diff --git a/examples/server/README.md b/examples/server/README.md
index e5ca8269b..0b562b3ac 100644
--- a/examples/server/README.md
+++ b/examples/server/README.md
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ node .
 
     `stream`: It allows receiving each predicted token in real-time instead of waiting for the completion to finish. To enable this, set to `true`.
 
-    `prompt`: Provide a prompt. Internally, the prompt is compared, and it detects if a part has already been evaluated, and the remaining part will be evaluate. A space is inserted in the front like main.cpp does.
+    `prompt`: Provide a prompt as a string, or as an array of strings and numbers representing tokens. Internally, the prompt is compared, and it detects if a part has already been evaluated, and the remaining part will be evaluate. If the prompt is a string, or an array with the first element given as a string, a space is inserted in the front like main.cpp does.
 
     `stop`: Specify a JSON array of stopping strings.
     These words will not be included in the completion, so make sure to add them to the prompt for the next iteration (default: []).
diff --git a/examples/server/server.cpp b/examples/server/server.cpp
index f442f2b56..567dc4d2d 100644
--- a/examples/server/server.cpp
+++ b/examples/server/server.cpp
@@ -188,6 +188,7 @@ struct llama_server_context
     size_t n_past = 0;
     size_t n_remain = 0;
 
+    json prompt;
     std::vector<llama_token> embd;
     std::vector<llama_token> last_n_tokens;
 
@@ -257,10 +258,55 @@ struct llama_server_context
         return true;
     }
 
+    std::vector<llama_token> tokenizePrompt(void)
+    {
+        std::vector<llama_token> prompt_tokens;
+
+        if (prompt.is_array())
+        {
+            bool first = true;
+            for (const auto& p : prompt)
+            {
+                if (p.is_string())
+                {
+                    auto s = p.template get<std::string>();
+                    std::vector<llama_token> p;
+                    if (first)
+                    {
+                        s.insert(0, 1, ' '); // add a space if it's the first
+                        p = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, s, true); // also add BOS
+                        first = false;
+                    }
+                    else
+                    {
+                        p = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, s, false);
+                    }
+                    prompt_tokens.insert(prompt_tokens.end(), p.begin(), p.end());
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    if (first)
+                    {
+                        first = false;
+                    }
+                    prompt_tokens.push_back(p.template get<llama_token>());
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            auto s = prompt.template get<std::string>();
+            s.insert(0, 1, ' '); // always add a first space
+            prompt_tokens = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, s, true);
+        }
+
+        return prompt_tokens;
+    }
+
     void loadPrompt()
     {
-        params.prompt.insert(0, 1, ' '); // always add a first space
-        std::vector<llama_token> prompt_tokens = ::llama_tokenize(ctx, params.prompt, true);
+        auto prompt_tokens = tokenizePrompt();
+
         num_prompt_tokens = prompt_tokens.size();
 
         if (params.n_keep < 0)
@@ -954,7 +1000,7 @@ static json format_final_response(llama_server_context &llama, const std::string
         {"tokens_predicted", llama.num_tokens_predicted},
         {"tokens_evaluated", llama.num_prompt_tokens},
         {"generation_settings", format_generation_settings(llama)},
-        {"prompt", llama.params.prompt},
+        {"prompt", llama.prompt},
         {"truncated", llama.truncated},
         {"stopped_eos", llama.stopped_eos},
         {"stopped_word", llama.stopped_word},
@@ -1015,8 +1061,8 @@ static void parse_options_completion(const json &body, llama_server_context &lla
     llama.params.penalize_nl = body.value("penalize_nl", default_params.penalize_nl);
     llama.params.n_keep = body.value("n_keep", default_params.n_keep);
     llama.params.seed = body.value("seed", default_params.seed);
-    llama.params.prompt = body.value("prompt", default_params.prompt);
     llama.params.n_probs = body.value("n_probs", default_params.n_probs);
+    llama.prompt = body["prompt"];
 
     llama.params.logit_bias.clear();
     if (body.value("ignore_eos", false))
@@ -1258,8 +1304,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
         auto lock = llama.lock();
 
         const json body = json::parse(req.body);
-        const std::string content = body.value("content", "");
-        const std::vector<llama_token> tokens = llama_tokenize(llama.ctx, content, false);
+        llama.prompt = body["content"];
+        const std::vector<llama_token> tokens = llama.tokenizePrompt();
         const json data = format_tokenizer_response(tokens);
         return res.set_content(data.dump(), "application/json"); });
 
@@ -1271,7 +1317,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 
         llama.rewind();
         llama_reset_timings(llama.ctx);
-        llama.params.prompt = body.value("content", "");
+        llama.prompt = body["content"];
         llama.params.n_predict = 0;
         llama.loadPrompt();
         llama.beginCompletion();