diff --git a/pepper/cli.py b/pepper/cli.py
index 07685f6..2a96f67 100644
--- a/pepper/cli.py
+++ b/pepper/cli.py
@@ -468,7 +468,7 @@ def parse_login(self):
 
         return ret
 
-    def parse_cmd(self):
+    def parse_cmd(self, api):
         '''
         Extract the low data for a command from the passed CLI params
         '''
@@ -505,26 +505,37 @@ def parse_cmd(self):
             low['arg'] = args
         elif client.startswith('runner'):
             low['fun'] = args.pop(0)
-            for arg in args:
-                if '=' in arg:
-                    key, value = arg.split('=', 1)
-                    try:
-                        low[key] = json.loads(value)
-                    except JSONDecodeError:
-                        low[key] = value
-                else:
-                    low.setdefault('arg', []).append(arg)
+            # post https://github.com/saltstack/salt/pull/50124, kwargs can be
+            # passed as is in foo=bar form, splitting and deserializing will
+            # happen in salt-api. additionally, the presence of salt-version header
+            # means we are neon or newer, so don't need a finer grained check
+            if api.salt_version:
+                low['arg'] = args
+            else:
+                for arg in args:
+                    if '=' in arg:
+                        key, value = arg.split('=', 1)
+                        try:
+                            low[key] = json.loads(value)
+                        except JSONDecodeError:
+                            low[key] = value
+                    else:
+                        low.setdefault('arg', []).append(arg)
         elif client.startswith('wheel'):
             low['fun'] = args.pop(0)
-            for arg in args:
-                if '=' in arg:
-                    key, value = arg.split('=', 1)
-                    try:
-                        low[key] = json.loads(value)
-                    except JSONDecodeError:
-                        low[key] = value
-                else:
-                    low.setdefault('arg', []).append(arg)
+            # see above comment in runner arg handling
+            if api.salt_version:
+                low['arg'] = args
+            else:
+                for arg in args:
+                    if '=' in arg:
+                        key, value = arg.split('=', 1)
+                        try:
+                            low[key] = json.loads(value)
+                        except JSONDecodeError:
+                            low[key] = value
+                    else:
+                        low.setdefault('arg', []).append(arg)
         elif client.startswith('ssh'):
             if len(args) < 2:
                 self.parser.error("Command or target not specified")
@@ -636,12 +647,6 @@ def run(self):
         logger.addHandler(logging.StreamHandler())
         logger.setLevel(max(logging.ERROR - (self.options.verbose * 10), 1))
 
-        load = self.parse_cmd()
-
-        for entry in load:
-            if entry.get('client', '').startswith('local'):
-                entry['full_return'] = True
-
         api = pepper.Pepper(
             self.parse_url(),
             debug_http=self.options.debug_http,
@@ -649,6 +654,12 @@ def run(self):
 
         self.login(api)
 
+        load = self.parse_cmd(api)
+
+        for entry in load:
+            if entry.get('client', '').startswith('local'):
+                entry['full_return'] = True
+
         if self.options.fail_if_minions_dont_respond:
             for exit_code, ret in self.poll_for_returns(api, load):  # pragma: no cover
                 yield exit_code, json.dumps(ret, sort_keys=True, indent=4)
diff --git a/pepper/libpepper.py b/pepper/libpepper.py
index 7b4e606..9dfe05c 100644
--- a/pepper/libpepper.py
+++ b/pepper/libpepper.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 '''
 import json
 import logging
+import re
 import ssl
 
 from pepper.exceptions import PepperException
@@ -79,6 +80,7 @@ def __init__(self, api_url='https://localhost:8000', debug_http=False, ignore_ss
         self.debug_http = int(debug_http)
         self._ssl_verify = not ignore_ssl_errors
         self.auth = {}
+        self.salt_version = None
 
     def req_stream(self, path):
         '''
@@ -231,6 +233,10 @@ def req(self, path, data=None):
             if (self.debug_http):
                 logger.debug('Response: %s', content)
             ret = json.loads(content)
+
+            if not self.salt_version and 'x-salt-version' in f.headers:
+                self._parse_salt_version(f.headers['x-salt-version'])
+
         except (HTTPError, URLError) as exc:
             logger.debug('Error with request', exc_info=True)
             status = getattr(exc, 'code', None)
@@ -285,6 +291,10 @@ def req_requests(self, path, data=None):
         if resp.status_code == 500:
             # TODO should be resp.raise_from_status
             raise PepperException('Server error.')
+
+        if not self.salt_version and 'x-salt-version' in resp.headers:
+            self._parse_salt_version(resp.headers['x-salt-version'])
+
         return resp.json()
 
     def low(self, lowstate, path='/'):
@@ -479,3 +489,17 @@ def _construct_url(self, path):
 
         relative_path = path.lstrip('/')
         return urlparse.urljoin(self.api_url, relative_path)
+
+    def _parse_salt_version(self, version):
+        # borrow from salt.version
+        git_describe_regex = re.compile(
+            r'(?:[^\d]+)?(?P<major>[\d]{1,4})'
+            r'\.(?P<minor>[\d]{1,2})'
+            r'(?:\.(?P<bugfix>[\d]{0,2}))?'
+            r'(?:\.(?P<mbugfix>[\d]{0,2}))?'
+            r'(?:(?P<pre_type>rc|a|b|alpha|beta|nb)(?P<pre_num>[\d]{1}))?'
+            r'(?:(?:.*)-(?P<noc>(?:[\d]+|n/a))-(?P<sha>[a-z0-9]{8}))?'
+        )
+        match = git_describe_regex.match(version)
+        if match:
+            self.salt_version = match.groups()