, WeightDict, int, int]:
                 _load_tensor(readers, k_norm_key).astype(np.float32), num_kv_heads
             )
 
-        # MLP projections
-        up_raw = _load_tensor(readers, _layer_key(layer_idx, "mlp.up_proj.weight", model_prefix))
-        down_raw = _load_tensor(
-            readers, _layer_key(layer_idx, "mlp.down_proj.weight", model_prefix)
-        )
-
-        layer[f"{prefix}.w_gate"] = _transpose_2d(gate_raw, "gate_proj", precision=layer_precision)
-        layer[f"{prefix}.w_up"] = _transpose_2d(up_raw, "up_proj", precision=layer_precision)
-        layer[f"{prefix}.w_down"] = _transpose_2d(down_raw, "down_proj", precision=layer_precision)
-
         return layer_idx, layer, q_hidden, layer_mlp_size
 
     layer_results: list[tuple[int, WeightDict, int, int] | None] = [None] * num_layers
@@ -232,7 +211,9 @@ def _load_layer(layer_idx: int) -> tuple[int, WeightDict, int, int]:
         )
     else:
         # Tied embeddings
-        weights["w_out"] = _transpose_2d(embedding.copy(), "embedding_tied", precision=precision)
+        weights["w_out"] = _transpose_2d(
+            weights["embedding"].copy(), "embedding_tied", precision=precision
+        )
 
     weights["_attention_size"] = attention_size  # type: ignore[assignment]
     weights["_kv_attention_size"] = kv_attention_size  # type: ignore[assignment]
diff --git a/families/llama/model.py b/families/llama/model.py
index 86ded25861..a366627a2b 100644
--- a/families/llama/model.py
+++ b/families/llama/model.py
@@ -261,6 +261,9 @@ def _build_native(request: "BuildRequest", writer: "BundleWriter") -> None:
                 precision=precision,
                 verbose=bool(request.verbose),
             )
+            # Note (Jiaxin Deng): avoid retaining both plans during decode compilation.
+            writer.add_bytes("prefill.plan", prefill)
+            del prefill
             config.raw["_decoder_engine_role"] = "decode"
             decode = _build_engine(
                 config,
@@ -270,7 +273,6 @@ def _build_native(request: "BuildRequest", writer: "BundleWriter") -> None:
                 verbose=bool(request.verbose),
             )
             writer.add_bytes("engine.plan", decode)
-            writer.add_bytes("prefill.plan", prefill)
             layout = "split"
         config.raw.pop("_decoder_engine_role", None)
 
diff --git a/families/llama/tests/test_checkpoint_cache.py b/families/llama/tests/test_checkpoint_cache.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9f765a0ca5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/families/llama/tests/test_checkpoint_cache.py
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+"""Exercise staged checkpoint lookup without Hub metadata or network access."""
+
+import pytest
+from huggingface_hub import constants
+from huggingface_hub.errors import LocalEntryNotFoundError
+
+from .test_e2e import _checkpoint
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def offline_cache(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(constants, "HF_HUB_CACHE", str(tmp_path))
+    monkeypatch.setattr(constants, "HF_HUB_OFFLINE", True)
+    return tmp_path
+
+
+def test_pinned_checkpoint_uses_snapshot_without_cached_tree(offline_cache):
+    revision = "a" * 40
+    snapshot = offline_cache / "models--trtmc-test--llama" / "snapshots" / revision
+    snapshot.mkdir(parents=True)
+    (snapshot / "config.json").write_text("{}", encoding="utf-8")
+
+    assert _checkpoint({"hf_id": "trtmc-test/llama", "hf_revision": revision}) == snapshot
+
+
+def test_missing_checkpoint_is_not_replaced_by_another_revision(offline_cache):
+    cached = offline_cache / "models--trtmc-test--llama" / "snapshots" / ("a" * 40)
+    cached.mkdir(parents=True)
+    (cached / "config.json").write_text("{}", encoding="utf-8")
+
+    with pytest.raises(LocalEntryNotFoundError):
+        _checkpoint({"hf_id": "trtmc-test/llama", "hf_revision": "b" * 40})
+
+
+def test_staged_snapshot_still_requires_config(offline_cache):
+    revision = "a" * 40
+    snapshot = offline_cache / "models--trtmc-test--llama" / "snapshots" / revision
+    snapshot.mkdir(parents=True)
+
+    with pytest.raises(AssertionError):
+        _checkpoint({"hf_id": "trtmc-test/llama", "hf_revision": revision})
diff --git a/families/llama/tests/test_support.py b/families/llama/tests/test_support.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..762eb964b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/families/llama/tests/test_support.py
@@ -0,0 +1,177 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+"""CPU coverage of build memory lifetime and bundle publication."""
