diff --git a/spacy/ml/models/coref_util.py b/spacy/ml/models/coref_util.py
index 6ce5127b0..89b39f8e6 100644
--- a/spacy/ml/models/coref_util.py
+++ b/spacy/ml/models/coref_util.py
@@ -143,6 +143,11 @@ def get_candidate_mentions(
     return (begins, ends)
 
 
+@registry.misc("spacy.CorefCandidateGenerator.v0")
+def create_mention_generator() -> Callable:
+    return get_candidate_mentions
+
+
 def select_non_crossing_spans(
     idxs: List[int], starts: List[int], ends: List[int], limit: int
 ) -> List[int]:
diff --git a/spacy/pipeline/coref.py b/spacy/pipeline/coref.py
index ac225d677..b11f1607e 100644
--- a/spacy/pipeline/coref.py
+++ b/spacy/pipeline/coref.py
@@ -31,7 +31,9 @@ max_span_width = 20
 mention_limit = 3900
 dropout = 0.3
 hidden = 1000
-@get_mentions = "spacy.CorefCandidateGenerator.v0"
+
+[model.get_mentions]
+@misc = "spacy.CorefCandidateGenerator.v0"
 
 [model.tok2vec]
 @architectures = "spacy.Tok2Vec.v2"