diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5abd08fc6..28f71f789 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -153,7 +153,6 @@ extras_require = {
     "llmcompressor": [
         "llmcompressor==0.5.1",
     ],
-    "mistral": ["mistral-common==1.5.6"],
 }
 
 install_requires, dependency_links, extras_require_build = parse_requirements(
diff --git a/src/axolotl/loaders/tokenizer.py b/src/axolotl/loaders/tokenizer.py
index c311d5247..08dcaac03 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/loaders/tokenizer.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/loaders/tokenizer.py
@@ -1,13 +1,17 @@
-"""Tokenizer loading functionality and associated utils"""
+"""Tokenizer loading functionality and associated utils."""
 
 import json
 import os
+from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Union
 
+import torch
 import transformers
-from transformers import (
-    AddedToken,
-    AutoTokenizer,
-)
+from huggingface_hub import hf_hub_download
+from mistral_common.protocol.instruct.messages import SystemMessage, UserMessage
+from mistral_common.protocol.instruct.request import ChatCompletionRequest
+from mistral_common.tokens.tokenizers.base import SpecialTokens
+from mistral_common.tokens.tokenizers.mistral import MistralTokenizer
+from transformers import AddedToken, AutoTokenizer
 
 from axolotl.integrations.base import PluginManager
 from axolotl.loaders.utils import get_linear_embedding_layers, load_model_config
@@ -23,239 +27,548 @@ from axolotl.utils.logging import get_logger
 LOG = get_logger(__name__)
 PLUGIN_MANAGER = PluginManager.get_instance()
 
+# Constants
+LLAMA_TOKENIZER_CLASSES = {
+    "LlamaTokenizer",
+    "LlamaTokenizerFast",
+    "CodeLlamaTokenizer",
+    "CodeLlamaTokenizerFast",
+}
+FAST_LLAMA_TOKENIZER_CLASSES = {"LlamaTokenizerFast", "CodeLlamaTokenizerFast"}
+MISTRAL_MODEL_TYPES = {"mistral", "mistral3"}
 
-def modify_tokenizer_files(
-    tokenizer_path: str, token_mappings: dict[int, str], output_dir: str
-) -> str:
+QWEN_DEFAULT_TOKEN = "<|endoftext|>"  # nosec B105
+GPTNEOX_PAD_TOKEN = "[PAD]"  # nosec B105
+CHATML_DEFAULT_SYSTEM_MESSAGE = "You are a helpful assistant."
+
+
+class MistralTokenizerWrapper:
     """
-    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
+    Wrapper to make MistralTokenizer compatible with Hugging Face tokenizer
+    interface. This provides a bridge between Mistral's native tokenizer and axolotl's
+    expectations.
     """
-    # 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)
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        mistral_tokenizer: MistralTokenizer,
+        model_id: str,
+        system_prompt: str | None = None,
+    ):
+        self.mistral_tokenizer = mistral_tokenizer
+        self.model_id = model_id
+        self.system_prompt = system_prompt
+        self.padding_side = "right"  # Default padding side
+        self.chat_template = None
 
-        # Save the tokenizer to the output directory
-        temp_tokenizer.save_pretrained(tokenizer_dir)
+    # pylint: disable=unused-argument
+    def encode(self, text: str, add_special_tokens: bool = True, **kwargs) -> List[int]:
+        """Encode text to token IDs"""
+        # For simple string encoding, create a user message
+        messages = []
+        if self.system_prompt and add_special_tokens:
+            messages.append(SystemMessage(content=self.system_prompt))
+        messages.append(UserMessage(content=text))
 
