diff --git a/src/maxtext/configs/base.yml b/src/maxtext/configs/base.yml
index cc2f674fd4..fb95d3ef64 100644
--- a/src/maxtext/configs/base.yml
+++ b/src/maxtext/configs/base.yml
@@ -396,6 +396,10 @@ qk_nope_head_dim: 128
 qk_rope_head_dim: 64
 v_head_dim: 128
 
+# Constant-std init for MLA proj; output proj scaled by 1/sqrt(2*num_decoder_layers).
+# 0 keeps fan_in scaling.
+mla_init_std: 0.0
+
 # QK-Clip (Muon Clip) Configuration
 use_qk_clip: False  # Enable QK-Clip (supported in MLA with DotProduct or Tokamax Splash)
 qk_clip_threshold: 100.0  # Threshold for clipping (tau in the paper)
@@ -847,6 +851,11 @@ diloco_outer_momentum: 0.9
 # You may disable clipping by setting gradient_clipping_threshold to zero.
 gradient_clipping_threshold: 1.0
 
+# Per-token gradient mask at the decoder-layer boundary (DeepSeek-V3 only).
+# Tokens whose feature-axis RMS exceeds threshold are zeroed in backward;
+# healthy tokens pass through unchanged. 0 disables.
+grad_mask_threshold: 0.0
+
 # Instead of updating the weights every step, you may effectively use a larger
 # batch by accumulating the gradient over a set of steps.
 gradient_accumulation_steps: 1
diff --git a/src/maxtext/configs/models/deepseek3-671b.yml b/src/maxtext/configs/models/deepseek3-671b.yml
index 18e566cf57..5fb698ce8b 100644
--- a/src/maxtext/configs/models/deepseek3-671b.yml
+++ b/src/maxtext/configs/models/deepseek3-671b.yml
@@ -44,6 +44,12 @@ qk_nope_head_dim: 128
 qk_rope_head_dim: 64
 v_head_dim: 128
 mscale: 1.0
+# Initialize MLA projections with N(0, std); output proj further scaled
+# by 1/sqrt(2*num_decoder_layers). No effect when loading a checkpoint.
+mla_init_std: 0.001
+# Mask tokens whose backward-gradient RMS exceeds threshold at each
+# decoder-layer boundary. Defensive against bf16 overflow; rarely fires.
+grad_mask_threshold: 100.0
 # RoPE
 rope_type: "yarn"
 rope_max_timescale: 10_000 # DeepSeek uses  "rope_theta": 10000
diff --git a/src/maxtext/configs/types.py b/src/maxtext/configs/types.py
index c35274cd24..d99758dbb4 100644
--- a/src/maxtext/configs/types.py
+++ b/src/maxtext/configs/types.py
@@ -589,6 +589,13 @@ class MlaAttention(BaseModel):
   qk_nope_head_dim: NonNegativeInt = Field(128, description="Dimension for non-RoPE part of QK heads in MLA.")
   qk_rope_head_dim: NonNegativeInt = Field(64, description="Dimension for RoPE part of QK heads in MLA.")
   v_head_dim: NonNegativeInt = Field(128, description="Dimension of V heads in MLA.")
+  mla_init_std: NonNegativeFloat = Field(
+      0.0,
+      description=(
+          "Constant-std init for MLA projections; output proj scaled by "
+          "1/sqrt(2*num_decoder_layers). 0 keeps fan_in scaling."
+      ),
+  )
 
