diff --git a/bench/_kv_aware_mooncake_trace.py b/bench/_kv_aware_mooncake_trace.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3f833d584
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bench/_kv_aware_mooncake_trace.py
@@ -0,0 +1,181 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+###############################################################################
+# Copyright (c) 2026, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved.
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+###############################################################################
+"""Replay the Mooncake FAST'25 conversation trace against the real routing policy.
+
+    https://github.com/kvcache-ai/Mooncake/blob/main/FAST25-release/traces/
+        conversation_trace.jsonl
+
+The trace gives block hashes, not text: each record is
+
+    {"timestamp": ms, "input_length": n, "output_length": n,
+     "hash_ids": [0, 1, 2, ...]}
+
+so it drives the policy directly, with no tokenizer in the loop. That is the
+point -- it isolates the routing decision from every upstream thing that can
+make a prompt hash to nothing (undersized prompts, a tokenizer that failed to
+load), which are separate faults with the same symptom.
+
+Shape of this trace, measured:
+
+    12031 requests over 58.9 min (3.4 req/s), median input 6909 tokens
+    182790 distinct hash ids, ~496 tokens each
+    hash id 0 appears in ALL 12031 requests -- one shared system prefix
+    100% of requests share some prefix with an earlier one, 33% share >= 2 blocks
+
+The universal prefix is what makes it a routing test rather than a cache test:
+every worker can claim a hit on block 0, so a policy that weighs only locality
+has a reason to send everything to whichever worker warmed up first.
+
+    python3 bench/_kv_aware_mooncake_trace.py --trace conversation_trace.jsonl \
+        --workers 2 --requests 4000
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import argparse
+import json
+import sys
+from collections import Counter
+
+from infera.common.worker_pool import DisaggMode, EngineType, WorkerInfo, WorkerStatus
+from infera.router.policy.kv_event_aware import KvEventAwarePolicy
+
+
+class TraceFleet:
+    """Stands in for KvEventClient. A worker's view holds the blocks of the
+    requests it served, unbounded -- the best case for locality, since a real
+    engine evicts and eviction can only spread load further."""
+
+    def __init__(self, ids: list[str]) -> None:
+        self._views: dict[str, set[int]] = {w: set() for w in ids}
+
+    def cache_view(self, worker_id: str, dp_rank: int | None = None) -> set[int]:
+        return self._views[worker_id]
+
+    def store(self, worker_id: str, blocks: list[int]) -> None:
+        self._views[worker_id].update(blocks)
+
+    def on_worker_added(self, w: WorkerInfo) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    def on_worker_removed(self, worker_id: str) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    async def aclose(self) -> None:
+        pass
+
+
+class TraceHasher:
+    """Returns the trace's own hash ids. The trace already chains them (a
+    shared prefix is a shared id sequence), so no rehashing is needed or
+    wanted -- rehashing would destroy exactly the structure under test."""
+
+    def hash_for(self, body: dict, *, block_size: int, engine=None) -> list[int]:
+        return list(body["hash_ids"])
+
+
+def _worker(wid: str) -> WorkerInfo:
+    return WorkerInfo(
+        worker_id=wid,
+        url=f"http://{wid}",
+        model_name="trace",
+        engine=EngineType.VLLM,
+        status=WorkerStatus.ACTIVE,
+        disagg_mode=DisaggMode.MIXED,
+        kv_events_endpoint=f"tcp://{wid}:5557",
+        kv_block_size=512,
+    )
+
+
+def replay(rows, workers, weight, concurrency):
+    """Replay with per-request pacing bounded by `concurrency`.
+
+    concurrency=1 is the serial case the field report described: a request
+    completes before the next is picked, so nothing is ever in flight at a
+    decision and the in-flight half of the load term reads 0 for everyone.
+    """
+    fleet = TraceFleet([w.worker_id for w in workers])
+    pol = KvEventAwarePolicy(fleet, TraceHasher(), overlap_weight=weight)
+    picks: Counter = Counter()
+    inflight: list[tuple] = []
+    hits = total = 0
+
+    for r in rows:
+        while len(inflight) >= concurrency:
+            rk, bl, wid = inflight.pop(0)
+            fleet.store(wid, bl)
+            pol.on_request_finished(rk, bl)
+
+        body = {"model": "trace", "hash_ids": r["hash_ids"]}
+        view_before = {w.worker_id: set(fleet.cache_view(w.worker_id)) for w in workers}
+        target, blocks = pol.pick(workers, body)
+
+        # Score the hit the chosen worker actually got, the way the engine would.
+        v = view_before[target.worker.worker_id]
+        n = 0
+        for b in r["hash_ids"]:
+            if b not in v:
+                break
+            n += 1
+        hits += n
+        total += len(r["hash_ids"])
+
+        picks[target.route_key] += 1
+        pol.on_request_started(target.route_key, blocks)
+        inflight.append((target.route_key, blocks, target.worker.worker_id))
+
+    while inflight:
+        rk, bl, wid = inflight.pop(0)
+        fleet.store(wid, bl)
+        pol.on_request_finished(rk, bl)
+
+    return picks, (hits / total if total else 0.0)
+
+
+def main() -> int:
+    ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    ap.add_argument("--trace", default="/tmp/conv_trace.jsonl")
+    ap.add_argument("--workers", type=int, default=2)
+    ap.add_argument("--requests", type=int, default=4000)
+    ap.add_argument("--concurrency", type=int, nargs="+", default=[1, 8, 64])
+    ap.add_argument("--weights", type=float, nargs="+", default=[0.01, 1.0, 20.0])
+    args = ap.parse_args()
+
+    rows = []
+    with open(args.trace) as f:
+        for line in f:
+            rows.append(json.loads(line))
+            if len(rows) >= args.requests:
+                break
+
+    workers = [_worker(f"w{i}") for i in range(args.workers)]
+    ideal = 1.0 / args.workers
+    print(f"Mooncake conversation trace: {len(rows)} requests, {args.workers} workers")
+    print(f"ideal share {ideal:.1%} each\n")
+    print(f"{'C':>4} {'weight':>7} | {'worst share':>11} | {'hit rate':>8} | split")
+    print(f"{'-' * 4}-{'-' * 7}-+-{'-' * 11}-+-{'-' * 8}-+------")
+
+    worst_overall = 0.0
+    for c in args.concurrency:
+        for w in args.weights:
+            picks, hr = replay(rows, workers, w, c)
+            counts = [picks.get(f"w{i}", 0) for i in range(args.workers)]
+            share = max(counts) / sum(counts)
+            worst_overall = max(worst_overall, share)
+            shown = "/".join(str(x) for x in counts[:4]) + ("/..." if len(counts) > 4 else "")
+            print(f"{c:>4} {w:>7g} | {share:>10.1%} | {hr:>7.1%} | {shown}")
+
+    print()
+    if worst_overall > 0.95:
+        print("PINNED: at least one configuration sends nearly everything to one worker.")
+        return 1
+    print(f"SPREAD: worst share across all configurations {worst_overall:.1%}")
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    sys.exit(main())