-        # Get the token IDs and map them to their new values
+        tokenized = self.mistral_tokenizer.encode_chat_completion(
+            ChatCompletionRequest(messages=messages)
+        )
+        return tokenized.tokens
+
+    def decode(
+        self,
+        token_ids: Union[List[int], torch.Tensor],
+        skip_special_tokens: bool = True,  # pylint: disable=unused-argument
+    ) -> str:
+        """Decode token IDs to text"""
+        if isinstance(token_ids, torch.Tensor):
+            token_ids = token_ids.tolist()
+        return self.mistral_tokenizer.decode(token_ids)
+
+    def __call__(self, text: str, **kwargs):
+        """Make the tokenizer callable like HF tokenizers"""
+        tokens = self.encode(text, **kwargs)
+        return {"input_ids": torch.tensor([tokens])}
+
+    @property
+    def special_tokens_reverse_vocab(self):
+        # pylint: disable=protected-access
+        return (
+            self.mistral_tokenizer.instruct_tokenizer.tokenizer._special_tokens_reverse_vocab
+        )
+
+    @property
+    def eos_token(self):
+        return SpecialTokens.eos
+
+    @property
+    def bos_token(self):
+        return SpecialTokens.bos
+
+    @property
+    def pad_token(self):
+        return self.eos_token  # Use EOS as pad token
+
+    @property
+    def unk_token(self):
+        return SpecialTokens.unk
+
+    @property
+    def eos_token_id(self):
+        return self.special_tokens_reverse_vocab[self.eos_token]
+
+    @property
+    def bos_token_id(self):
+        return self.special_tokens_reverse_vocab[self.bos_token]
+
+    @property
+    def pad_token_id(self):
+        return self.special_tokens_reverse_vocab[self.pad_token]
+
+    @property
+    def unk_token_id(self):
+        return self.special_tokens_reverse_vocab[self.unk_token]
+
+    # pylint: disable=unused-argument
+    def add_special_tokens(self, special_tokens_dict: Dict[str, str]) -> int:
+        """Placeholder for special token addition - Mistral tokenizer handles this internally"""
+        LOG.warning(
+            "add_special_tokens called on MistralTokenizer wrapper - this is handled internally"
+        )
+        return 0
+
+    # pylint: disable=unused-argument
+    def add_tokens(self, tokens) -> int:
+        """Placeholder for token addition - Mistral tokenizer handles this internally"""
+        LOG.warning(
+            "add_tokens called on MistralTokenizer wrapper - this is handled internally"
+        )
+        return 0
+
+
+class TokenizerFileModifier:
+    """Handles modification of tokenizer files for token overrides."""
+
+    def __init__(
+        self, tokenizer_path: str, token_mappings: Dict[int, str], output_dir: str
+    ):
+        self.tokenizer_path = tokenizer_path
+        self.token_mappings = token_mappings
+        self.output_dir = output_dir
+        self.tokenizer_dir = os.path.join(output_dir, "tokenizer")
+
+    def modify_and_save(self) -> str:
+        """Modify tokenizer files and return path to modified tokenizer."""
+        os.makedirs(self.tokenizer_dir, exist_ok=True)
+
+        if is_local_main_process():
+            self._perform_modifications()
+        barrier()
+
+        return self.tokenizer_dir
+
+    def _perform_modifications(self):
+        """Perform the actual file modifications."""
+        # Load and save tokenizer to output directory
+        temp_tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(
+            self.tokenizer_path, use_fast=True
+        )
+        temp_tokenizer.save_pretrained(self.tokenizer_dir)
+
+        # Convert token mappings to proper format
         token_id_mappings = {
-            int(token_id): new_value for token_id, new_value in token_mappings.items()
+            int(token_id): new_value
+            for token_id, new_value in self.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 both tokenizer files
+        self._update_tokenizer_config(token_id_mappings)
+        self._update_tokenizer_json(token_id_mappings)
 
-            # 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"
-                        )
+    def _update_tokenizer_config(self, token_id_mappings: Dict[int, str]):
+        """Update tokenizer_config.json with new token mappings."""
+        config_path = os.path.join(self.tokenizer_dir, "tokenizer_config.json")
+        if not os.path.exists(config_path):
+            return
 
-            # Write the updated config back
-            with open(config_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
-                json.dump(config_data, f, indent=2)
+        with open(config_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+            config_data = json.load(f)
 
-        # 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)
+        if "added_tokens_decoder" in config_data:
+            self._update_added_tokens_decoder(config_data, token_id_mappings)
 