 
 class AttentionIndexer(BaseModel):
@@ -1347,6 +1354,14 @@ class Optimizer(BaseModel):
   gradient_clipping_threshold: NonNegativeFloat = Field(
       1.0, description="The threshold for gradient clipping. 0 disables clipping."
   )
+  grad_mask_threshold: NonNegativeFloat = Field(
+      0.0,
+      description=(
+          "Per-token gradient mask at the decoder-layer boundary "
+          "(DeepSeek-V3 only). Forward identity; backward zeros tokens "
+          "whose feature-axis RMS exceeds threshold. 0 disables."
+      ),
+  )
   learning_rate: NonNegativeFloat = Field(3.0e-5, description="The peak learning rate.")
   lr_schedule_type: LearningRateScheduleType = Field(
       LearningRateScheduleType.COSINE,
diff --git a/src/maxtext/layers/attention_mla.py b/src/maxtext/layers/attention_mla.py
index 133273a36d..d54accd1fc 100644
--- a/src/maxtext/layers/attention_mla.py
+++ b/src/maxtext/layers/attention_mla.py
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@
 
 from maxtext.layers import nnx_wrappers
 from maxtext.layers.attentions import Attention
-from maxtext.layers.initializers import nd_dense_init, NdInitializer, variable_to_logically_partitioned
+from maxtext.layers.initializers import nd_dense_init, nd_normal_const_std, NdInitializer, variable_to_logically_partitioned
 from maxtext.layers.linears import DenseGeneral
 from maxtext.layers.normalizations import RMSNorm
 from maxtext.layers.quantizations import AqtQuantization as Quant
@@ -726,6 +726,9 @@ def _init_projections(self, inputs_q_shape: Tuple, inputs_kv_shape: Tuple) -> No
     assert self.num_query_heads == self.num_kv_heads, "MLA requires equal number of query and kv heads"
     assert not self.config.fused_qkv, "Fused QKV is not supported for MLA"
 
+    # Constant-std init for MLA projections; output proj rescaled below.
+    if self.config.mla_init_std > 0.0:
+      self.kernel_init = nd_normal_const_std(self.config.mla_init_std)
     if self.q_lora_rank == 0:
       # Standard Q projection (without LoRA).
       self.query = DenseGeneral(
@@ -823,6 +826,12 @@ def _init_projections(self, inputs_q_shape: Tuple, inputs_kv_shape: Tuple) -> No
       mscale = 0.1 * self.mscale * math.log(self.rope_factor) + 1.0
       self.softmax_scale = self.softmax_scale * mscale * mscale
 
+    # Output-proj residual scaling: std / sqrt(2 * num_decoder_layers).
+    if self.config.mla_init_std > 0.0:
+      self.kernel_init = nd_normal_const_std(
+          self.config.mla_init_std / math.sqrt(2.0 * max(1, self.config.num_decoder_layers))
+      )
+
     self.out = self.init_out_w(output_dim=inputs_q_shape[-1])
 
     # Setup paged attention op
diff --git a/src/maxtext/layers/initializers.py b/src/maxtext/layers/initializers.py
index bbc6605057..063143b5b1 100644
--- a/src/maxtext/layers/initializers.py
+++ b/src/maxtext/layers/initializers.py
@@ -34,6 +34,21 @@
 default_scalar_init = jax.nn.initializers.constant(0.01)
 
 
+def nd_normal_const_std(std: float):
+  """Creates a constant-std normal initializer with the NdInitializer signature.
+
+  Returns an initializer that produces N(0, std) regardless of fan_in/fan_out;
+  useful when a layer needs a fixed-stddev init independent of input shape
+  (e.g. scaled init for residual output projections).
+  """
+
+  def init_fn(key, shape, dtype, in_axis, out_axis):
+    del in_axis, out_axis
+    return jax.random.normal(key, shape, dtype=dtype) * std
+
+  return init_fn
+
+
 def nd_dense_init(scale, mode, distribution):
   """Creates a variance-scaling initializer with dynamic in/out axes.
 
