diff --git a/src/megatron/bridge/models/conversion/auto_bridge.py b/src/megatron/bridge/models/conversion/auto_bridge.py
index 0251fb9ee3..d47bc43ed5 100644
--- a/src/megatron/bridge/models/conversion/auto_bridge.py
+++ b/src/megatron/bridge/models/conversion/auto_bridge.py
@@ -1008,7 +1008,14 @@ def mla_transformer_config(self) -> MLATransformerConfig:
 
     @property
     def _model_bridge(self) -> "MegatronModelBridge":
-        return model_bridge.get_model_bridge(self._causal_lm_architecture)
+        hf_config = getattr(self.hf_pretrained, "hf_config", None)
+        if hf_config is None:
+            if isinstance(self.hf_pretrained, PreTrainedCausalLM):
+                hf_config = self.hf_pretrained.config
+            else:
+                hf_config = self.hf_pretrained
+
+        return model_bridge.get_model_bridge(self._causal_lm_architecture, hf_config=hf_config)
 
     @property
     def _provider_bridge_input(self) -> PreTrainedCausalLM | _ConfigOnlyPretrainedShim:
diff --git a/src/megatron/bridge/models/conversion/model_bridge.py b/src/megatron/bridge/models/conversion/model_bridge.py
index fa3ccafaf5..b8c92e6bf8 100644
--- a/src/megatron/bridge/models/conversion/model_bridge.py
+++ b/src/megatron/bridge/models/conversion/model_bridge.py
@@ -1060,7 +1060,7 @@ def is_tensor_parallel(param) -> bool:
 
 # Core dispatch functions
 @dispatch
-def get_model_bridge(hf_architecture) -> "MegatronModelBridge":
+def get_model_bridge(hf_architecture, hf_config=None) -> "MegatronModelBridge":
     """Get the appropriate model bridge for a given HuggingFace architecture."""
     ...
 
@@ -1108,8 +1108,10 @@ def register_bridge_implementation(
     bridge_class_name = bridge_class.__name__
 
     @get_model_bridge.impl(source)
-    def _get_model_bridge_impl(_) -> "MegatronModelBridge":
+    def _get_model_bridge_impl(_, hf_config=None) -> "MegatronModelBridge":
         bridge = bridge_class()
+        if hf_config is not None:
+            bridge.hf_config = hf_config
         return bridge
 
     @stream_weights_megatron_to_hf.impl((source, target))