diff --git a/tests/config/test_config_import_cycle.py b/tests/config/test_config_import_cycle.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d73f6265e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/config/test_config_import_cycle.py
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright contributors to the vLLM-Omni project
+"""Guard the NPU pytest circular import through DiffusionOutput."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import ast
+import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+pytestmark = [pytest.mark.core_model, pytest.mark.cpu]
+REPO_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[2]
+
+
+def _top_level_import_modules(path: Path) -> set[str]:
+    tree = ast.parse(path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+    modules: set[str] = set()
+    for node in tree.body:
+        if isinstance(node, ast.ImportFrom) and node.module:
+            modules.add(node.module)
+        elif isinstance(node, ast.Import):
+            modules.update(alias.name for alias in node.names)
+    return modules
+
+
+def _assert_isolated_import_succeeds(script: str) -> None:
+    env = os.environ.copy()
+    env.pop("CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES", None)
+    env.pop("HIP_VISIBLE_DEVICES", None)
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-c", script],
+        cwd=REPO_ROOT,
+        env=env,
+        capture_output=True,
+        text=True,
+        timeout=120,
+        check=False,
+    )
+    assert result.returncode == 0, result.stderr
+
+
+def test_config_package_does_not_eagerly_import_pipeline_registry() -> None:
+    imported = _top_level_import_modules(REPO_ROOT / "vllm_omni" / "config" / "__init__.py")
+    assert "vllm_omni.config.config_factory" not in imported
+    assert "vllm_omni.config.pipeline_registry" not in imported
+
+
+def test_config_package_lazy_exports_still_resolve() -> None:
+    from vllm_omni.config import StageConfigFactory, register_pipeline
+    from vllm_omni.config.config_factory import StageConfigFactory as DirectStageConfigFactory
+    from vllm_omni.config.pipeline_registry import register_pipeline as direct_register_pipeline
+
+    assert StageConfigFactory is DirectStageConfigFactory
+    assert register_pipeline is direct_register_pipeline
+
+
+def test_npu_platform_defers_minimax_h3_encoder_patch() -> None:
+    src = (REPO_ROOT / "vllm_omni" / "platforms" / "npu" / "platform.py").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+    init_start = src.index("def __init__(self) -> None:")
+    runtime_start = src.index("def init_diffusion_model_runner_runtime")
+    init_src = src[init_start:runtime_start]
+    runtime_src = src[runtime_start:]
+    assert "apply_minimax_h3_qwen3vl_patch" not in init_src
+    assert "apply_minimax_h3_qwen3vl_patch" in runtime_src
+    assert "apply_minimax_h3_qwen3vl_swiglu_patch" in runtime_src
+
+
+def test_lora_config_import_does_not_load_pipeline_registry() -> None:
+    """Import LoRAConfig and diffusion.data in a fresh interpreter.
+
+    The NPU failure was ``data.py`` importing LoRAConfig while still loading,
+    then ``vllm_omni.config`` re-entering ``pipeline_registry`` → PI0 →
+    DiffusionOutput. This child process must not preload those exports.
+    """
+    _assert_isolated_import_succeeds(
+        """
+import sys
+
+from vllm_omni.config.lora import LoRAConfig
+
+if "vllm_omni.config.pipeline_registry" in sys.modules:
+    raise SystemExit("LoRAConfig import loaded pipeline_registry")
+if "vllm_omni.diffusion.models.pi0.pipeline_pi0" in sys.modules:
+    raise SystemExit("LoRAConfig import loaded PI0_PIPELINE")
+
+from vllm_omni.diffusion.data import DiffusionOutput
+
+if DiffusionOutput is None or LoRAConfig is None:
+    raise SystemExit("expected LoRAConfig and DiffusionOutput")
+"""
+    )
diff --git a/vllm_omni/config/__init__.py b/vllm_omni/config/__init__.py
index 3069025be..f53a1ef74 100644
--- a/vllm_omni/config/__init__.py
+++ b/vllm_omni/config/__init__.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 Configuration module for vLLM-Omni.
 """
 