diff --git a/src/maxtext/models/deepseek.py b/src/maxtext/models/deepseek.py
index 0980b78599..0bff87683d 100644
--- a/src/maxtext/models/deepseek.py
+++ b/src/maxtext/models/deepseek.py
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 from maxtext.layers.normalizations import RMSNorm
 from maxtext.models import deepseek_batchsplit
 from maxtext.models import deepseek_batchsplit_fp8
+from maxtext.utils import grad_mask_utils
 from maxtext.utils import max_utils
 from maxtext.utils.sharding import create_sharding
 from maxtext.utils.sharding import maybe_shard_with_logical
@@ -260,6 +261,8 @@ def post_process(self, layer_output, load_balance_loss, moe_bias_updates, kv_cac
           jnp.sum(layer_output == 0) / jnp.size(layer_output),
       )
 
+    layer_output = grad_mask_utils.maybe_grad_mask(layer_output, self.config)
+
     if self.config.scan_layers:
       return layer_output, None
     return layer_output, kv_cache
diff --git a/src/maxtext/utils/grad_mask_utils.py b/src/maxtext/utils/grad_mask_utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f7961de65b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/maxtext/utils/grad_mask_utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# Copyright 2023–2026 Google LLC
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#    https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+"""Per-token gradient mask applied at a layer boundary.
+
+Forward is identity; backward zeros tokens whose feature-axis RMS exceeds
+the configured threshold. Healthy tokens pass through unchanged. Used at
+decoder-layer boundaries to bound per-layer cotangent magnitudes
+(see deepseek model usage)."""
+
+import jax
+import jax.numpy as jnp
+
+
+@jax.custom_vjp
+def _grad_mask(x: jax.Array, threshold: jax.Array) -> jax.Array:
+  return x
+
+
+def _grad_mask_fwd(x: jax.Array, threshold: jax.Array):
+  return x, threshold
+
+
+def _grad_mask_bwd(threshold: jax.Array, g: jax.Array):
+  rms = jnp.sqrt(jnp.mean(jnp.square(g.astype(jnp.float32)), axis=-1, keepdims=True))
+  mask = rms <= threshold
+  return (jnp.where(mask, g, jnp.zeros_like(g)), jnp.zeros_like(threshold))
+
+
+_grad_mask.defvjp(_grad_mask_fwd, _grad_mask_bwd)
+
+
+def maybe_grad_mask(x: jax.Array, cfg) -> jax.Array:
+  """Per-token gradient mask if cfg.grad_mask_threshold > 0; else identity."""
+  if cfg.grad_mask_threshold > 0.0:
+    return _grad_mask(x, jnp.asarray(cfg.grad_mask_threshold, jnp.float32))
+  return x
diff --git a/tests/unit/grad_mask_utils_test.py b/tests/unit/grad_mask_utils_test.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bdf4f94c82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/grad_mask_utils_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+# Copyright 2023–2026 Google LLC
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#    https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+"""Tests for per-layer per-token gradient mask (grad_mask_utils)."""
+
+import unittest
+from collections import namedtuple
+
+import jax
+import jax.numpy as jnp
+import numpy as np
+
+from maxtext.utils.grad_mask_utils import _grad_mask, maybe_grad_mask
+
+
+class GradMaskTest(unittest.TestCase):
+
+  def setUp(self):
+    self.rng = jax.random.PRNGKey(0)
+
+  def test_forward_is_identity(self):
+    """Forward pass must return input unchanged regardless of threshold."""
+    x = jax.random.normal(self.rng, (2, 8, 16))
+    for thr in [0.5, 1.0, 100.0]:
+      y = _grad_mask(x, jnp.float32(thr))
+      np.testing.assert_array_equal(np.asarray(y), np.asarray(x))
+
