diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1d6f0bb0..df5a3da6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -74,10 +74,21 @@ To view the ***Chain-Of-Thought*** of the vLLM-SR's decision-making process, we
 
 ## Quick Start 🚀
 
+Get up and running in seconds with our interactive setup script:
+
 ```bash
-make docker-compose-up
+bash ./scripts/quickstart.sh
 ```
 
+This command will:
+
+- 🔍 Check all prerequisites automatically
+- 📦 Install HuggingFace CLI if needed
+- 📥 Download all required AI models (~1.5GB)
+- 🐳 Start all Docker services
+- ⏳ Wait for services to become healthy
+- 🌐 Show you all the endpoints and next steps
+
 For detailed installation and configuration instructions, see the [Complete Documentation](https://vllm-semantic-router.com/docs/installation/).
 
 ## Documentation 📖
diff --git a/scripts/quickstart.sh b/scripts/quickstart.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..546173f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/quickstart.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,290 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Colors for output
+RED='\033[0;31m'
+GREEN='\033[0;32m'
+YELLOW='\033[1;33m'
+BLUE='\033[0;34m'
+PURPLE='\033[0;35m'
+CYAN='\033[0;36m'
+WHITE='\033[1;37m'
+NC='\033[0m' # No Color
+
+# Animation delay
+DELAY=0.05
+
+# Function to print colored text
+print_color() {
+    local color=$1
+    local text=$2
+    echo -e "${color}${text}${NC}"
+}
+
+# Function to print with typewriter effect
+typewriter() {
+    local text=$1
+    local color=${2:-$WHITE}
+    for (( i=0; i<${#text}; i++ )); do
+        echo -n -e "${color}${text:$i:1}${NC}"
+        sleep $DELAY
+    done
+    echo
+}
+
+# Function to show ASCII art with animation
+show_ascii_art() {
+    clear
+    echo
+    echo
+    print_color $CYAN "        ██╗   ██╗██╗     ██╗     ███╗   ███╗"
+    print_color $CYAN "        ██║   ██║██║     ██║     ████╗ ████║"
+    print_color $CYAN "        ██║   ██║██║     ██║     ██╔████╔██║"
+    print_color $CYAN "        ╚██╗ ██╔╝██║     ██║     ██║╚██╔╝██║"
+    print_color $CYAN "         ╚████╔╝ ███████╗███████╗██║ ╚═╝ ██║"
+    print_color $CYAN "          ╚═══╝  ╚══════╝╚══════╝╚═╝     ╚═╝"
+    echo
+    print_color $PURPLE "      ███████╗███████╗███╗   ███╗ █████╗ ███╗   ██╗████████╗██╗ ██████╗"
+    print_color $PURPLE "      ██╔════╝██╔════╝████╗ ████║██╔══██╗████╗  ██║╚══██╔══╝██║██╔════╝"
+    print_color $PURPLE "      ███████╗█████╗  ██╔████╔██║███████║██╔██╗ ██║   ██║   ██║██║     "
+    print_color $PURPLE "      ╚════██║██╔══╝  ██║╚██╔╝██║██╔══██║██║╚██╗██║   ██║   ██║██║     "
+    print_color $PURPLE "      ███████║███████╗██║ ╚═╝ ██║██║  ██║██║ ╚████║   ██║   ██║╚██████╗"
+    print_color $PURPLE "      ╚══════╝╚══════╝╚═╝     ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═══╝   ╚═╝   ╚═╝ ╚═════╝"
+    echo
+    print_color $YELLOW "                ██████╗  ██████╗ ██╗   ██╗████████╗███████╗██████╗ "
+    print_color $YELLOW "                ██╔══██╗██╔═══██╗██║   ██║╚══██╔══╝██╔════╝██╔══██╗"
+    print_color $YELLOW "                ██████╔╝██║   ██║██║   ██║   ██║   █████╗  ██████╔╝"
+    print_color $YELLOW "                ██╔══██╗██║   ██║██║   ██║   ██║   ██╔══╝  ██╔══██╗"
+    print_color $YELLOW "                ██║  ██║╚██████╔╝╚██████╔╝   ██║   ███████╗██║  ██║"
+    print_color $YELLOW "                ╚═╝  ╚═╝ ╚═════╝  ╚═════╝    ╚═╝   ╚══════╝╚═╝  ╚═╝"
+    echo
+    echo
+    print_color $GREEN "                    🚀 Intelligent Request Routing for vLLM 🚀"
+    print_color $WHITE "                         Quick Start Setup & Launch"
+    echo
+    sleep 1
+}
+
+# Function to show progress bar
+show_progress() {
+    local current=$1
+    local total=$2
+    local description=$3
+    local width=50
+    local percentage=$((current * 100 / total))
+    local completed=$((current * width / total))
+
+    printf "\r${BLUE}[${GREEN}"
+    for ((i=0; i<completed; i++)); do printf "█"; done
+    for ((i=completed; i<width; i++)); do printf "░"; done
+    printf "${BLUE}] ${percentage}%% ${WHITE}${description}${NC}"
+
