diff --git a/src/prime_rl/templates/_launch_rank.sh.j2 b/src/prime_rl/templates/_launch_rank.sh.j2
index f9d35fa935..f4c2a0be40 100644
--- a/src/prime_rl/templates/_launch_rank.sh.j2
+++ b/src/prime_rl/templates/_launch_rank.sh.j2
@@ -15,14 +15,18 @@ rank_log() {
 # launch_inference_rank <port> <cuda_visible_devices> <dp> <rpc_port> <vllm_extra_json|""> <nixl_side_channel_port|""> <log_file>
 launch_inference_rank() {
     local port="$1" gpus="$2" dp="$3" rpc="$4" extra="$5" nixl="$6" log="$7"
+    local log_name="${log##*/}"
+    local -a tee_args=(-a "$log")
+    # node_*.log already gets a truncating header; rank-specific logs do not.
+    [[ "$log_name" == *_rank*.log ]] && tee_args=("$log")
     local -a cmd=(uv run inference @ "$CONFIG_PATH"
         --server.host 0.0.0.0 --server.port "$port"
         --parallel.dp "$dp" --data-parallel-size-local 1 --api-server-count 1)
     [ -n "$rpc" ] && cmd+=(--data-parallel-rpc-port "$rpc")
     [ -n "$extra" ] && cmd+=(--vllm-extra "$extra")
     if [ -n "$nixl" ]; then
-        CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES="$gpus" VLLM_NIXL_SIDE_CHANNEL_PORT="$nixl" "${cmd[@]}" 2>&1 | tee -a "$log" &
+        CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES="$gpus" VLLM_NIXL_SIDE_CHANNEL_PORT="$nixl" "${cmd[@]}" 2>&1 | tee "${tee_args[@]}" &
     else
-        CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES="$gpus" "${cmd[@]}" 2>&1 | tee -a "$log" &
+        CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES="$gpus" "${cmd[@]}" 2>&1 | tee "${tee_args[@]}" &
     fi
 }
diff --git a/src/prime_rl/templates/inference.sbatch.j2 b/src/prime_rl/templates/inference.sbatch.j2
index e7d7f784bc..8814ca12f1 100755
--- a/src/prime_rl/templates/inference.sbatch.j2
+++ b/src/prime_rl/templates/inference.sbatch.j2
@@ -51,7 +51,6 @@ export PROJECT_DIR={{ project_dir }}
 export CONFIG_PATH={{ config_path }}
 export OUTPUT_DIR={{ output_dir }}
 mkdir -p $OUTPUT_DIR/logs/inference
-rm -f $OUTPUT_DIR/logs/inference/*.log
 ln -sfn inference/node_0.log $OUTPUT_DIR/logs/inference.log
 
 # General
diff --git a/src/prime_rl/templates/multi_node_rl.sbatch.j2 b/src/prime_rl/templates/multi_node_rl.sbatch.j2
index c462610778..8c8d373b29 100755
--- a/src/prime_rl/templates/multi_node_rl.sbatch.j2
+++ b/src/prime_rl/templates/multi_node_rl.sbatch.j2
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@ export CONFIG_DIR={{ config_dir }}
 export OUTPUT_DIR={{ output_dir }}
 export ORCHESTRATOR_OUTPUT_DIR={{ orchestrator_output_dir }}
 mkdir -p $OUTPUT_DIR/logs/trainer $OUTPUT_DIR/logs/inference
-rm -f $OUTPUT_DIR/logs/inference/*.log
 ln -sfn trainer/node_0.log $OUTPUT_DIR/logs/trainer.log
 ln -sfn inference/node_0.log $OUTPUT_DIR/logs/inference.log