diff --git a/shortfin/CMakeLists.txt b/shortfin/CMakeLists.txt
index f025eccfe..61d47e19a 100644
--- a/shortfin/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/shortfin/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ option(SHORTFIN_BUILD_TESTS "Builds C++ tests" ON)
 option(SHORTFIN_BUNDLE_DEPS "Download dependencies instead of using system libraries" ON)
 option(SHORTFIN_ENABLE_TRACING "Enable runtime tracing for iree and shortfin" OFF)
 option(SHORTFIN_ENABLE_LTO "Enables LTO if supported" ON)
+option(SHORTFIN_ENABLE_TOKENIZERS "Enables integration of native tokenizers library" OFF)
 
 set(SHORTFIN_IREE_SOURCE_DIR "" CACHE FILEPATH "Path to IREE source")
 
@@ -80,6 +81,7 @@ list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH
   ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/build_tools/cmake/
 )
 include(shortfin_library)
+include(shortfin_testing)
 include(CheckCXXCompilerFlag)
 include(FetchContent)
 
@@ -90,7 +92,9 @@ include(FetchContent)
 if(SHORTFIN_ENABLE_LTO)
   include(CheckIPOSupported)
   check_ipo_supported(RESULT SHORTFIN_LTO_SUPPORTED OUTPUT SHORTFIN_LTO_ERROR)
-  if(SHORTFIN_LTO_SUPPORTED)
+  if(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Debug")
+    message(STATUS "Not enabling LTO for debug build")
+  elseif(SHORTFIN_LTO_SUPPORTED)
     message(STATUS "Shortfin LTO Enabled")
     set(CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION TRUE)
   else()
@@ -126,7 +130,9 @@ endif()
 message(STATUS "  - Host")
 
 ################################################################################
-# Dependencies
+# Bundled Dependencies
+# These dependencies are either bundled or used via installed packages based
+# on the SHORTFIN_BUNDLE_DEPS option.
 ################################################################################
 
 if(SHORTFIN_BUNDLE_DEPS)
@@ -164,6 +170,7 @@ if(SHORTFIN_BUNDLE_DEPS)
   shortfin_push_bundled_lib_options()
   # Enable spdlog shared library options so we can export it.
   set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -DSPDLOG_SHARED_LIB -Dspdlog_EXPORTS")
+  message(STATUS "Fetching bundled projects")
   FetchContent_MakeAvailable(fmt spdlog xtl xtensor)
   shortfin_pop_bundled_lib_options()
 else()
@@ -172,7 +179,8 @@ else()
 endif()
 
 ################################################################################
-# IREE
+# IREE Dependency
+# This is always a source dependency on the IREE runtime.
 ################################################################################
 
 # Set IREE build flags.
@@ -237,6 +245,61 @@ else()
 endif()
 shortfin_pop_bundled_lib_options()
 
+################################################################################
+# Tokenizer Library
+################################################################################
+
+function(shortfin_check_tokenizers)
+  # Make sure that rust/cargo is installed and usable.
+  find_program(SHORTFIN_CARGO_PATH NAMES cargo NO_CACHE)
+  if(NOT SHORTFIN_CARGO_PATH)
+    message(SEND_ERROR
+      "Building with -DSHORTFIN_ENABLE_TOKENIZERS=ON requires cargo (Rust's build tool). "
+      "Please follow Rust documentation to install. On Ubuntu, this can typically be accomplished with:\n"
+      "  sudo apt install rustup && rustup default stable"
+    )
+  endif()
+
+  # Make sure cargo is functional.
+  execute_process(
+    COMMAND ${SHORTFIN_CARGO_PATH}
+    RESULT_VARIABLE _CARGO_RESULT
+    OUTPUT_VARIABLE _CARGO_OUT
+    ERROR_VARIABLE _CARGO_ERR
+  )
+  if(NOT "${_CARGO_RESULT}" STREQUAL "0")
+    message(SEND_ERROR
+      "Building with -DSHORTFIN_ENABLE_TOKENIZERS=ON requires cargo (Rust's build tool) "
+      "to be configured properly. It was found (${SHORTFIN_CARGO_PATH}) but returned an "
+      "error. Output below:\n"
+      "${_CARGO_OUT}\n"
+      "${_CARGO_ERR}"
+    )
+  endif()
+endfunction()
+
+if(SHORTFIN_ENABLE_TOKENIZERS)
+  # TODO: submit a patch to tokenizers_cpp to allow explicit configuration of the
+  # cargo location and pass that vs relying on environmental alignment.
+  shortfin_check_tokenizers()
+
+  shortfin_push_bundled_lib_options()
+  set(CMAKE_C_VISIBILITY_PRESET "hidden")
+  set(CMAKE_CXX_VISIBILITY_PRESET "hidden")
+  set(CMAKE_VISIBILITY_INLINES_HIDDEN ON)
+  set(MLC_ENABLE_SENTENCEPIECE_TOKENIZER OFF)
+
+  FetchContent_Declare(
+    tokenizers_cpp  # From CMake project() declaration
+    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/mlc-ai/tokenizers-cpp.git
+    GIT_TAG 4bb753377680e249345b54c6b10e6d0674c8af03 # 2024 Nov 15
+    EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL
+  )
+  message(STATUS "Fetching tokenizers_cpp")
+  FetchContent_MakeAvailable(tokenizers_cpp)
+  shortfin_pop_bundled_lib_options()
+endif()
+
 ################################################################################
 # Tests
 ################################################################################
@@ -256,7 +319,7 @@ if(SHORTFIN_BUILD_TESTS)
   enable_testing()
 endif()
 
