diff --git a/k8s/apps/llm-serving/kustomization.yaml b/k8s/apps/llm-serving/kustomization.yaml
index 5680790..801ae29 100644
--- a/k8s/apps/llm-serving/kustomization.yaml
+++ b/k8s/apps/llm-serving/kustomization.yaml
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ resources:
   # model-name change. reasoning.yaml below can be dropped once that host change lands.
   - coder.yaml
   - reasoning.yaml
+  # Stable client-facing name for the chat model. poimen-memory points at this Service,
+  # so the vLLM -> candle-vllm handoff is a selector edit here and no client change.
+  - reasoning-long-service.yaml
   # ornith is retired: its InferenceService still reports Ready=True while running zero
   # replicas, because desired equals available at 0. Its manifest was never committed,
   # so it is left unmanaged and is not listed here. Delete the CR when convenient.
diff --git a/k8s/apps/llm-serving/reasoning-long-service.yaml b/k8s/apps/llm-serving/reasoning-long-service.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b05330
--- /dev/null
+++ b/k8s/apps/llm-serving/reasoning-long-service.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+# Stable client-facing name for the chat model, deliberately decoupled from the
+# process that currently serves it.
+#
+# poimen-memory addresses this Service, not a pod and not an InferenceService. That
+# means the vLLM -> candle-vllm handoff changes only this file's selector. The client
+# config never changes again, so the ingest cutover has no window in which the host
+# name is wrong.
+#
+# Two ports on purpose:
+#   - 80    matches every other predictor Service in this namespace, and matches
+#           poimen-memory's LLM_CHAT_BASE, which carries no port number.
+#   - 8080  is the container port. It is also the only port llm-serving-ingress and
+#           poimen-memory-llm-egress permit, and the port the handoff readiness check
+#           uses. Publishing it directly avoids a port translation that is easy to get
+#           wrong in a curl.
+#
+# The selector names the vLLM reasoning pod today. To hand off, replace the three
+# selector labels with candle-vllm's pod labels and nothing else. Do not delete and
+# recreate this Service: a delete drops the ClusterIP, and a client that cached the
+# name during the gap will fail until it re-resolves.
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Service
+metadata:
+  name: reasoning-long-predictor
+  namespace: llm-serving
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: llm-serving
+    app: reasoning-long-predictor
+spec:
+  type: ClusterIP
+  selector:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: llm-reasoning
+    component: predictor
+    serving.kserve.io/inferenceservice: reasoning
+  ports:
+    - name: http
+      protocol: TCP
+      port: 80
+      targetPort: 8080
+    - name: http-8080
+      protocol: TCP
+      port: 8080
+      targetPort: 8080