diff --git a/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp b/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp
index 97678c6b2e..c20f936f75 100644
--- a/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp
+++ b/tools/mtmd/mtmd-cli.cpp
@@ -109,16 +109,15 @@ struct mtmd_cli_context {
     mtmd_cli_context(common_params & params) : llama_init(common_init_from_params(params)) {
         model = llama_init->model();
         lctx = llama_init->context();
+        if (!model || !lctx) {
+            exit(1);
+        }
         vocab = llama_model_get_vocab(model);
         smpl = common_sampler_init(model, params.sampling);
         n_threads = params.cpuparams.n_threads;
         batch = llama_batch_init(1, 0, 1); // batch for next token generation
         n_batch = params.n_batch;
 
-        if (!model || !lctx) {
-            exit(1);
-        }
-
         init_vision_context(params);
 
         if (!mtmd_helper_model_can_chat(lctx, ctx_vision.get())) {
@@ -265,21 +264,49 @@ static int eval_message(mtmd_cli_context & ctx, common_chat_msg & msg) {
     auto formatted_chat = chat_add_and_format(ctx, msg);
     LOG_DBG("formatted_chat.prompt: %s\n", formatted_chat.c_str());
 
-    mtmd_input_text text;
-    text.text          = formatted_chat.data();
-    text.text_len      = formatted_chat.size();
-    text.add_special   = add_bos;
-    text.parse_special = true;
-
     if (g_is_interrupted) return 0;
 
-    mtmd::input_chunks chunks(mtmd_input_chunks_init());
+    // note: we replace the marker here instead of letting mtmd_tokenize() to do that
+    //       because we want to demonstrate how to use mtmd_tokenize_from_parts()
+
+    // split the formatted chat on the media marker to get text segments
+    const std::string marker = mtmd_default_marker();
+    std::vector<std::string> segments;
+    size_t start = 0;
+    size_t pos;
+    while ((pos = formatted_chat.find(marker, start)) != std::string::npos) {
+        segments.push_back(formatted_chat.substr(start, pos - start));
+        start = pos + marker.size();
+    }
+    segments.push_back(formatted_chat.substr(start));
+
     auto bitmaps_c_ptr = ctx.bitmaps.c_ptr();
-    int32_t res = mtmd_tokenize(ctx.ctx_vision.get(),
+    if (segments.size() - 1 != bitmaps_c_ptr.size()) {
+        LOG_ERR("Number of media markers (%zu) does not match number of loaded media (%zu)\n",
+                segments.size() - 1, bitmaps_c_ptr.size());
+        return 1;
+    }
+
+    // interleave text and media parts; only the first text part may add BOS
+    std::vector<mtmd_input_text> texts(segments.size());
+    std::vector<mtmd_input_part> parts;
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < segments.size(); i++) {
+        texts[i] = {segments[i].data(), segments[i].size(), i == 0 && add_bos, /* parse_special */ true};
+        parts.push_back({&texts[i], nullptr});
+        if (i < bitmaps_c_ptr.size()) {
+            parts.push_back({nullptr, bitmaps_c_ptr[i]});
+        }
+    }
+    std::vector<const mtmd_input_part *> parts_ptr;
+    for (const auto & p : parts) {
+        parts_ptr.push_back(&p);
+    }
+
+    mtmd::input_chunks chunks(mtmd_input_chunks_init());
+    int32_t res = mtmd_tokenize_from_parts(ctx.ctx_vision.get(),
                         chunks.ptr.get(), // output
-                        &text, // text
-                        bitmaps_c_ptr.data(),
-                        bitmaps_c_ptr.size());
+                        parts_ptr.data(),
+                        parts_ptr.size());
     if (res != 0) {
         LOG_ERR("Unable to tokenize prompt, res = %d\n", res);
         return 1;
diff --git a/tools/mtmd/mtmd.h b/tools/mtmd/mtmd.h
index e1c2829727..83b9ed4d64 100644
--- a/tools/mtmd/mtmd.h
+++ b/tools/mtmd/mtmd.h
@@ -75,8 +75,8 @@ struct mtmd_input_text {
 
 struct mtmd_input_part {
     // only text or bitmap can be set, not both
-    struct mtmd_input_text * text;
-    struct mtmd_bitmap * bitmap;
+    const struct mtmd_input_text * text;
+    const struct mtmd_bitmap * bitmap;
 };
 
 //