diff --git a/examples/megatron_bridge/distill.py b/examples/megatron_bridge/distill.py
index c21bf73121..31f1cfc71c 100644
--- a/examples/megatron_bridge/distill.py
+++ b/examples/megatron_bridge/distill.py
@@ -198,6 +198,8 @@ def _build_model_provider(hf_path):
             manual_gc=True,
             manual_gc_interval=100,
         ),
+        # TODO: Replace validation args in train with validation config in nemo:26.04
+        # validation=ValidationConfig(eval_interval=args.eval_interval, eval_iters=args.eval_iters),
         optimizer=optimizer_config,
         scheduler=scheduler_config,
         ddp=DistributedDataParallelConfig(
diff --git a/examples/megatron_bridge/prune_minitron.py b/examples/megatron_bridge/prune_minitron.py
index 44eac3a31a..c4da627f14 100644
--- a/examples/megatron_bridge/prune_minitron.py
+++ b/examples/megatron_bridge/prune_minitron.py
@@ -380,7 +380,9 @@ def score_func_mmlu(m):
         AutoModelForCausalLM.from_config(
             hf_cfg, trust_remote_code=args.trust_remote_code
         ).save_pretrained(args.output_hf_path, trust_remote_code=args.trust_remote_code)
-        pruned_bridge = AutoBridge.from_hf_pretrained(args.output_hf_path)
+        pruned_bridge = AutoBridge.from_hf_pretrained(
+            args.output_hf_path, trust_remote_code=args.trust_remote_code
+        )
         pruned_bridge.save_hf_weights(model, args.output_hf_path)
         print_rank_0(f"Saved pruned model to {args.output_hf_path} in HF checkpoint format")
 
diff --git a/modelopt/torch/opt/searcher.py b/modelopt/torch/opt/searcher.py
index 9e73b143ce..ab3930c207 100644
--- a/modelopt/torch/opt/searcher.py
+++ b/modelopt/torch/opt/searcher.py
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@
 from collections.abc import Callable
 from contextlib import nullcontext
 from typing import Any, final
-from warnings import warn
 
 import numpy as np
 import pulp
@@ -35,7 +34,7 @@
 import torch.nn as nn
 
 from modelopt.torch.utils import distributed as dist
-from modelopt.torch.utils import no_stdout, print_rank_0, run_forward_loop
+from modelopt.torch.utils import no_stdout, print_rank_0, run_forward_loop, warn_rank_0
 
 LimitsTuple = tuple[float, float]
 ConstraintsDict = dict[str, str | float | dict | None]
@@ -244,12 +243,11 @@ def load_search_checkpoint(self) -> bool:
         if checkpoint is None:
             return False
         if not os.path.exists(checkpoint):
-            if dist.is_master():
-                warn(f"Checkpoint {checkpoint} does not exist! Initializing from scratch.")
+            warn_rank_0(f"Checkpoint {checkpoint} does not exist! Initializing from scratch.")
             return False
 
         # iterate through state dict and load keys
-        print(f"Loading searcher state from {checkpoint}...")
+        print_rank_0(f"Loading searcher state from {checkpoint}...")
         # Security NOTE: weights_only=False is used here on ModelOpt-generated ckpt, not on untrusted user input
         state_dict = torch.load(checkpoint, weights_only=False)
         assert state_dict.keys() == self.state_dict().keys(), "Keys in checkpoint don't match!"
diff --git a/modelopt/torch/utils/plugins/mbridge.py b/modelopt/torch/utils/plugins/mbridge.py
index ed2551ee15..94cdf87cf5 100644
--- a/modelopt/torch/utils/plugins/mbridge.py
+++ b/modelopt/torch/utils/plugins/mbridge.py
@@ -191,6 +191,8 @@ def get_hf_mbridge_calibration_loop(
             eval_iters=num_iters,
             skip_train=True,
         ),
+        # TODO: Replace validation args in train with validation config in nemo:26.04
+        # validation=ValidationConfig(eval_iters=num_iters, eval_interval=1, skip_train=True),
         dataset=_get_dataset_cfg(
             dataset_name,
             num_samples,