diff --git a/docs/config.qmd b/docs/config.qmd
index cfd137ff0..fb0c4b59b 100644
--- a/docs/config.qmd
+++ b/docs/config.qmd
@@ -154,8 +154,6 @@ datasets:
       content: value
       # ...
 
-    message_property_mappings:
-
     # Optional[Dict[str, List]]. Roles mapping in the messages. The default is:
     roles:
       user: ["human", "user"]
@@ -556,6 +554,13 @@ special_tokens:
 # Add extra tokens.
 tokens:
 
+# Mapping token_id to new_token_string to override reserved added_tokens in the tokenizer.
+# Only works for tokens that are not part of the base vocab (aka are added_tokens).
+# Can be checked if they exist in tokenizer.json added_tokens.
+added_tokens_overrides:  # Dict[int, str]
+#  128041: "<|im_start|>"
+#  128042: "<|im_end|>"
+
 # FSDP
 fsdp:
 fsdp_config:
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/config/models/input/v0_4_1/__init__.py b/src/axolotl/utils/config/models/input/v0_4_1/__init__.py
index 180e02823..ce2586afb 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/config/models/input/v0_4_1/__init__.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/config/models/input/v0_4_1/__init__.py
@@ -855,6 +855,7 @@ class AxolotlInputConfig(
 
     special_tokens: Optional[SpecialTokensConfig] = None
     tokens: Optional[List[str]] = None
+    added_tokens_overrides: Optional[Dict[int, str]] = None
 
     torch_compile: Optional[Union[Literal["auto"], bool]] = None
     torch_compile_backend: Optional[str] = None
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/distributed.py b/src/axolotl/utils/distributed.py
index 81a928b6e..7d6cd597a 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/distributed.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/distributed.py
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ def is_main_process():
 
 
 def is_local_main_process():
-    return PartialState().is_main_process
+    return PartialState().is_local_main_process
 
 
 def get_world_size():
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/models.py b/src/axolotl/utils/models.py
index c4c07dd33..add690d9d 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/models.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/models.py
@@ -57,7 +57,13 @@ from axolotl.prompt_tokenizers import LLAMA_DEFAULT_EOS_TOKEN
 from axolotl.utils.bench import log_gpu_memory_usage
 from axolotl.utils.chat_templates import get_chat_template_from_config
 from axolotl.utils.dict import DictDefault
-from axolotl.utils.distributed import get_device_count, get_device_type, zero_only
+from axolotl.utils.distributed import (
+    barrier,
+    get_device_count,
+    get_device_type,
+    is_local_main_process,
+    zero_only,
+)
 from axolotl.utils.gradient_checkpointing import hf_grad_checkpoint_unsloth_wrapper
 from axolotl.utils.lora_embeddings import get_linear_embedding_layers
 from axolotl.utils.model_shard_quant import load_sharded_model, load_sharded_model_quant
@@ -165,7 +171,95 @@ def load_model_config(cfg):
     return model_config
 
 
+def modify_tokenizer_files(
+    tokenizer_path: str, token_mappings: Dict[int, str], output_dir: str
+) -> str:
+    """
+    Modify tokenizer files to replace added_tokens strings, save to output directory, and return the path to the modified tokenizer.
+
+    This only works with reserved tokens that were added to the tokenizer, not tokens already part of the vocab.
+
+    Args:
+        tokenizer_path: Path or name of the original tokenizer
+        token_mappings: Dict mapping {token_id (int): new_token_string}
+        output_dir: Directory to save the modified tokenizer
+
+    Returns:
+        Path to the modified tokenizer directory
+
+    Ref: https://github.com/huggingface/transformers/issues/27974#issuecomment-1854188941
+    """
+
+    import json
+
+    # Create the tokenizer directory in output_dir if it doesn't exist
+    tokenizer_dir = os.path.join(output_dir, "tokenizer")
+    os.makedirs(tokenizer_dir, exist_ok=True)
+
+    if is_local_main_process():  # pylint: disable=too-many-nested-blocks
+        # Load the tokenizer
+        temp_tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(tokenizer_path, use_fast=True)
+
+        # Save the tokenizer to the output directory
+        temp_tokenizer.save_pretrained(tokenizer_dir)
+
+        # Get the token IDs and map them to their new values
+        token_id_mappings = {
+            int(token_id): new_value for token_id, new_value in token_mappings.items()
+        }
+
+        # 1. Update tokenizer_config.json - added_tokens_decoder
+        config_path = os.path.join(tokenizer_dir, "tokenizer_config.json")
+        if os.path.exists(config_path):
+            with open(config_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+                config_data = json.load(f)
+
+            # Update added_tokens_decoder
+            if "added_tokens_decoder" in config_data:
+                for token_id, new_value in token_id_mappings.items():
+                    token_id_str = str(token_id)
+                    if token_id_str in config_data["added_tokens_decoder"]:
+                        config_data["added_tokens_decoder"][token_id_str][
+                            "content"
+                        ] = new_value
+                    else:
+                        raise ValueError(
+                            f"Token ID {token_id_str} not found in added_tokens_decoder"
+                        )
+
+            # Write the updated config back
+            with open(config_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+                json.dump(config_data, f, indent=2)
+
+        # 2. Update tokenizer.json - added_tokens
+        tokenizer_path = os.path.join(tokenizer_dir, "tokenizer.json")
+        if os.path.exists(tokenizer_path):
+            with open(tokenizer_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+                tokenizer_data = json.load(f)
+
+            # Update added_tokens
+            if "added_tokens" in tokenizer_data:
+                for token_id, new_value in token_id_mappings.items():
+                    for i, token_entry in enumerate(tokenizer_data["added_tokens"]):
+                        if token_entry["id"] == token_id:
+                            tokenizer_data["added_tokens"][i]["content"] = new_value
+                            break
+                    else:
+                        # Reaching this section means the token_id was not found in tokenizer.json added_tokens
+                        raise ValueError(
+                            f"Token ID {token_id} not found in added_tokens"
+                        )
+
+            # Write the updated tokenizer data back
+            with open(tokenizer_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+                json.dump(tokenizer_data, f, indent=2)
+
+    barrier()
+    return tokenizer_dir
+
+
 def load_tokenizer(cfg):
+    """Load and configure the tokenizer based on the provided config."""
     model_config = load_model_config(cfg)
     tokenizer_kwargs = {}
     use_fast = True  # this is the default
@@ -180,8 +274,18 @@ def load_tokenizer(cfg):
     if cfg.tokenizer_type:
         tokenizer_cls = getattr(transformers, cfg.tokenizer_type)
 