+    if [ $current -eq $total ]; then
+        echo
+    fi
+}
+
+# Function to check prerequisites
+check_prerequisites() {
+    print_color $YELLOW "🔍 Checking prerequisites..."
+    echo
+
+    local missing_deps=()
+
+    # Check Docker
+    if ! command -v docker &> /dev/null; then
+        missing_deps+=("docker")
+    fi
+
+    # Check Docker Compose
+    if ! command -v docker compose &> /dev/null && ! command -v docker-compose &> /dev/null; then
+        missing_deps+=("docker-compose")
+    fi
+
+    # Check Make
+    if ! command -v make &> /dev/null; then
+        missing_deps+=("make")
+    fi
+
+    # Check Python (for HuggingFace CLI)
+    if ! command -v python3 &> /dev/null && ! command -v python &> /dev/null; then
+        missing_deps+=("python3")
+    fi
+
+    if [ ${#missing_deps[@]} -ne 0 ]; then
+        print_color $RED "❌ Missing dependencies: ${missing_deps[*]}"
+        print_color $YELLOW "Please install the missing dependencies and try again."
+        exit 1
+    fi
+
+    print_color $GREEN "✅ All prerequisites satisfied!"
+    echo
+}
+
+# Function to install HuggingFace CLI if needed
+install_hf_cli() {
+    if ! command -v hf &> /dev/null; then
+        print_color $YELLOW "📦 Installing HuggingFace CLI..."
+        pip install huggingface_hub[cli] || pip3 install huggingface_hub[cli]
+        print_color $GREEN "✅ HuggingFace CLI installed!"
+    else
+        print_color $GREEN "✅ HuggingFace CLI already installed!"
+    fi
+    echo
+}
+
+# Function to download models with progress
+download_models() {
+    print_color $YELLOW "📥 Downloading AI models..."
+    echo
+
+    # Use minimal model set for faster setup
+    export CI_MINIMAL_MODELS=false
+
+    # Start the download process with filtered output
+    make download-models 2>&1 | grep -E "(downloading|downloaded|Downloaded|✓|✅|❌|Error|error|Failed|failed|CI_MINIMAL_MODELS|Running download-models)" | while IFS= read -r line; do
+        # Filter out verbose HuggingFace download progress
+        if [[ ! "$line" =~ (Fetching|\.safetensors|\.json|\.txt|\.bin|B/s|%|/s) ]]; then
+            # Suppress output - no information displayed
+            :
+        fi
+    done
+
+    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+        print_color $GREEN "✅ Models downloaded successfully!"
+    else
+        print_color $RED "❌ Failed to download models!"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    echo
+}
+
+# Function to start services
+start_services() {
+    print_color $YELLOW "🐳 Starting Docker services..."
+    echo
+
+    # Start docker-compose services with filtered output
+    make docker-compose-up 2>&1 | grep -E "(Running docker-compose-up|Starting services|Container.*Running|Container.*Healthy|Container.*Started|✓|✅|❌|Error|error|Failed|failed)" | while IFS= read -r line; do
+        # Show only key status updates
+        if [[ "$line" =~ (Container.*Running|Container.*Healthy|Starting services|Running docker-compose-up) ]]; then
+            echo "   $line"
+        fi
+    done
+
+    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+        print_color $GREEN "✅ Services started successfully!"
+    else
+        print_color $RED "❌ Failed to start services!"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    echo
+}
+
+# Function to wait for services to be healthy
+wait_for_services() {
+    # Silently wait for services to become healthy
+    local max_attempts=30
+    local attempt=1
+
+    while [ $attempt -le $max_attempts ]; do
+        # Check if semantic-router container is healthy
+        if docker ps --filter "name=semantic-router" --filter "health=healthy" --format "{{.Names}}" | grep -q "semantic-router" 2>/dev/null; then
+            print_color $GREEN "✅ All services are healthy and ready!"
+            return 0
+        fi
+
+        sleep 2
+        ((attempt++))
+    done
+
+    print_color $YELLOW "⚠️  Services are starting but may not be fully healthy yet."
+    print_color $WHITE "You can check the status with: docker compose ps"
+}
+
+# Function to show service information
+show_service_info() {