-            # 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"
-                        )
-            if "model" in tokenizer_data and "vocab" in tokenizer_data["model"]:
-                for token_id, new_value in token_id_mappings.items():
-                    for entry_val, entry_id in tokenizer_data["model"]["vocab"].items():
-                        if entry_id == token_id:
-                            del tokenizer_data["model"]["vocab"][entry_val]
-                            tokenizer_data["model"]["vocab"][new_value] = token_id
-                            break
+        with open(config_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+            json.dump(config_data, f, indent=2)
 
-            # Write the updated tokenizer data back
-            with open(tokenizer_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
-                json.dump(tokenizer_data, f, indent=2)
+    def _update_added_tokens_decoder(
+        self, config_data: Dict, token_id_mappings: Dict[int, str]
+    ):
+        """Update the added_tokens_decoder section."""
+        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"
+                )
 
-    barrier()
-    return tokenizer_dir
+    def _update_tokenizer_json(self, token_id_mappings: Dict[int, str]):
+        """Update tokenizer.json with new token mappings."""
+        tokenizer_json_path = os.path.join(self.tokenizer_dir, "tokenizer.json")
+        if not os.path.exists(tokenizer_json_path):
+            return
+
+        with open(tokenizer_json_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+            tokenizer_data = json.load(f)
+
+        self._update_added_tokens_list(tokenizer_data, token_id_mappings)
+        self._update_vocab_mappings(tokenizer_data, token_id_mappings)
+
+        with open(tokenizer_json_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+            json.dump(tokenizer_data, f, indent=2)
+
+    def _update_added_tokens_list(
+        self, tokenizer_data: Dict, token_id_mappings: Dict[int, str]
+    ):
+        """Update the added_tokens list in tokenizer.json."""
+        if "added_tokens" not in tokenizer_data:
+            return
+
+        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:
+                raise ValueError(f"Token ID {token_id} not found in added_tokens")
+
+    def _update_vocab_mappings(
+        self, tokenizer_data: Dict, token_id_mappings: Dict[int, str]
+    ):
+        """Update vocab mappings in tokenizer.json."""
+        if not (tokenizer_data.get("model") and tokenizer_data["model"].get("vocab")):
+            return
+
+        vocab = tokenizer_data["model"]["vocab"]
+        for token_id, new_value in token_id_mappings.items():
+            # Find and update the vocab entry
+            for entry_val, entry_id in list(vocab.items()):
+                if entry_id == token_id:
+                    del vocab[entry_val]
+                    vocab[new_value] = token_id
+                    break
+
+
+class TokenizerConfiguration:
+    """Handles tokenizer configuration and initialization."""
+
+    def __init__(self, cfg):
+        self.cfg = cfg
+        self.model_config = load_model_config(cfg)
+
+    def should_use_mistral_tokenizer(self) -> bool:
+        """Determine if Mistral tokenizer should be used."""
+        # Explicit configuration
+        return self.model_config.model_type in MISTRAL_MODEL_TYPES
+
+    def load_mistral_tokenizer(self) -> MistralTokenizerWrapper:
+        """Load Mistral tokenizer from model configuration."""
+        model_id = getattr(self.cfg, "model_name_or_path", None) or getattr(
+            self.cfg, "base_model", None
+        )
+        if not model_id:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "model_name_or_path or base_model must be specified for Mistral tokenizer"
+            )
+
+        try:
+            # Download the tekken.json file for the tokenizer
+            tekken_file = hf_hub_download(repo_id=model_id, filename="tekken.json")
+
+            # Load the Mistral tokenizer
+            mistral_tokenizer = MistralTokenizer.from_file(tekken_file)
+
+            # Wrap it for compatibility
+            wrapped_tokenizer = MistralTokenizerWrapper(mistral_tokenizer, model_id)
+
+            LOG.info(f"Loaded Mistral tokenizer for model: {model_id}")
+            return wrapped_tokenizer
+
+        except Exception as e:
+            LOG.error(f"Failed to load Mistral tokenizer: {e}")
+            raise
+