-
+add_custom_target(shortfin_testdata_deps)
 add_subdirectory(src)
 
 if(SHORTFIN_BUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS)
diff --git a/shortfin/build_tools/cmake/shortfin_library.cmake b/shortfin/build_tools/cmake/shortfin_library.cmake
index aaa97a6c1..103fdf1c5 100644
--- a/shortfin/build_tools/cmake/shortfin_library.cmake
+++ b/shortfin/build_tools/cmake/shortfin_library.cmake
@@ -182,7 +182,10 @@ function(shortfin_gtest_test)
     GTest::gmock
     GTest::gtest_main
   )
-  gtest_discover_tests(${_RULE_NAME})
+  gtest_discover_tests(
+    ${_RULE_NAME}
+    WORKING_DIRECTORY "${libshortfin_BINARY_DIR}"
+  )
 endfunction()
 
 
diff --git a/shortfin/build_tools/cmake/shortfin_testing.cmake b/shortfin/build_tools/cmake/shortfin_testing.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6c43ecf48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shortfin/build_tools/cmake/shortfin_testing.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# Copyright 2024 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM Exceptions.
+# See https://llvm.org/LICENSE.txt for license information.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
+
+# Downloads some test data file as part of configure.
+# This does a download->rename in an attempt to be robust to partial downloads.
+# It should not be used to manage large test data files or anything sensitive
+# enough to require a hash check.
+# The output file is added as an additional clean file on the global
+# shortfin_testdata_deps target, meaning the "ninja clean" will remove it.
+# It is also added to the current directories list of configure depends, which
+# means that if ninja is run and it is not present, cmake will be re-invoked.
+function(shortfin_download_test_data)
+  cmake_parse_arguments(
+    _RULE
+    ""
+    "URL;OUTPUT_FILE"
+    ""
+    ${ARGN}
+  )
+  if(NOT EXISTS "${_RULE_OUTPUT_FILE}")
+    set(_stage_file "${_RULE_OUTPUT_FILE}.stage")
+    message(STATUS "Downloading test data ${_RULE_URL} -> ${_RULE_OUTPUT_FILE}")
+    file(DOWNLOAD "${_RULE_URL}" "${_stage_file}" STATUS _status)
+    list(POP_FRONT _status _status_code)
+    if(_status_code EQUAL "0")
+      file(RENAME "${_stage_file}" "${_RULE_OUTPUT_FILE}")
+    else()
+      message(SEND_ERROR "Error downloading file ${_RULE_URL} -> ${_RULE_OUTPUT_FILE}")
+    endif()
+  endif()
+
+  # Make clean remove it.
+  set_property(
+    TARGET shortfin_testdata_deps
+    APPEND PROPERTY ADDITIONAL_CLEAN_FILES
+      "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tokenizer.json"
+  )
+
+  # And make us reconfigure if it isn't there.
+  set_property(
+    DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}"
+    APPEND PROPERTY
+    CMAKE_CONFIGURE_DEPENDS "${_RULE_OUTPUT_FILE}")
+endfunction()
diff --git a/shortfin/setup.py b/shortfin/setup.py
index cf3762950..e15b38d89 100644
--- a/shortfin/setup.py
+++ b/shortfin/setup.py
@@ -225,6 +225,7 @@ def build_cmake_configuration(CMAKE_BUILD_DIR: Path, extra_cmake_args=[]):
     add_env_cmake_setting(cmake_args, "SHORTFIN_ENABLE_LTO", default_value="ON")
     add_env_cmake_setting(cmake_args, "SHORTFIN_IREE_SOURCE_DIR")
     add_env_cmake_setting(cmake_args, "SHORTFIN_ENABLE_ASAN")
+    add_env_cmake_setting(cmake_args, "SHORTFIN_ENABLE_TOKENIZERS", default_value="OFF")
 
