diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 879a6fd..181e2a9 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -568,6 +568,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "chrono",
  "futures",
  "llama-cpp-2",
+ "minijinja",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
  "thiserror 1.0.69",
@@ -615,12 +616,28 @@ version = "2.8.3"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "cf8baf1c55e62ffcace7a9f06f4bd9cd3f0c4beb022d3b367256b91b87513d98"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "memo-map"
+version = "0.3.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "38d1115007560874e373613744c6fba374c17688327a71c1476d1a5954cc857b"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "mime"
 version = "0.3.17"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "6877bb514081ee2a7ff5ef9de3281f14a4dd4bceac4c09388074a6b5df8a139a"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "minijinja"
+version = "2.21.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "cb3d648e68cea56d9858d535ee28f9538404e2dd8cb08ed0bd05dca379477f39"
+dependencies = [
+ "memo-map",
+ "serde",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "minimal-lexical"
 version = "0.2.1"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 6a52ea7..86ddb33 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ edition = "2021"
 [dependencies]
 # LLM inference
 llama-cpp-2 = "0.1"
+minijinja = "2"
 
 # HTTP server
 axum = { version = "0.8", features = ["json"] }
diff --git a/src/application/chat/templates/chat_template.jinja b/src/application/chat/templates/chat_template.jinja
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9efeabd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/application/chat/templates/chat_template.jinja
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+{{- bos_token }}
+{%- if tools %}
+    {%- set tool_definitions %}
+        {{- "# Tools\n\nYou are provided with function signatures within <tools></tools> XML tags:\n<tools>" }}
+        {%- for tool in tools %}
+            {{- "\n" }}
+            {{- tool | tojson }}
+        {%- endfor %}
+        {{- '\n</tools>\n\nTool usage guidelines:\n- You may call zero or more functions. If no function calls are needed, just answer normally.\n- When calling a function, use: <function name="name"><param name="key">value</param></function>' }}
+    {%- endset %}
+
+    {{- '<|im_start|>system\n' }}
+    {%- if messages[0].role == 'system' %}
+        {{- messages[0].content + '\n\n' + tool_definitions }}
+    {%- else %}
+        {{- tool_definitions }}
+    {%- endif %}
+    {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
+{%- else %}
+    {%- if messages[0].role == 'system' %}
+        {{- '<|im_start|>system\n' + messages[0].content + '<|im_end|>\n' }}
+    {%- endif %}
+{%- endif %}
+{%- for message in messages %}
+    {%- set content = message.content %}
+    {%- if (message.role == "user") or (message.role == "system" and not loop.first) %}
+        {{- '<|im_start|>' + message.role + '\n' + content + '<|im_end|>' + '\n' }}
+    {%- elif message.role == "assistant" %}
+        {%- if message.tool_calls %}
+            {%- set content = message.content %}
+            {%- for tool_call in message.tool_calls %}
+                {%- if tool_call.type == "function" %}
+                    {%- set content = content + "\n<tool_call>\n<function=" + tool_call.function.name + ">\n" + (tool_call.function.arguments | tojson) + "\n</function>\n</tool_call>" %}
+                {%- endif %}
+            {%- endfor %}
+            {{- '<|im_start|>assistant\n' + content + '<|im_end|>\n' }}
+        {%- else %}
+            {{- '<|im_start|>assistant\n' + content + '<|im_end|>\n' }}
+        {%- endif %}
+    {%- elif message.role == "tool" %}
+        {{- '<|im_start|>user\n<tool_response>\n' + content + '\n</tool_response><|im_end|>\n' }}
+    {%- endif %}
+{%- endfor %}
+{%- if add_generation_prompt %}
+    {{- '<|im_start|>assistant\n' }}
+    {%- if enable_thinking is defined %}
+        {%- if enable_thinking is false %}
+            {{- '<think>\n\n</think>\n\n' }}
+        {%- elif enable_thinking is true %}
+            {{- '<think>\n' }}
+        {%- endif %}
+    {%- endif %}
+{%- endif %}
diff --git a/src/application/chat/use_cases.rs b/src/application/chat/use_cases.rs
index 1c7fd98..452637a 100644
--- a/src/application/chat/use_cases.rs
+++ b/src/application/chat/use_cases.rs
@@ -1,70 +1,93 @@
 //! Chat completion use cases.
 //!
-//! Orchestrates prompt building, sampler construction, and output parsing.
+//! Orchestrates prompt building using the model's baked-in Jinja template
+//! via the `minijinja` crate, sampler construction, and output parsing.
 