+    def get_tokenizer_class(self):
+        """Get the appropriate tokenizer class."""
+        if self.cfg.tokenizer_type:
+            return getattr(transformers, self.cfg.tokenizer_type)
+        return AutoTokenizer
+
+    def get_tokenizer_kwargs(self) -> Dict[str, Any]:
+        """Build tokenizer initialization kwargs."""
+        kwargs = {}
+        if self.cfg.tokenizer_legacy is not None:
+            kwargs["legacy"] = self.cfg.tokenizer_legacy
+        return kwargs
+
+    def get_tokenizer_path(self) -> str:
+        """Get the tokenizer path, applying overrides if needed."""
+        tokenizer_path = self.cfg.tokenizer_config
+
+        if self.cfg.added_tokens_overrides:
+            modifier = TokenizerFileModifier(
+                tokenizer_path, self.cfg.added_tokens_overrides, self.cfg.output_dir
+            )
+            tokenizer_path = modifier.modify_and_save()
+
+        return tokenizer_path
+
+    def should_use_fast_tokenizer(self) -> bool:
+        """Determine if fast tokenizer should be used."""
+        return (
+            self.cfg.tokenizer_use_fast
+            if self.cfg.tokenizer_use_fast is not None
+            else True
+        )
+
+
+class TokenizerPostProcessor:
+    """Handles post-processing configuration of loaded tokenizers."""
+
+    def __init__(self, tokenizer, cfg):
+        self.tokenizer = tokenizer
+        self.cfg = cfg
+        self.model_config = load_model_config(cfg)
+
+    def apply_all_configurations(self):
+        """Apply all post-processing configurations to the tokenizer."""
+        # Skip most configurations for Mistral wrapper
+        if isinstance(self.tokenizer, MistralTokenizerWrapper):
+            self._configure_mistral_wrapper()
+            return
+
+        self._configure_padding_token()
+        self._configure_gptneox_settings()
+        self._configure_mistral_padding()
+        self._configure_qwen_tokens()
+        self._add_special_tokens()
+        self._add_regular_tokens()
+        self._configure_chat_template()
+
+    def _configure_mistral_wrapper(self):
+        """Apply limited configurations for Mistral wrapper."""
+        # Set padding side if needed
+        if (
+            self.cfg.is_mistral_derived_model
+            and self.cfg.flash_attention
+            and not self.cfg.sample_packing
+        ):
+            self.tokenizer.padding_side = "left"
+
+        # Configure chat template for Mistral
+        self._configure_chat_template()
+
+    def _configure_padding_token(self):
+        """Configure padding token for Llama-based tokenizers."""
+        if (
+            self.tokenizer.__class__.__name__ in LLAMA_TOKENIZER_CLASSES
+            and hasattr(self.tokenizer, "pad_token")
+            and not self.tokenizer.pad_token
+        ):
+            self.tokenizer.pad_token = LLAMA_DEFAULT_EOS_TOKEN
+
+    def _configure_gptneox_settings(self):
+        """Configure GPTNeoX-specific settings."""
+        if self.tokenizer.__class__.__name__ == "GPTNeoXTokenizerFast":
+            self.tokenizer.add_special_tokens({"pad_token": GPTNEOX_PAD_TOKEN})
+            os.environ["TOKENIZERS_PARALLELISM"] = "false"
+
+    def _configure_mistral_padding(self):
+        """Configure left padding for Mistral models with Flash Attention."""
+        if (
+            self.cfg.is_mistral_derived_model
+            and self.cfg.flash_attention
+            and not self.cfg.sample_packing
+        ):
+            self.tokenizer.padding_side = "left"
+
+    def _configure_qwen_tokens(self):
+        """Configure special tokens for Qwen models."""
+        if not self.cfg.is_qwen_derived_model:
+            return
+
+        # Set token IDs
+        token_id_attributes = [
+            "bos_token_id",
+            "eos_token_id",
+            "pad_token_id",
+            "unk_token_id",
+        ]
+        for attr_name in token_id_attributes:
+            if getattr(self.tokenizer, attr_name) is None:
+                setattr(self.tokenizer, attr_name, self.tokenizer.eod_id)
+
+        # Set token strings
+        token_name_attributes = ["bos_token", "eos_token", "pad_token", "unk_token"]
+        for attr_name in token_name_attributes:
+            if getattr(self.tokenizer, attr_name) is None:
+                setattr(self.tokenizer, attr_name, QWEN_DEFAULT_TOKEN)
+
+    def _add_special_tokens(self):
+        """Add special tokens from configuration."""
+        if not self.cfg.special_tokens:
+            return