+    # Set base tokenizer path
+    tokenizer_path = cfg.tokenizer_config
+
+    # Apply token string overrides if specified
+    if cfg.added_tokens_overrides:
+        # Modify tokenizer files and get path to modified tokenizer
+        tokenizer_path = modify_tokenizer_files(
+            tokenizer_path, cfg.added_tokens_overrides, output_dir=cfg.output_dir
+        )
+
     tokenizer = tokenizer_cls.from_pretrained(
-        cfg.tokenizer_config,
+        tokenizer_path,
         trust_remote_code=cfg.trust_remote_code or False,
         use_fast=use_fast,
         **tokenizer_kwargs,
diff --git a/tests/test_tokenizers.py b/tests/test_tokenizers.py
index 69c441f8c..3d568ab19 100644
--- a/tests/test_tokenizers.py
+++ b/tests/test_tokenizers.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """
 Test cases for the tokenizer loading
 """
+
 import unittest
 
 import pytest
@@ -9,7 +10,7 @@ from axolotl.utils.dict import DictDefault
 from axolotl.utils.models import load_tokenizer
 
 
-class TestTokenizers(unittest.TestCase):
+class TestTokenizers:
     """
     test class for the load_tokenizer fn
     """
@@ -75,12 +76,48 @@ class TestTokenizers(unittest.TestCase):
             }
         )
         tokenizer = load_tokenizer(cfg)
-        self.assertEqual(tokenizer("<|im_start|>user")["input_ids"], [1, 32000, 1404])
-        self.assertEqual(len(tokenizer), 32001)
+        assert tokenizer("<|im_start|>user")["input_ids"] == [1, 32000, 1404]
+        assert len(tokenizer) == 32001
 
         # ensure reloading the tokenizer again from cfg results in same vocab length
         tokenizer = load_tokenizer(cfg)
-        self.assertEqual(len(tokenizer), 32001)
+        assert len(tokenizer) == 32001
+
+    def test_added_tokens_overrides(self, temp_dir):
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {
+                # use with tokenizer that has reserved_tokens in added_tokens
+                "tokenizer_config": "NousResearch/Llama-3.2-1B",
+                "added_tokens_overrides": {
+                    128041: "RANDOM_OVERRIDE_1",
+                    128042: "RANDOM_OVERRIDE_2",
+                },
+                "output_dir": temp_dir,
+            }
+        )
+
+        tokenizer = load_tokenizer(cfg)
+        assert tokenizer.encode("RANDOM_OVERRIDE_1", add_special_tokens=False) == [
+            128041
+        ]
+        assert tokenizer.encode("RANDOM_OVERRIDE_2", add_special_tokens=False) == [
+            128042
+        ]
+
+    def test_added_tokens_overrides_with_toolargeid(self, temp_dir):
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {
+                # use with tokenizer that has reserved_tokens in added_tokens
+                "tokenizer_config": "NousResearch/Llama-3.2-1B",
+                "added_tokens_overrides": {1000000: "BROKEN_RANDOM_OVERRIDE_1"},
+                "output_dir": temp_dir,
+            }
+        )
+
+        with pytest.raises(
+            ValueError, match=r".*Token ID 1000000 not found in added_tokens.*"
+        ):
+            load_tokenizer(cfg)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":