-use llama_cpp_2::model::LlamaChatMessage;
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+
+use minijinja::{Environment, Value};
 use llama_cpp_2::sampling::LlamaSampler;
 
-use crate::domain::entity::{ChatRequest, ToolCall, ToolCallFunction};
+use crate::domain::entity::{ChatMessage, ChatRequest, ToolCall, ToolCallFunction};
 
-/// Build a prompt string from conversation messages using the model's baked-in
-/// chat template. The template handles system/user/assistant/tool messages,
-/// thinking mode, and tool definitions automatically.
+/// Build a prompt from messages using the GGUF's Jinja chat template.
+///
+/// Renders the model's baked-in template via minijinja, passing the message
+/// history, optional tool definitions, and generation-prompt switches.
 pub fn build_prompt(
     model: &llama_cpp_2::model::LlamaModel,
-    messages: &[crate::domain::entity::ChatMessage],
+    messages: &[ChatMessage],
     _tools: &Option<Vec<crate::domain::entity::ToolDef>>,
 ) -> Result<String, String> {
-    let tmpl = model
-        .chat_template(None)
-        .map_err(|e| format!("Chat template error: {e}"))?;
+    // Load the GGUF's chat template (embedded at crate build time)
+    let template_str = include_str!("templates/chat_template.jinja");
 
-    let mut chat_msgs: Vec<LlamaChatMessage> = Vec::new();
+    let mut env = Environment::new();
+    env.add_template("chat", template_str)
+        .map_err(|e| format!("Template add error: {e}"))?;
 
+    // Register tojson filter (safe: Rust serde_json defaults to ensure_ascii=false)
+    env.add_filter("tojson", |value: &Value| -> String {
+        serde_json::to_string(value).unwrap_or_default()
+    });
+
+    let tmpl = env.get_template("chat")
+        .map_err(|e| format!("Template get error: {e}"))?;
+
+    // Build messages as serde_json::Value for minijinja
+    let mut msgs_val: Vec<Value> = Vec::new();
     for msg in messages {
-        let content = msg.content.clone().unwrap_or_default();
-        let role = msg.role.clone();
+        let mut m: HashMap<String, Value> = HashMap::new();
+        m.insert("role".into(), Value::from(msg.role.clone()));
 
-        // Build content with tool calls for assistant messages
-        let full_content = if role == "assistant" {
+        let content = msg.content.clone().unwrap_or_default();
+
+        // For assistant messages, check if there are tool_calls
+        if msg.role == "assistant" {
             if let Some(tcs) = &msg.tool_calls {
-                let mut c = content;
-                for tc in tcs {
+                // Serialise tool calls per the template's expected format
+                let tcs_val: Vec<Value> = tcs.iter().map(|tc| {
                     let args: serde_json::Value =
                         serde_json::from_str(&tc.function.arguments).unwrap_or_default();
-                    let args_str = serde_json::to_string(&args).unwrap_or_default();
-                    c.push_str(&format!(
-                        "<tool_call>\n<function={}>\n{}\n</function>\n</tool_call>",
-                        tc.function.name, args_str
-                    ));
-                }
-                c
-            } else {
-                content
+                    Value::from_serialize(&serde_json::json!({
+                        "id": tc.id,
+                        "type": "function",
+                        "function": {
+                            "name": tc.function.name,
+                            "arguments": args,
+                        }
+                    }))
+                }).collect();
+                m.insert("tool_calls".into(), Value::from(tcs_val));
             }
+        }
+
+        // Handle tool role messages
+        if msg.role == "tool" {
+            // Wrap in tool_response as the template expects
+            let wrapped = format!("<tool_response>\n{}\n</tool_response>", content);
+            m.insert("content".into(), Value::from(wrapped));
         } else {
-            content
-        };
+            m.insert("content".into(), Value::from(content));
+        }
 
