# Operate provider roles

Start authenticated inference and preparation services without exposing application APIs.

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Document ID: `pllm.docs.cli.provider-roles`  
Release: `0.1.0`

Provider operators run separate computation roles:

```bash
pllm serve inference --config inference.json
pllm serve preparation --config preparation.json
```

The inference role consumes one-use prepared rows online. The trusted preparation
role computes and pushes masked corrections before a response begins. Neither role
is an application-facing Responses API or Chat Completions API endpoint.

These commands start processes only. They do not provision hosts, certificates,
identities, monitoring, rollback protection, or non-colluding operators. Keep
credentials in protected configuration or environment variables rather than
command arguments.

Read the generated references for
[`serve inference`](/cli/reference/serve/inference/) and
[`serve preparation`](/cli/reference/serve/preparation/), then apply the
[deployment boundary](/sdk/operate/deployment/) and
[preparation pipeline](/sdk/pipeline/preparation/).