diff --git a/openlrc/config.py b/openlrc/config.py
index d2f05ff..c44e889 100644
--- a/openlrc/config.py
+++ b/openlrc/config.py
@@ -2,9 +2,6 @@
 #  All rights reserved.
 
 from dataclasses import dataclass
-from pathlib import Path
-
-from openlrc.models import ModelConfig
 
 
 @dataclass
@@ -35,24 +32,33 @@ class TranslationConfig:
     """
     Configuration for the translation stage.
 
+    All fields use primitive, serialization-friendly types so that the config
+    can be parsed by CLI frameworks (simple_parsing, HfArgumentParser, Hydra)
+    and serialized to JSON/YAML without custom encoders.
+
+    For programmatic use with richer types (e.g. ``ModelConfig``), pass them
+    directly to ``LRCer.__init__`` or ``LLMTranslator.__init__`` instead.
+
     Args:
-        chatbot_model: The chatbot model to use. Can be a string like
-            ``'gpt-4.1-nano'`` or ``'provider:model-name'``, or a ``ModelConfig``
-            instance. Default: ``gpt-4.1-nano``
+        chatbot_model: The chatbot model to use, as a string like
+            ``'gpt-4.1-nano'`` or ``'provider:model-name'``.
+            Default: ``gpt-4.1-nano``
         fee_limit: Maximum fee per translation call in USD. Default: ``0.8``
         consumer_thread: Number of parallel translation threads. Default: ``4``
         proxy: Proxy for API requests. e.g. ``'http://127.0.0.1:7890'``
         base_url_config: Base URL dict for OpenAI & Anthropic.
-        glossary: Dictionary or path mapping source words to translations.
-        retry_model: Fallback model for translation retries.
+        glossary: Path to a JSON glossary file mapping source words to
+            translations, or None. To pass a dict directly, use the
+            ``LRCer`` or ``LLMTranslator`` API instead.
+        retry_model: Fallback model name for translation retries, or None.
         is_force_glossary_used: Force glossary usage in context. Default: ``False``
     """
 
-    chatbot_model: str | ModelConfig = "gpt-4.1-nano"
+    chatbot_model: str = "gpt-4.1-nano"
     fee_limit: float = 0.8
     consumer_thread: int = 4
     proxy: str | None = None
     base_url_config: dict | None = None
-    glossary: dict | str | Path | None = None
-    retry_model: str | ModelConfig | None = None
+    glossary: str | None = None
+    retry_model: str | None = None
     is_force_glossary_used: bool = False