diff --git a/tools/server/server-context.cpp b/tools/server/server-context.cpp
index b79a5270b52a..61a7f48c1e19 100644
--- a/tools/server/server-context.cpp
+++ b/tools/server/server-context.cpp
@@ -2307,11 +2307,14 @@ struct server_context_impl {
 
                             llama_pos pos_next = slot.prompt.tokens.pos_next(n_past);
 
+                            const bool is_recurrent = llama_model_is_recurrent(model);
+
                             // note: when n_swa == 0, the model does not use SWA
                             const auto n_swa = std::max(0, llama_model_n_swa(model));
 
-                            // the largest pos_min required for a checkpoint to be useful
-                            const auto pos_min_thold = std::max(0, pos_next - n_swa);
+                            // For hybrid/recurrent: SWA threshold not meaningful, set to 0.
+                            // For pure transformer/SWA: preserve existing behavior.
+                            const auto pos_min_thold = is_recurrent ? (llama_pos) 0 : (llama_pos) std::max(0, pos_next - n_swa);
 
                             if (n_past > 0 && n_past < slot.prompt.n_tokens()) {
                                 const auto pos_min = llama_memory_seq_pos_min(llama_get_memory(ctx), slot.id);
@@ -2371,6 +2374,10 @@ struct server_context_impl {
                                         slot.prompt.checkpoints.rbegin(),
                                         slot.prompt.checkpoints.rend(),
                                         [&, func_name = __func__](const auto & cur) {
+                                            if (is_recurrent) {
+                                                // For hybrid/recurrent: use position-matching semantics
+                                                return cur.pos_max <= n_past && cur.pos_max < pos_next;
+                                            }
                                             // guarantee that a checkpoint will result in at least one token being processed [TAG_PROMPT_LOGITS]
                                             LOG_INF("slot %12.*s: id %2d | task %d | Checking checkpoint with [%d, %d] against %d...\n", 12,
                                                 func_name, (slot).id, ((slot).task ? (slot).task->id : -1), cur.pos_min, cur.pos_max, pos_min_thold);
@@ -2397,10 +2404,15 @@ struct server_context_impl {
                                     }
 
                                     if (do_reset) {
-                                        SLT_WRN(slot, "forcing full prompt re-processing due to lack of cache data (likely due to SWA or hybrid/recurrent memory, see %s)\n",
-                                                "https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/13194#issuecomment-2868343055");
-                                        pos_next = 0;
-                                        n_past = 0;
+                                        if (is_recurrent) {
+                                            // For hybrid/recurrent: preserve current state, do not zero n_past
+                                            SLT_WRN(slot, "no matching recurrent checkpoint; preserving prompt state (n_past = %d)\n", n_past);
+                                        } else {
+                                            SLT_WRN(slot, "forcing full prompt re-processing due to lack of cache data (likely due to SWA or hybrid/recurrent memory, see %s)\n",
+                                                    "https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/13194#issuecomment-2868343055");
+                                            pos_next = 0;
+                                            n_past = 0;
+                                        }
                                     }
                                 }
                             }
@@ -2410,7 +2422,7 @@ struct server_context_impl {
                                 for (auto it = slot.prompt.checkpoints.begin(); it != slot.prompt.checkpoints.end();) {
                                     const auto & cur = *it;
                                     if (cur.pos_max > pos_next) {
-                                        SLT_WRN(slot, "erased invalidated context checkpoint (pos_min = %d, pos_max = %d, n_tokens = %" PRId64 ", n_swa = %d, pos_next = %d, size = %.3f MiB)\n", cur.pos_min, cur.pos_max, cur.n_tokens, n_swa, pos_next, (float) cur.data.size() / 1024 / 1024);
+                                        SLT_WRN(slot, "erased invalidated context checkpoint (pos_min = %d, pos_max = %d, n_tokens = %" PRId64 ", pos_next = %d, size = %.3f MiB)\n", cur.pos_min, cur.pos_max, cur.n_tokens, pos_next, (float) cur.data.size() / 1024 / 1024);
                                         it = slot.prompt.checkpoints.erase(it);
                                     } else {
                                         ++it;