-from vllm_omni.config.config_factory import StageConfigFactory
 from vllm_omni.config.lora import LoRAConfig
 from vllm_omni.config.model import OmniModelConfig
 from vllm_omni.config.omni_config import (
@@ -22,7 +21,6 @@ from vllm_omni.config.omni_config import (
     VllmOmniGenerationStageConfig,
     VllmOmniOrchestratorConfig,
 )
-from vllm_omni.config.pipeline_registry import register_pipeline
 from vllm_omni.config.stage_config import (
     PIPELINE_WIDE_ENGINE_FIELDS,
     DeployConfig,
@@ -42,6 +40,15 @@ from vllm_omni.config.yaml_util import (
     to_dict,
 )
 
+# StageConfigFactory / register_pipeline pull pipeline_registry, which eagerly
+# imports PI0_PIPELINE → diffusion.data. Keep those lazy so
+# `from vllm_omni.config.lora import LoRAConfig` (used while data.py is still
+# loading) cannot close a circular import through DiffusionOutput.
+_LAZY_ATTRS = {
+    "StageConfigFactory": ("vllm_omni.config.config_factory", "StageConfigFactory"),
+    "register_pipeline": ("vllm_omni.config.pipeline_registry", "register_pipeline"),
+}
+
 __all__ = [
     # Legacy model-level configs.
     "LoRAConfig",
@@ -82,3 +89,19 @@ __all__ = [
     "merge_configs",
     "to_dict",
 ]
+
+
+def __getattr__(name: str):
+    spec = _LAZY_ATTRS.get(name)
+    if spec is None:
+        raise AttributeError(f"module {__name__!r} has no attribute {name!r}")
+    module_name, attr_name = spec
+    import importlib
+
+    value = getattr(importlib.import_module(module_name), attr_name)
+    globals()[name] = value
+    return value
+
+
+def __dir__() -> list[str]:
+    return sorted(set(__all__) | set(globals()))
diff --git a/vllm_omni/platforms/npu/platform.py b/vllm_omni/platforms/npu/platform.py
index 38c35f1f7..9a6a278e4 100644
--- a/vllm_omni/platforms/npu/platform.py
+++ b/vllm_omni/platforms/npu/platform.py
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ class NPUOmniPlatform(OmniPlatform, NPUPlatform):
         from vllm_omni.platforms.npu.models.minicpmo_4_5_code2wav import (
             apply_minicpmo_4_5_code2wav_patch,
         )
-        from vllm_omni.platforms.npu.models.minimax_h3 import apply_minimax_h3_qwen3vl_patch
         from vllm_omni.platforms.npu.models.qwen3_tts_code2wav import (
             apply_qwen3_tts_code2wav_patch,
         )
@@ -48,7 +47,6 @@ class NPUOmniPlatform(OmniPlatform, NPUPlatform):
         )
 
         adapt_patch(is_global_patch=True)
-        apply_minimax_h3_qwen3vl_patch()
         apply_minicpmo_4_5_code2wav_patch()
         apply_qwen3_tts_code2wav_patch()
         apply_qwen3_tts_tokenizer_v2_patch()
@@ -87,12 +85,17 @@ class NPUOmniPlatform(OmniPlatform, NPUPlatform):
         from vllm_ascend.ascend_forward_context import set_mc2_mask, set_mc2_tokens_capacity
 
         from vllm_omni.platforms.npu.models.minimax_h3 import (
+            apply_minimax_h3_qwen3vl_patch,
             apply_minimax_h3_qwen3vl_swiglu_patch,
         )
 
-        # The patch imports the MiniMax encoder, which depends on
-        # current_omni_platform. Run it only after platform construction has
-        # completed, but before the diffusion pipeline is loaded.
+        # Both patches import the MiniMax encoder package, whose __init__ loads
+        # pipeline_minimax_h3 → diffusion.data. Doing that during platform
+        # construction races vllm_omni/__init__.py (patch before config) and
+        # closes a cycle through pipeline_registry → PI0_PIPELINE →
+        # DiffusionOutput. Apply them only after the platform exists, before
+        # the diffusion pipeline is loaded.
+        apply_minimax_h3_qwen3vl_patch()
         apply_minimax_h3_qwen3vl_swiglu_patch()
         set_mc2_tokens_capacity(vllm_config, od_config.max_num_seqs, 1)
         set_mc2_mask(vllm_config, device)