+
+import gc
+import importlib.util
+import json
+from pathlib import Path
+import struct
+import sys
+import types
+import weakref
+
+import numpy as np
+import pytest
+from safetensors.numpy import save_file
+
+from tensorrt_model_connect import BuildRequest
+from tensorrt_model_connect.bundle_writer import BundleWriter
+
+from .. import checkpoint_mapper
+from ..config import ModelConfig
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def request_and_writer(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    # Jiaxin Deng: stub only GPU compilation; exercise the real build and writer on CPU.
+    with monkeypatch.context() as imports:
+        for module_name, function_name in (
+            ("dual_profile_decoder_builder", "build_dual_profile_decoder_engine"),
+            ("standard_decoder_builder", "build_standard_decoder_engine"),
+        ):
+            module = types.ModuleType(f"families.llama.{module_name}")
+            setattr(module, function_name, None)
+            imports.setitem(sys.modules, module.__name__, module)
+        spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location(
+            "families.llama._plan_lifetime_model", Path(__file__).parents[1] / "model.py"
+        )
+        model = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+        spec.loader.exec_module(model)
+    checkpoint = tmp_path / "checkpoint"
+    checkpoint.mkdir()
+    (checkpoint / "config.json").write_text(json.dumps({
+        "model_type": "llama", "hidden_size": 8, "intermediate_size": 16,
+        "num_hidden_layers": 1, "num_attention_heads": 2,
+        "num_key_value_heads": 1, "vocab_size": 32,
+        "max_position_embeddings": 32, "eos_token_id": 2,
+    }))
+    monkeypatch.setattr(model, "load_standard_weights", lambda *args, **kwargs: {})
+    destination = tmp_path / "model.bundle"
+    request = BuildRequest(
+        model_dir=checkpoint, output_path=destination, family="llama",
+        task="text_generation", precision="fp16", max_sequence_length=16,
+    )
+    writer = BundleWriter(destination)
+    yield model, request, writer
+    writer.abort()
+
+
+def test_prefill_plan_is_released_before_decode_build(request_and_writer, monkeypatch):
+    model, request, writer = request_and_writer
+    released = []
+
+    class Plan(bytes):
+        def __del__(self):
+            released.append(True)
+
+    def build_engine(config, *args, **kwargs):
+        if config.raw["_decoder_engine_role"] == "prefill":
+            return Plan(b"prefill bytes")
+        gc.collect()
+        assert released, "prefill plan is still resident during decode build"
+        return b"decode bytes"
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(model, "_build_engine", build_engine)
+    model.build(request, writer)
+    writer.finish()
+    data = request.output_path.read_bytes()
+    header_size = struct.unpack("<Q", data[8:16])[0]
+    header = json.loads(data[16:16 + header_size])
+    payload = data[16 + header_size:]
+    sections = {
+        name: payload[entry["offset"]:entry["offset"] + entry["length"]]
+        for name, entry in header["sections"].items()
+    }
+    assert sections["engine.plan"] == b"decode bytes"
+    assert sections["prefill.plan"] == b"prefill bytes"
+    assert json.loads(sections["runtime.json"])["decoder_engine_layout"] == "split"
+
+
+def test_decode_failure_preserves_published_bundle(request_and_writer, monkeypatch):
+    model, request, writer = request_and_writer
+    request.output_path.write_bytes(b"previous bundle")
+
+    def build_engine(config, *args, **kwargs):
+        if config.raw["_decoder_engine_role"] == "prefill":
+            return b"prefill bytes"
+        raise RuntimeError("decode build failed")
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(model, "_build_engine", build_engine)
+    with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match="decode build failed"):