+  def test_backward_below_threshold_passthrough(self):
+    """When per-token RMS <= threshold, backward must return g unchanged."""
+    x = jnp.ones((2, 4, 8), dtype=jnp.bfloat16)
+    threshold = jnp.float32(1e6)  # huge → never clip
+
+    def loss_fn(x):
+      return jnp.sum(_grad_mask(x, threshold) * 0.5)
+
+    g = jax.grad(loss_fn)(x)
+    expected = jnp.full_like(x, 0.5)
+    np.testing.assert_allclose(np.asarray(g), np.asarray(expected), atol=1e-3)
+
+  def test_backward_outlier_tokens_are_masked(self):
+    """Tokens with RMS > threshold get zero gradient; healthy tokens unchanged."""
+    x = jnp.zeros((2, 3, 8), dtype=jnp.float32)
+    threshold = jnp.float32(1.0)
+    upstream = jnp.ones_like(x)
+    # Make token (0, 0) an outlier (RMS = 10) and token (1, 2) an outlier (RMS = 100).
+    upstream = upstream.at[0, 0].set(10.0)
+    upstream = upstream.at[1, 2].set(100.0)
+
+    def fn(x):
+      return _grad_mask(x, threshold)
+
+    _, vjp = jax.vjp(fn, x)
+    (g_masked,) = vjp(upstream)
+    g_masked = np.asarray(g_masked)
+    # Outlier tokens zeroed.
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(g_masked[0, 0], np.zeros(8, dtype=np.float32))
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(g_masked[1, 2], np.zeros(8, dtype=np.float32))
+    # Healthy tokens (RMS = 1.0 == threshold, passes through).
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(g_masked[0, 1], np.ones(8, dtype=np.float32))
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(g_masked[1, 0], np.ones(8, dtype=np.float32))
+
+  def test_backward_threshold_grad_is_zero(self):
+    """Threshold arg must receive a zero gradient (it's not differentiable)."""
+    x = jnp.ones((2, 4, 8), dtype=jnp.float32)
+
+    def fn(x, threshold):
+      return _grad_mask(x, threshold)
+
+    threshold = jnp.float32(1.0)
+    _, vjp = jax.vjp(fn, x, threshold)
+    upstream = jnp.ones_like(x)
+    _, g_threshold = vjp(upstream)
+    self.assertEqual(float(g_threshold), 0.0)
+
+  def test_maybe_grad_mask_threshold_zero_is_noop(self):
+    """maybe_grad_mask with threshold=0 returns input unchanged and inserts no boundary."""
+    Cfg = namedtuple("Cfg", ["grad_mask_threshold"])
+    cfg = Cfg(grad_mask_threshold=0.0)
+    x = jax.random.normal(self.rng, (2, 4, 8))
+    y = maybe_grad_mask(x, cfg)
+    self.assertIs(y, x)  # exact identity, no jnp.array wrapping
+
+  def test_maybe_grad_mask_threshold_positive_applies_mask(self):
+    """maybe_grad_mask with threshold > 0 zeros tokens whose RMS exceeds threshold."""
+    Cfg = namedtuple("Cfg", ["grad_mask_threshold"])
+    cfg = Cfg(grad_mask_threshold=0.5)
+    x = jnp.zeros((2, 4, 8), dtype=jnp.float32)
+
+    def fn(x):
+      return maybe_grad_mask(x, cfg)
+
+    # All tokens have RMS = 10.0 (every element = 10.0); threshold = 0.5 → all masked.
+    upstream = jnp.full_like(x, 10.0)
+    _, vjp = jax.vjp(fn, x)
+    (g,) = vjp(upstream)
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(np.asarray(g), np.zeros_like(np.asarray(x)))
+
+  def test_dtype_preserved_in_backward(self):
+    """Backward must preserve the gradient's dtype (bf16 in, bf16 out)."""
+    x = jnp.zeros((2, 4, 8), dtype=jnp.bfloat16)
+    threshold = jnp.float32(0.1)
+
+    def fn(x):
+      return _grad_mask(x, threshold)
+
+    upstream = (jax.random.normal(self.rng, x.shape, dtype=jnp.float32) * 10.0).astype(jnp.bfloat16)
+    _, vjp = jax.vjp(fn, x)
+    (g,) = vjp(upstream)
+    self.assertEqual(g.dtype, jnp.bfloat16)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+  unittest.main()