     # Only do a from-scratch configure if not already configured.
     cmake_cache_file = os.path.join(CMAKE_BUILD_DIR, "CMakeCache.txt")
diff --git a/shortfin/src/shortfin/CMakeLists.txt b/shortfin/src/shortfin/CMakeLists.txt
index 058e0e336..73df08e7c 100644
--- a/shortfin/src/shortfin/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/shortfin/src/shortfin/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -5,5 +5,6 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
 
 add_subdirectory(array)
+add_subdirectory(components/tokenizers)
 add_subdirectory(local)
 add_subdirectory(support)
diff --git a/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/CMakeLists.txt b/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..168388d28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+# Copyright 2024 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM Exceptions.
+# See https://llvm.org/LICENSE.txt for license information.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
+
+if(SHORTFIN_ENABLE_TOKENIZERS)
+    shortfin_cc_component(
+      NAME
+        shortfin_tokenizers
+      HDRS
+        tokenizers.h
+      SRCS
+        tokenizers.cc
+      DEFINES
+        SHORTFIN_HAVE_TOKENIZERS
+      COMPONENTS
+        shortfin_support
+      DEPS
+        tokenizers_cpp
+    )
+    set_property(GLOBAL APPEND
+      PROPERTY SHORTFIN_LIB_OPTIONAL_COMPONENTS
+      shortfin_tokenizers)
+    target_compile_definitions(shortfin_public_defs INTERFACE SHORTFIN_HAVE_TOKENIZERS)
+
+    # Download test data.
+    shortfin_download_test_data(
+      URL "https://huggingface.co/google-bert/bert-base-cased/resolve/main/tokenizer.json"
+      OUTPUT_FILE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tokenizer.json"
+    )
+
+    # Note that tests run from the binary dir of the project.
+    shortfin_gtest_test(
+      NAME shortfin_tokenizers_test
+      SRCS
+        tokenizers_test.cc
+    )
+endif()
diff --git a/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers.cc b/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers.cc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..118bc0c1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+// Copyright 2024 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM Exceptions.
+// See https://llvm.org/LICENSE.txt for license information.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
+
+#include "shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers.h"
+
+#include <exception>
+
+#include "shortfin/support/logging.h"
+#include "tokenizers_cpp.h"
+
+namespace shortfin::tokenizers {
+
+namespace {
+
+class AccessibleTokenizer : public Tokenizer {
+ public:
+  using Tokenizer::vendor_tokenizer_;
+};
+
+::tokenizers::Tokenizer *Get(Tokenizer *self) {
+  void *ptr = static_cast<AccessibleTokenizer *>(self)->vendor_tokenizer_;
+  if (!ptr) {
+    throw std::logic_error("Tokenizer is null");
+  }
+  return static_cast<::tokenizers::Tokenizer *>(ptr);
+}
+
+}  // namespace
+
+Tokenizer::~Tokenizer() { delete Get(this); }
+
+Tokenizer Tokenizer::FromBlobJSON(const std::string &json_blob) {
+  SHORTFIN_TRACE_SCOPE_NAMED("Tokenizer::FromBlobJSON");
+  return Tokenizer(::tokenizers::Tokenizer::FromBlobJSON(json_blob).release());
+}
+
+std::vector<int32_t> Tokenizer::Encode(const std::string &text) {
+  SHORTFIN_TRACE_SCOPE_NAMED("Tokenizer::Encode");
+  return Get(this)->Encode(text);
+}
+
+std::vector<std::vector<int32_t>> Tokenizer::EncodeBatch(
+    const std::vector<std::string> &texts) {
+  SHORTFIN_TRACE_SCOPE_NAMED("Tokenizer::EncodeBatch");
+  return Get(this)->EncodeBatch(texts);
+}
+
+std::string Tokenizer::Decode(const std::vector<int32_t> &ids) {
+  SHORTFIN_TRACE_SCOPE_NAMED("Tokenizer::Decode");
+  return Get(this)->Decode(ids);
+}
+size_t Tokenizer::GetVocabSize() { return Get(this)->GetVocabSize(); }
+std::string Tokenizer::IdToToken(int32_t token_id) {
+  return Get(this)->IdToToken(token_id);
+}
+int32_t Tokenizer::TokenToId(const std::string &token) {
+  return Get(this)->TokenToId(token);
+}
+
+}  // namespace shortfin::tokenizers