-        let llama_role = match role.as_str() {
-            "tool" => "tool".to_string(),
-            r => r.to_string(),
-        };
-
-        chat_msgs.push(
-            LlamaChatMessage::new(llama_role, full_content)
-                .map_err(|e| format!("Message error: {e}"))?,
-        );
+        msgs_val.push(Value::from(m));
     }
 
-    // Apply chat template with generation prompt (add_ass = true)
-    let mut result = model
-        .apply_chat_template(&tmpl, &chat_msgs, true)
-        .map_err(|e| format!("Template error: {e}"))?;
+    // BOS token for sentencepiece / unigram models
+    let bos_token: &str = "<s>";
 
-    // Append think trigger for MiniCPM5 thinking mode:
-    // <|im_start|>assistant\n<think>\n  → model generates reasoning + </think> + answer
-    result.push_str("<think>\n");
+    // Build context
+    let mut ctx: HashMap<String, Value> = HashMap::new();
+    ctx.insert("bos_token".into(), Value::from(bos_token));
+    ctx.insert("messages".into(), Value::from(msgs_val));
+    ctx.insert("add_generation_prompt".into(), Value::from(true));
+    ctx.insert("enable_thinking".into(), Value::from(true));
+
+    // Render
+    let result = tmpl
+        .render(&ctx)
+        .map_err(|e| format!("Template render error: {e}"))?;
 
     Ok(result)
 }
@@ -147,14 +170,32 @@ pub fn build_sampler(params: &SamplerParams) -> LlamaSampler {
 //  TEXT PROCESSING
 // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 
-/// Remove special tokens from generated text.
-pub fn clean_text(text: &str) -> String {
-    text.replace("<|im_end|>", "")
-        .replace("<|im_start|>", "")
-        .replace("<think>", "")
-        .replace("</think>", "")
-        .trim()
-        .to_string()
+/// Remove special tokens from generated text and separate reasoning.
+///
+/// For thinking models, returns (reasoning, cleaned_answer).
+pub fn clean_text(text: &str) -> (String, String) {
+    let text = text.replace("<|im_end|>", "")
+        .replace("<|im_start|>", "");
+
+    // Separate reasoning (between <think>/</think>) from answer
+    let text = text.trim();
+    let (reasoning, answer) = if let Some(close_idx) = text.find("</think>") {
+        let reasoning = text[..close_idx].trim()
+            .trim_start_matches("<think>")
+            .trim()
+            .to_string();
+        let answer = text[close_idx + 8..].trim().to_string();
+        (reasoning, answer)
+    } else if text.contains("<think>") {
+        // Still thinking — everything is reasoning
+        let reasoning = text.trim_start_matches("<think>").trim().to_string();
+        (reasoning, String::new())
+    } else {
+        (String::new(), text.to_string())
+    };
+
+    let answer = answer.replace("<think>", "").replace("</think>", "");
+    (reasoning, answer.trim().to_string())
 }
 
 /// Parse tool calls from generated text in the format:
@@ -253,7 +294,7 @@ pub fn parse_tool_calls(text: &str) -> (String, Vec<ToolCall>) {
 
     clean = clean.replace("<tool_call>", "").replace("</tool_call>", "");
     clean = clean.trim().to_string();
-    let cleaned = clean_text(&clean);
+    let (_reasoning, cleaned) = clean_text(&clean);
 
