diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 5105496..5ea7240 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -46,5 +46,11 @@ RUN --mount=type=secret,id=HF_TOKEN,required=false \
     python3 /src/download_model.py; \
     fi
 
+
+# Create directory for startup script and copy it
+RUN mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
+COPY --chmod=755 start.sh /usr/local/bin/start.sh
+
 # Start the handler
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/start.sh"] 
 CMD ["python3", "/src/handler.py"]
diff --git a/start.sh b/start.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..64afddd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/start.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# /usr/local/bin/start.sh
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# If user didn’t set it explicitly, infer from visible GPUs.
+if [[ -z "${TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE:-}" ]]; then
+  if command -v nvidia-smi >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    COUNT="$(nvidia-smi -L | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
+  else
+    # Fallback to PyTorch if available
+    COUNT="$(python3 - <<'PY'
+try:
+    import torch
+    print(torch.cuda.device_count() or 0)
+except Exception:
+    print(0)
+PY
+)"
+  fi
+
+  # Respect CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES (both methods above do, since they see only visible GPUs).
+  if [[ "${COUNT}" -lt 1 ]]; then
+    COUNT=1
+  fi
+  export TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE="${COUNT}"
+fi
+
+echo "TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE=${TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE}"