+    print_color $CYAN "🌐 Service Information:"
+    echo
+    print_color $WHITE "┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐"
+    print_color $WHITE "│                        🎯 Endpoints                         │"
+    print_color $WHITE "├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤"
+    print_color $GREEN "│  🤖 Semantic Router API:    http://localhost:8801/v1       │"
+    print_color $GREEN "│  📊 Dashboard:               http://localhost:8700          │"
+    print_color $GREEN "│  📈 Prometheus:              http://localhost:9090          │"
+    print_color $GREEN "│  📊 Grafana:                 http://localhost:3000          │"
+    print_color $GREEN "│  🌐 Open WebUI:              http://localhost:3001          │"
+    print_color $WHITE "└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘"
+    echo
+    print_color $CYAN "🔧 Useful Commands:"
+    echo
+    print_color $WHITE "  • Check service status:     docker compose ps"
+    print_color $WHITE "  • View logs:                docker compose logs -f"
+    print_color $WHITE "  • Stop services:            docker compose down"
+    print_color $WHITE "  • Restart services:         docker compose restart"
+    echo
+}
+
+# Function to show completion message
+show_completion() {
+    echo
+    print_color $CYAN "╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗"
+    print_color $CYAN "║                                                                              ║"
+    print_color $GREEN "║                          🎉 SETUP COMPLETE! 🎉                              ║"
+    print_color $CYAN "║                                                                              ║"
+    print_color $WHITE "║  Your vLLM Semantic Router is now running and ready to handle requests!    ║"
+    print_color $CYAN "║                                                                              ║"
+    print_color $YELLOW "║  Next steps:                                                                 ║"
+    print_color $WHITE "║  1. Visit the dashboard: http://localhost:8700                              ║"
+    print_color $WHITE "║  2. Try the API: http://localhost:8801/v1/models                            ║"
+    print_color $WHITE "║  3. Monitor with Grafana: http://localhost:3000 (admin/admin)              ║"
+    print_color $CYAN "║                                                                              ║"
+    print_color $CYAN "╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝"
+    echo
+
+    # Ask if user wants to open browser
+    read -p "$(print_color $YELLOW "Would you like to open the dashboard in your browser? (y/N): ")" -n 1 -r
+    echo
+    if [[ $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
+        if command -v open &> /dev/null; then
+            open http://localhost:8700
+        elif command -v xdg-open &> /dev/null; then
+            xdg-open http://localhost:8700
+        else
+            print_color $YELLOW "Please open http://localhost:8700 in your browser manually."
+        fi
+    fi
+}
+
+# Main execution
+main() {
+    # Show ASCII art
+    show_ascii_art
+
+    # Check prerequisites
+    check_prerequisites
+
+    # Install HuggingFace CLI if needed
+    install_hf_cli
+
+    # Download models
+    download_models
+
+    # Start services
+    start_services
+
+    # Wait for services to be healthy
+    wait_for_services
+
+    # Show service information
+    show_service_info
+
+    # Show completion message
+    show_completion
+}
+
+# Handle script interruption
+trap 'echo; print_color $RED "❌ Setup interrupted!"; exit 1' INT TERM
+
+# Run main function
+main "$@"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tools/make/docker.mk b/tools/make/docker.mk
index f28a49ee..038f819f 100644
--- a/tools/make/docker.mk
+++ b/tools/make/docker.mk
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@ docker-push-llm-katan:
 
 # Docker compose build flag logic
 # Usage: make docker-compose-up REBUILD=1  (forces image rebuild)
+REBUILD ?=
 BUILD_FLAG=$(if $(REBUILD),--build,)
 
 # Docker compose shortcuts (no rebuild by default)