+
+        special_tokens_dict = self.cfg.special_tokens.to_dict()
+        additional_special_tokens = special_tokens_dict.pop(
+            "additional_special_tokens", None
+        )
+
+        self._validate_and_add_special_tokens(special_tokens_dict)
+        self._update_post_processor_if_needed(special_tokens_dict)
+        self._add_additional_special_tokens_if_present(additional_special_tokens)
+
+    def _validate_and_add_special_tokens(self, special_tokens: Dict[str, str]):
+        """Validate special tokens for adapter training and add them."""
+        lora_modules_to_save = get_linear_embedding_layers(self.model_config.model_type)
+
+        for key, value in special_tokens.items():
+            self._validate_token_for_adapter(key, value, lora_modules_to_save)
+            self.tokenizer.add_special_tokens(
+                {key: AddedToken(value, rstrip=False, lstrip=False, normalized=False)}
+            )
+
+    def _validate_token_for_adapter(
+        self, key: str, value: str, lora_modules_to_save: List[str]
+    ):
+        """Validate a single token for adapter training requirements."""
+        if not self._should_validate_token_for_adapter(
+            key, value, lora_modules_to_save
+        ):
+            return
+
+        modules_str = ", ".join(f"`{x}`" for x in lora_modules_to_save)
+        raise ValueError(
+            f"Please set lora_modules_to_save to [{modules_str}] "
+            f"when using an adapter and changing the special tokens."
+        )
+
+    def _should_validate_token_for_adapter(
+        self, key: str, value: str, lora_modules_to_save: List[str]
+    ) -> bool:
+        """Check if token should be validated for adapter configuration."""
+        if key == "pad_token" or not self.cfg.adapter:
+            return False
+
+        current_token = getattr(self.tokenizer, key)
+        token_changed = current_token is None or current_token != value
+        token_is_multi_char = (
+            len(self.tokenizer.encode(value, add_special_tokens=False)) > 2
+        )
+        lora_modules_missing = not self.cfg.lora_modules_to_save or not all(
+            x in self.cfg.lora_modules_to_save for x in lora_modules_to_save
+        )
+
+        return token_changed and token_is_multi_char and lora_modules_missing
+
+    def _update_post_processor_if_needed(self, special_tokens: Dict[str, str]):
+        """Update post processor for Llama tokenizers when BOS/EOS tokens are added."""
+        has_bos_and_eos = (
+            "bos_token" in special_tokens and "eos_token" in special_tokens
+        )
+        is_fast_llama = (
+            self.tokenizer.__class__.__name__ in FAST_LLAMA_TOKENIZER_CLASSES
+        )
+
+        if is_fast_llama and has_bos_and_eos:
+            self.tokenizer.update_post_processor()
+
+    def _add_additional_special_tokens_if_present(
+        self, additional_special_tokens: Optional[List[str]]
+    ):
+        """Add additional special tokens if they exist."""
+        if additional_special_tokens is not None:
+            self.tokenizer.add_special_tokens(
+                {"additional_special_tokens": additional_special_tokens}
+            )
+
+    def _add_regular_tokens(self):
+        """Add regular (non-special) tokens from configuration."""
+        if self.cfg.tokens:
+            self.tokenizer.add_tokens(
+                [
+                    AddedToken(token, rstrip=False, lstrip=False, normalized=False)
+                    for token in self.cfg.tokens
+                ]
+            )
+
+    def _configure_chat_template(self):
+        """Configure chat template if specified."""
+        if not self.cfg.chat_template:
+            LOG.info(
+                "No Chat template selected. Consider adding a chat template for easier inference."
+            )
+            return
+
+        chat_template_string = get_chat_template_from_config(
+            cfg=self.cfg,
+            tokenizer=self.tokenizer,
+        )
+
+        if self._should_replace_default_system_message():
+            chat_template_string = chat_template_string.replace(
+                CHATML_DEFAULT_SYSTEM_MESSAGE, self.cfg.default_system_message
+            )
+
+        self.tokenizer.chat_template = chat_template_string
+
+    def _should_replace_default_system_message(self) -> bool:
+        """Check if default system message should be replaced."""
+        return self.cfg.default_system_message and self.cfg.chat_template == "chatml"
 
