diff --git a/launch/dynamo-run/src/lib.rs b/launch/dynamo-run/src/lib.rs
index c090898c4..045dbd298 100644
--- a/launch/dynamo-run/src/lib.rs
+++ b/launch/dynamo-run/src/lib.rs
@@ -37,7 +37,9 @@ pub async fn run(
         }
         Some(p) => {
             // model_path might be an HF repo, not a local path. Resolve it by downloading.
-            Some(LocalModel::fetch(&p.display().to_string(), false).await?)
+            // Mocker only needs tokenizer, not weights
+            let ignore_weights = matches!(out_opt, Some(Output::Mocker));
+            Some(LocalModel::fetch(&p.display().to_string(), ignore_weights).await?)
         }
     };
 
diff --git a/lib/bindings/python/rust/llm/entrypoint.rs b/lib/bindings/python/rust/llm/entrypoint.rs
index bc262fdd9..555a2ab8f 100644
--- a/lib/bindings/python/rust/llm/entrypoint.rs
+++ b/lib/bindings/python/rust/llm/entrypoint.rs
@@ -215,7 +215,9 @@ pub fn make_engine<'p>(
             let local_path = if model_path.exists() {
                 model_path
             } else {
-                LocalModel::fetch(&model_path.display().to_string(), false)
+                // Mocker only needs tokenizer, not weights
+                let ignore_weights = matches!(args.engine_type, EngineType::Mocker);
+                LocalModel::fetch(&model_path.display().to_string(), ignore_weights)
                     .await
                     .map_err(to_pyerr)?
             };