+        model.build(request, writer)
+    writer.abort()
+    assert request.output_path.read_bytes() == b"previous bundle"
+    assert not list(request.output_path.parent.glob(".model.bundle.sections.*"))
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("precision,fp32_layers", [("fp16", ()), ("fp32", ()), ("fp16", (1,))])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("tied", [False, True])
+def test_projection_scratch_is_released_without_changing_weights(
+    tmp_path, monkeypatch, precision, fp32_layers, tied
+):
+    config = ModelConfig(
+        model_type="llama", hidden_size=4, vocab_size=8, num_hidden_layers=2,
+        num_attention_heads=2, num_key_value_heads=1, intermediate_size=6,
+    )
+    embedding = np.arange(32, dtype=np.float32).reshape(8, 4) / 7 - 2
+    tensors = {"model.embed_tokens.weight": embedding}
+    if not tied:
+        tensors["lm_head.weight"] = embedding + 3
+    shapes = {
+        "self_attn.q_proj": (4, 4), "self_attn.k_proj": (2, 4),
+        "self_attn.v_proj": (2, 4), "self_attn.o_proj": (4, 4),
+        "mlp.gate_proj": (6, 4), "mlp.up_proj": (6, 4), "mlp.down_proj": (4, 6),
+    }
+    output_names = ("w_q", "w_k", "w_v", "w_o", "w_gate", "w_up", "w_down")
+    expected = {}
+    for index in range(2):
+        for projection_index, (source, output) in enumerate(zip(shapes, output_names)):
+            shape = shapes[source]
+            values = (
+                np.arange(np.prod(shape), dtype=np.float32).reshape(shape) / 7
+                + index * 3 + projection_index / 9 - 2
+            ).astype(np.float16)
+            tensors[f"model.layers.{index}.{source}.weight"] = values
+            dtype = np.float32 if precision == "fp32" or index in fp32_layers else np.float16
+            expected[f"layer.{index}.{output}"] = values.astype(np.float32).T.astype(dtype)
+        for name in ("input_layernorm", "post_attention_layernorm"):
+            tensors[f"model.layers.{index}.{name}.weight"] = np.ones(4, dtype=np.float16)
+    save_file(tensors, tmp_path / "model.safetensors")
+    load_tensor = checkpoint_mapper._load_tensor
+    previous = {}
+    embedding_source = None
+
+    def tracked_load(readers, name):
+        nonlocal embedding_source
+        if name == "model.embed_tokens.weight":
+            value = load_tensor(readers, name)
+            embedding_source = weakref.ref(value)
+            return value
+        assert embedding_source() is None, "embedding scratch is still live"
+        if ".layers." in name and name.endswith("_proj.weight"):
+            layer = name.split(".")[2]
+            if layer in previous:
+                assert previous[layer]() is None, "previous projection scratch is still live"
+            value = load_tensor(readers, name)
+            previous[layer] = weakref.ref(value)
+            return value
+        return load_tensor(readers, name)
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(checkpoint_mapper, "_load_tensor", tracked_load)
+    weights = checkpoint_mapper.load_standard_weights(
+        tmp_path, config, precision=precision, fp32_layers=fp32_layers
+    )
+    dtype = np.float32 if precision == "fp32" else np.float16
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(weights["embedding"], embedding.astype(dtype))
+    output = embedding if tied else tensors["lm_head.weight"]
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(weights["w_out"], output.T.astype(dtype))
+    assert weights["w_out"].dtype == dtype
+    assert weights["w_out"].flags.c_contiguous
+    for name, values in expected.items():
+        np.testing.assert_array_equal(weights[name], values)
+        assert weights[name].dtype == values.dtype
+        assert weights[name].flags.c_contiguous
+    assert weights["_attention_size"] == 4
+    assert weights["_kv_attention_size"] == 2
+    assert weights["_mlp_size"] == 6