 
 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
+    """Load and configure the tokenizer based on the provided config.
 
-    if cfg.tokenizer_use_fast is not None:
-        use_fast = cfg.tokenizer_use_fast
-    if cfg.tokenizer_legacy is not None:
-        # True is the default w/ https://github.com/huggingface/transformers/pull/25224
-        tokenizer_kwargs["legacy"] = cfg.tokenizer_legacy
+    This function handles the complete tokenizer loading pipeline:
+        - Check if Mistral tokenizer should be used
+        - Configure tokenizer parameters and get the appropriate class
+        - Handle token file modifications if needed
+        - Initialize the tokenizer with the correct parameters
+        - Apply all post-processing configurations (padding, special tokens, etc.)
+        - Set up chat templates and logging
 
-    tokenizer_cls = AutoTokenizer
-    if cfg.tokenizer_type:
-        tokenizer_cls = getattr(transformers, cfg.tokenizer_type)
+    Args:
+        cfg: Dictionary mapping `axolotl` config keys to values.
 
-    # Set base tokenizer path
-    tokenizer_path = cfg.tokenizer_config
+    Returns:
+        Fully configured tokenizer instance.
+    """
+    # Configure tokenizer parameters
+    config = TokenizerConfiguration(cfg)
 
-    # 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
+    # Check if we should use Mistral tokenizer
+    if config.should_use_mistral_tokenizer():
+        tokenizer = config.load_mistral_tokenizer()
+    else:
+        # Standard tokenizer loading
+        tokenizer_cls = config.get_tokenizer_class()
+        tokenizer_path = config.get_tokenizer_path()
+        use_fast = config.should_use_fast_tokenizer()
+        tokenizer_kwargs = config.get_tokenizer_kwargs()
+
+        # Initialize the tokenizer
+        tokenizer = tokenizer_cls.from_pretrained(
+            tokenizer_path,
+            trust_remote_code=cfg.trust_remote_code or False,
+            use_fast=use_fast,
+            **tokenizer_kwargs,
         )
 