diff --git a/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers.h b/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d263eace6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers.h
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+// Copyright 2024 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM Exceptions.
+// See https://llvm.org/LICENSE.txt for license information.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
+
+#ifndef SHORTFIN_COMPONENTS_TOKENIZERS_TOKENIZERS_H
+#define SHORTFIN_COMPONENTS_TOKENIZERS_TOKENIZERS_H
+
+#include <string>
+#include <vector>
+
+#include "shortfin/support/api.h"
+
+namespace shortfin::tokenizers {
+
+// A vendored Tokenizer class that does not export the details of the backing
+// implementation. While a little bit gross, this keeps us from needing to
+// re-export a vendor'ed API as part of our public API.
+// The current vendor tokenizer is based on mlc-ai/tokenizers-cpp. The API
+// is fairly close to that implementation.
+// See: https://github.com/mlc-ai/tokenizers-cpp
+class SHORTFIN_API Tokenizer {
+ public:
+  Tokenizer(const Tokenizer &) = delete;
+  Tokenizer &operator=(const Tokenizer &) = delete;
+  Tokenizer(Tokenizer &&other) : vendor_tokenizer_(other.vendor_tokenizer_) {
+    vendor_tokenizer_ = nullptr;
+  }
+  ~Tokenizer();
+
+  // Factory functions.
+  static Tokenizer FromBlobJSON(const std::string &json_blob);
+
+  std::vector<int32_t> Encode(const std::string &text);
+  std::vector<std::vector<int32_t>> EncodeBatch(
+      const std::vector<std::string> &texts);
+  std::string Decode(const std::vector<int32_t> &ids);
+  size_t GetVocabSize();
+  std::string IdToToken(int32_t token_id);
+  int32_t TokenToId(const std::string &token);
+
+ private:
+  Tokenizer(void *vendor_tokenizer) : vendor_tokenizer_(vendor_tokenizer) {}
+
+ protected:
+  void *vendor_tokenizer_;
+};
+
+}  // namespace shortfin::tokenizers
+
+#endif  // SHORTFIN_COMPONENTS_TOKENIZERS_TOKENIZERS_H
diff --git a/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers_test.cc b/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers_test.cc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..674721653
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shortfin/src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers_test.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+// Copyright 2024 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM Exceptions.
+// See https://llvm.org/LICENSE.txt for license information.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
+
+#include "shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizers.h"
+
+#include <gmock/gmock.h>
+#include <gtest/gtest.h>
+
+#include <filesystem>
+#include <fstream>
+
+using namespace shortfin::tokenizers;
+
+namespace {
+
+std::string ReadFile(std::filesystem::path path) {
+  std::ifstream in(path);
+  std::ostringstream out;
+  out << in.rdbuf();
+  return out.str();
+}
+
+}  // namespace
+
+// TODO: Enable once upstream changes with error handling have landed.
+// Currently aborts.
+// See: https://github.com/mlc-ai/tokenizers-cpp/issues/50
+// TEST(TokenizersTest, FromIllegalBlobJson) {
+//   auto tok = Tokenizer::FromBlobJSON("foobar");
+// }
+
+TEST(TokenizersTest, BasicTokenizerJson) {
+  std::filesystem::path tokenizer_path(
+      "src/shortfin/components/tokenizers/tokenizer.json");
+  auto tokenizer_json = ReadFile(tokenizer_path);
+  ASSERT_GT(tokenizer_json.size(), 0)
+      << "reading " << tokenizer_path
+      << " (cwd: " << std::filesystem::current_path() << ")";
+  auto tok = Tokenizer::FromBlobJSON(tokenizer_json);
+  EXPECT_GT(tok.GetVocabSize(), 100);  // Sanity check
+  auto encoded = tok.Encode("hello world");
+  EXPECT_THAT(encoded,
+              ::testing::ContainerEq(std::vector<int32_t>{19082, 1362}));
+  auto batch_encoded = tok.EncodeBatch({"hello", "world"});
+  ASSERT_EQ(batch_encoded.size(), 2);
+  EXPECT_THAT(batch_encoded[0],
+              ::testing::ContainerEq(std::vector<int32_t>{19082}));
+  EXPECT_THAT(batch_encoded[1],
+              ::testing::ContainerEq(std::vector<int32_t>{1362}));
+  EXPECT_EQ(tok.TokenToId("hello"), 19082);
+  auto decoded = tok.Decode(encoded);
+  EXPECT_EQ(decoded, "hello world");
+}