diff --git a/src/lerobot/rl/algorithms/base.py b/src/lerobot/rl/algorithms/base.py
index 36aacde7b..ac2ef491f 100644
--- a/src/lerobot/rl/algorithms/base.py
+++ b/src/lerobot/rl/algorithms/base.py
@@ -91,6 +91,35 @@ class RLAlgorithm(abc.ABC):
         """
         ...
 
+    def supports_offline_phase(self) -> bool:
+        """Whether this algorithm has an offline pretraining phase.
+
+        Algorithms like RLT (RL-token training) or ConRFT (Cal-QL pretraining)
+        return ``True`` here. The learner checks this before the main online
+        loop and routes to :meth:`offline_update` accordingly.
+        """
+        return False
+
+    def offline_update(self, batch_iterator: Iterator[BatchType]) -> TrainingStats:
+        """One offline training step (called before any online collection).
+
+        Only called when :meth:`supports_offline_phase` returns ``True``.
+        Uses the same iterator protocol as :meth:`update`.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError(
+            f"{type(self).__name__} does not implement offline_update(). "
+            "Either override this method or return False from supports_offline_phase()."
+        )
+
+    def transition_to_online(self) -> None:  # noqa: B027
+        """Called once when switching from offline to online phase.
+
+        Use this to freeze modules trained offline, rebuild optimizers for the
+        online phase, reset step counters, etc.
+
+        Default is a no-op; subclasses override when they have an offline phase.
+        """
+
     def configure_data_iterator(
         self,
         data_mixer: DataMixer,