-    tokenizer = tokenizer_cls.from_pretrained(
-        tokenizer_path,
-        trust_remote_code=cfg.trust_remote_code or False,
-        use_fast=use_fast,
-        **tokenizer_kwargs,
-    )
-
-    if (
-        tokenizer.__class__.__name__
-        in [
-            "LlamaTokenizer",
-            "LlamaTokenizerFast",
-            "CodeLlamaTokenizer",
-            "CodeLlamaTokenizerFast",
-        ]
-        and hasattr(tokenizer, "pad_token")
-        and not tokenizer.pad_token
-    ):
-        # set a pad_token, but use eos_token so we don't add a new token
-        tokenizer.pad_token = LLAMA_DEFAULT_EOS_TOKEN
-
-    if tokenizer.__class__.__name__ == "GPTNeoXTokenizerFast":
-        tokenizer.add_special_tokens({"pad_token": "[PAD]"})
-        os.environ["TOKENIZERS_PARALLELISM"] = "false"
-
-    # Mistral's official FA implementation requires left padding
-    if cfg.is_mistral_derived_model and cfg.flash_attention and not cfg.sample_packing:
-        tokenizer.padding_side = "left"
-
-    # Qwen base only has single token, so we need to set the special tokens
-    if cfg.is_qwen_derived_model:
-        token_ids = ["bos_token_id", "eos_token_id", "pad_token_id", "unk_token_id"]
-        for attr_name in token_ids:
-            if getattr(tokenizer, attr_name) is None:
-                setattr(tokenizer, attr_name, tokenizer.eod_id)
-
-        token_names = ["bos_token", "eos_token", "pad_token", "unk_token"]
-        for attr_name in token_names:
-            if getattr(tokenizer, attr_name) is None:
-                setattr(tokenizer, attr_name, "<|endoftext|>")
-
-    additional_special_tokens = None
-    if cfg.special_tokens:
-        special_tokens = cfg.special_tokens.to_dict()
-        additional_special_tokens = special_tokens.pop(
-            "additional_special_tokens", None
-        )
-        lora_modules_to_save = get_linear_embedding_layers(model_config.model_type)
-        for k, val in special_tokens.items():
-            # check if new special token is not already in tokenizer and
-            # is adapter training to make sure lora_modules_to_save is set
-            # pylint: disable=too-many-boolean-expressions
-            if (
-                (getattr(tokenizer, k) is None or getattr(tokenizer, k) != val)
-                and (len(tokenizer.encode(val, add_special_tokens=False)) > 2)
-                and cfg.adapter
-                and (
-                    not cfg.lora_modules_to_save
-                    or not all(
-                        x in cfg.lora_modules_to_save for x in lora_modules_to_save
-                    )
-                )
-                and k != "pad_token"
-            ):
-                lora_modules_to_save = ", ".join(
-                    [f"`{x}`" for x in lora_modules_to_save]
-                )
-                raise ValueError(
-                    f"Please set lora_modules_to_save to [{lora_modules_to_save}] when using an adapter and changing the special tokens."
-                )
-
-            tokenizer.add_special_tokens(
-                {k: AddedToken(val, rstrip=False, lstrip=False, normalized=False)}
-            )
-
-        # If we add bos_token and eos_token, we need to update the post processor to
-        # handle them correctly.
-        # https://github.com/huggingface/transformers/pull/24132
-        bos_or_eos_in_special_tokens = (
-            "bos_token" in cfg.special_tokens and "eos_token" in cfg.special_tokens
-        )
-        if (
-            tokenizer.__class__.__name__
-            in (
-                "LlamaTokenizerFast",
-                "CodeLlamaTokenizerFast",
-            )
-            and bos_or_eos_in_special_tokens
-        ):
-            tokenizer.update_post_processor()
-
-    if cfg.tokens:
-        tokenizer.add_tokens(
-            [
-                AddedToken(token, rstrip=False, lstrip=False, normalized=False)
-                for token in cfg.tokens
-            ]
-        )
-
-    # Additional special tokens are a List, and need to be treated differently than regular special
-    # tokens. We add them after we have called `add_tokens` in case these additional special tokens
-    # are new tokens.
-    #
-    # Usage:
-    #
-    # ```py
-    # special_tokens:
-    #   additional_special_tokens: ["<|im_start|>", "<|im_end|>"]
-    # ```
-    if additional_special_tokens is not None:
-        tokenizer.add_special_tokens(
-            {"additional_special_tokens": additional_special_tokens}
-        )
+    # Apply all post-processing configurations
+    post_processor = TokenizerPostProcessor(tokenizer, cfg)
+    post_processor.apply_all_configurations()
 
     if is_main_process(use_environ=True):
         LOG.debug(f"EOS: {tokenizer.eos_token_id} / {tokenizer.eos_token}")
@@ -263,19 +576,4 @@ def load_tokenizer(cfg):
         LOG.debug(f"PAD: {tokenizer.pad_token_id} / {tokenizer.pad_token}")
         LOG.debug(f"UNK: {tokenizer.unk_token_id} / {tokenizer.unk_token}")
 
-    if cfg.chat_template:
-        chat_template_string = get_chat_template_from_config(
-            cfg=cfg,
-            tokenizer=tokenizer,
-        )
-        if cfg.default_system_message and cfg.chat_template == "chatml":
-            chat_template_string = chat_template_string.replace(
-                "You are a helpful assistant.", cfg.default_system_message
-            )
-
-        tokenizer.chat_template = chat_template_string
-    else:
-        LOG.info(
-            "No Chat template selected. Consider adding a chat template for easier inference."
-        )
     return tokenizer