diff --git a/coco/state.py b/coco/state.py
index 007369c..ba56a4e 100644
--- a/coco/state.py
+++ b/coco/state.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import List, Dict
 import yaml
+from kotekan.config import load_config_file
 
 from .result import Result
 from .util import Host, PersistentState, hash_dict
@@ -184,32 +185,8 @@ def read_from_file(self, path, file):
                 element, name = self._find_new(path)
 
                 file_ext = os.path.splitext(file)[1]
-            if not file_ext == ".j2":
-                with open(file, "r") as stream:
-                    try:
-                        new_state = yaml.safe_load(stream)
-                    except yaml.YAMLError as exc:
-                        logger.error(f"Failure reading YAML file {file}: {exc}")
-            else:
-                # Is a jinja file
-                try:
-                    from jinja2 import FileSystemLoader, Environment, select_autoescape
-                    from jinja2 import TemplateNotFound
-                except ImportError as err:
-                    logger.error("Jinja2 required for '.j2' files.")
-
-                directory, file_name = os.path.split(file)
-                directory = '.' if directory == '' else directory
-                # Load the template
-                env = Environment(
-                    loader=FileSystemLoader(directory), autoescape=select_autoescape()
-                )
-                try:
-                    template = env.get_template(file_name)
-                except TemplateNotFound as err:
-                    logger.error(f"Could not open file {file}")
-                yaml_raw = template.render()
-                new_state = yaml.safe_load(yaml_raw)
+
+            new_state = load_config_file(file, return_dict=True, dump=False, jinja_options=None)
 
             # Don't load state parts that are excluded from reset
             self._exclude_paths(path, new_state)
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 81f1e37..9348b55 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 comet @ git+https://github.com/chime-experiment/comet.git@ael/fixjson#egg=comet
+kotekan @ git+https://github.com/kotekan/kotekan.git@develop#egg=kotekan&subdirectory=python/
 aiohttp
 pyyaml
 requests