diff --git a/src/lerobot/policies/factory.py b/src/lerobot/policies/factory.py
index e1f7b0156..39603cff6 100644
--- a/src/lerobot/policies/factory.py
+++ b/src/lerobot/policies/factory.py
@@ -61,6 +61,79 @@ from .wall_x.configuration_wall_x import WallXConfig
 from .xvla.configuration_xvla import XVLAConfig
 
 
+def _restore_pi052_pretrained_state(
+    preprocessor: PolicyProcessorPipeline,
+    postprocessor: PolicyProcessorPipeline,
+    pretrained_path: str,
+) -> None:
+    """Transplant saved stateful blobs from a pi052 checkpoint into fresh pipelines.
+
+    pi052's preprocessor includes steps whose constructor args don't
+    JSON-roundtrip (``RenderMessagesStep.recipe`` is a Python object,
+    ``ActionTokenizerProcessorStep.action_tokenizer_name`` is a
+    fitted-tokenizer path that may not exist at eval time). We rebuild
+    those pipelines fresh from ``config.recipe_path`` and then walk
+    over the saved ``policy_{pre,post}processor.json`` files to find
+    each step's ``state_file`` reference and load the bytes back into
+    the corresponding fresh step. Today that's only the
+    NormalizerProcessorStep / UnnormalizerProcessorStep (the action /
+    state quantile stats), but the loop is generic so any future
+    stateful step picks up its blob automatically.
+
+    Pairing is by ``registry_name`` AND position so a benign reorder
+    on the saved side surfaces a warning rather than silently feeding
+    the wrong tensors into the wrong step.
+    """
+    import json  # noqa: PLC0415
+    import logging  # noqa: PLC0415
+    from pathlib import Path  # noqa: PLC0415
+
+    from safetensors.torch import load_file  # noqa: PLC0415
+
+    base = Path(pretrained_path)
+    if not base.exists():
+        return
+
+    log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+    for pipeline, config_filename in [
+        (preprocessor, f"{POLICY_PREPROCESSOR_DEFAULT_NAME}.json"),
+        (postprocessor, f"{POLICY_POSTPROCESSOR_DEFAULT_NAME}.json"),
+    ]:
+        config_path = base / config_filename
+        if not config_path.exists():
+            continue
+        saved = json.loads(config_path.read_text())
+
+        for idx, (saved_step, fresh_step) in enumerate(
+            zip(saved.get("steps", []), pipeline.steps, strict=False)
+        ):
+            state_file = saved_step.get("state_file")
+            if not state_file:
+                continue
+            saved_name = saved_step.get("registry_name")
+            fresh_name = getattr(type(fresh_step), "_registry_name", None)
+            if saved_name and fresh_name and saved_name != fresh_name:
+                log.warning(
+                    "PI052 state restore: %s step %d registry name mismatch "
+                    "(saved=%s, fresh=%s); skipping %s",
+                    config_filename, idx, saved_name, fresh_name, state_file,
+                )
+                continue
+            state_path = base / state_file
+            if not state_path.exists():
+                log.warning(
+                    "PI052 state restore: %s missing at %s; %s left at fresh init",
+                    state_file, base, fresh_name,
+                )
+                continue
+            fresh_step.load_state_dict(load_file(str(state_path)))
+            log.info(
+                "PI052 state restore: loaded %s into %s (step %d)",
+                state_file, fresh_name, idx,
+            )
+
+
 def _reconnect_relative_absolute_steps(
     preprocessor: PolicyProcessorPipeline, postprocessor: PolicyProcessorPipeline
 ) -> None:
@@ -277,6 +350,29 @@ def make_pre_post_processors(
         NotImplementedError: If a processor factory is not implemented for the given
             policy configuration type.
     """
+    if pretrained_path and getattr(policy_cfg, "type", None) == "pi052":
+        # pi052 pipelines don't roundtrip through the saved
+        # ``policy_preprocessor.json``: ``RenderMessagesStep`` holds a
+        # Python ``TrainingRecipe`` (not JSON-serializable; saved as
+        # ``{}``) and ``ActionTokenizerProcessorStep`` saves a host-only
+        # FAST tokenizer path. Generic ``from_pretrained`` then dies
+        # with ``RenderMessagesStep.__init__() missing 1 required
+        # positional argument: 'recipe'`` (job 22164494).
+        #
+        # Mirror ``lerobot_pi052_runtime``'s bootstrap: build pipelines
+        # fresh from ``config.recipe_path`` and transplant the saved
+        # stateful blobs (normalizer stats) from the checkpoint dir.
+        from .pi052.processor_pi052 import make_pi052_pre_post_processors
+
+        preprocessor, postprocessor = make_pi052_pre_post_processors(
+            config=policy_cfg,
+            dataset_stats=kwargs.get("dataset_stats"),
+            dataset_repo_id=kwargs.get("dataset_repo_id"),
+        )
+        _restore_pi052_pretrained_state(preprocessor, postprocessor, pretrained_path)
+        _reconnect_relative_absolute_steps(preprocessor, postprocessor)
+        return preprocessor, postprocessor
+
     if pretrained_path:
         # TODO(Steven): Temporary patch, implement correctly the processors for Gr00t
         if isinstance(policy_cfg, GrootConfig):
diff --git a/src/lerobot/policies/pi052/configuration_pi052.py b/src/lerobot/policies/pi052/configuration_pi052.py
index f18433f07..d2725891f 100644
--- a/src/lerobot/policies/pi052/configuration_pi052.py
+++ b/src/lerobot/policies/pi052/configuration_pi052.py
@@ -197,6 +197,14 @@ class PI052Config(PI05Config):
     # at -4.5% step time on H100 (bench job 22161421); peak memory
     # unchanged. ``fused_linear_cross_entropy`` ships separately via
     # ``_shifted_lin_ce`` / ``_fast_lin_ce``.
+    use_hf_kernels: bool = True
+    """Deprecated. Liger HF kernels are patched unconditionally by
+    ``_enable_hf_kernels`` — this field is retained as a no-op for
+    backward compatibility with checkpoints saved before commit
+    d70c8104 (which still serialize ``use_hf_kernels: true`` into
+    ``config.json``). Loading those configs would otherwise raise
+    ``DecodingError: The fields use_hf_kernels are not valid for
+    PI052Config`` (job 22164492). Remove in a future major bump."""
 
     def __post_init__(self) -> None:
         super().__post_init__()