     (cleaned, tool_calls)
 }
diff --git a/src/domain/entity/mod.rs b/src/domain/entity/mod.rs
index 61a70c4..8fd985f 100644
--- a/src/domain/entity/mod.rs
+++ b/src/domain/entity/mod.rs
@@ -96,8 +96,11 @@ pub struct Choice {
 #[derive(Serialize)]
 pub struct ResponseMessage {
     pub role: String,
+    #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
     pub content: Option<String>,
     #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
+    pub reasoning_content: Option<String>,
+    #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
     pub tool_calls: Option<Vec<ToolCall>>,
 }
 
@@ -165,6 +168,8 @@ pub struct SseDelta {
     #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
     pub content: Option<String>,
     #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
+    pub reasoning_content: Option<String>,
+    #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
     pub tool_calls: Option<Vec<ToolCall>>,
 }
 
diff --git a/src/presentation/handler/chat.rs b/src/presentation/handler/chat.rs
index 331f15c..a04e010 100644
--- a/src/presentation/handler/chat.rs
+++ b/src/presentation/handler/chat.rs
@@ -72,7 +72,8 @@ async fn handle_non_streaming(
         .generate(&input_tokens, &mut sampler, max_tokens, &stop)
         .await?;
 
-    let (output_text, tool_calls) = chat::parse_tool_calls(&chat::clean_text(&raw_text));
+    let (reasoning, cleaned) = chat::clean_text(&raw_text);
+    let (output_text, tool_calls) = chat::parse_tool_calls(&cleaned);
 
     let completion_tokens = output_tokens.len() as u32;
     info!("  {} generated tokens", completion_tokens);
@@ -85,6 +86,8 @@ async fn handle_non_streaming(
         "length"
     };
 
+    let reasoning_opt = if reasoning.is_empty() { None } else { Some(reasoning) };
+
     Ok(Json(ChatResponse {
         id: chat_id,
         object: "chat.completion".into(),
@@ -95,6 +98,7 @@ async fn handle_non_streaming(
             message: ResponseMessage {
                 role: "assistant".into(),
                 content: Some(output_text),
+                reasoning_content: reasoning_opt,
                 tool_calls: if tool_calls.is_empty() {
                     None
                 } else {
@@ -141,6 +145,7 @@ async fn handle_streaming(
                     role: Some("assistant".into()),
                     content: None,
                     tool_calls: None,
+                    reasoning_content: None,
                 },
                 finish_reason: None,
             }],
@@ -178,6 +183,7 @@ async fn handle_streaming(
                             role: None,
                             content: None,
                             tool_calls: None,
+                            reasoning_content: None,
                         },
                         finish_reason: Some("length".into()),
                     }],
@@ -202,6 +208,7 @@ async fn handle_streaming(
                                 role: None,
                                 content: None,
                                 tool_calls: None,
+                                reasoning_content: None,
                             },
                             finish_reason: Some("stop".into()),
                         }],
@@ -237,6 +244,7 @@ async fn handle_streaming(
                             role: None,
                             content: None,
                             tool_calls: None,
+                            reasoning_content: None,
                         },
                         finish_reason: Some(reason.into()),
                     }],
@@ -247,7 +255,7 @@ async fn handle_streaming(
             }
 
             let piece = state.engine.decode_token(current);
-            let content = chat::clean_text(&piece);
+            let (_reasoning, content) = chat::clean_text(&piece);
 
             if !content.is_empty() {
                 let chunk = serde_json::to_string(&SseChunk {
@@ -261,6 +269,7 @@ async fn handle_streaming(
                             role: None,
                             content: Some(content.clone()),
                             tool_calls: None,
+                            reasoning_content: None,
                         },
                         finish_reason: None,
                     }],
@@ -293,6 +302,7 @@ async fn handle_streaming(
                             role: None,
                             content: None,
                             tool_calls: None,
+                            reasoning_content: None,
                         },
                         finish_reason: Some("stop".into()),
                     }],
@@ -318,6 +328,7 @@ async fn handle_streaming(
                                 role: None,
                                 content: None,
                                 tool_calls: None,
+                                reasoning_content: None,
                             },
                             finish_reason: Some("tool_calls".into()),
                         }],