diff --git a/src/app/api/model-config/route.ts b/src/app/api/model-config/route.ts
index 815505370..d5533e1a3 100644
--- a/src/app/api/model-config/route.ts
+++ b/src/app/api/model-config/route.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-import { DEFAULT_MODEL_REGISTRY } from "../../../lib/models";
+import { getModelPickerOptions } from "../../../lib/models/picker";
+import { DEFAULT_MODEL_REGISTRY } from "../../../lib/models/registry";
 import {
   getModelConfig,
   readModelConfigScopeFromParams,
@@ -11,9 +12,10 @@ export const dynamic = "force-dynamic";
 export async function GET(request: Request) {
   try {
     const url = new URL(request.url);
+    const modelConfig = await getModelConfig(readModelConfigScopeFromParams(url.searchParams));
     return ok({
-      modelConfig: await getModelConfig(readModelConfigScopeFromParams(url.searchParams)),
-      availableModels: Object.values(DEFAULT_MODEL_REGISTRY),
+      modelConfig,
+      availableModels: getModelPickerOptions(modelConfig, DEFAULT_MODEL_REGISTRY),
     });
   } catch (error) {
     return handleApiError(error);
diff --git a/src/components/AgentModelsDialog.tsx b/src/components/AgentModelsDialog.tsx
index 0f88396b4..cc22d6546 100644
--- a/src/components/AgentModelsDialog.tsx
+++ b/src/components/AgentModelsDialog.tsx
@@ -531,6 +531,11 @@ export function AgentModelsDialog({
                                 void handleSelectModel(entry.target, event.target.value)
                               }
                             >
+                              {activeUri && !matchedOptionUri ? (
+                                <option value={activeUri}>
+                                  {resolveModelLabel(activeUri, availableModels)}
+                                </option>
+                              ) : null}
                               {entry.target !== "default" ? (
                                 <option value="">
                                   Inherits default (
diff --git a/src/components/ChatComposer.tsx b/src/components/ChatComposer.tsx
index 2facdce60..b72c5721e 100644
--- a/src/components/ChatComposer.tsx
+++ b/src/components/ChatComposer.tsx
@@ -1512,7 +1512,7 @@ export const ChatComposer = forwardRef<ChatComposerHandle, ChatComposerProps>(fu
                   : `${activeModelTarget.label}: ${activeModelLabel}`
               }
               open={isModelMenuOpen}
-              disabled={isBusy || availableModels.length === 0}
+              disabled={isBusy}
               onClick={() => {
                 setIsSettingsOpen(false);
                 setIsToolMenuOpen(false);
diff --git a/src/components/chat/ModelPicker.tsx b/src/components/chat/ModelPicker.tsx
index 9437b31cf..08cf755d0 100644
--- a/src/components/chat/ModelPicker.tsx
+++ b/src/components/chat/ModelPicker.tsx
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { parse } from "llm-strings";
 import { ChevronDown, Search, Star } from "lucide-react";
 import { type ReactNode, useEffect, useMemo, useRef, useState } from "react";
 import { formatModelBackendLabel } from "../../lib/models/display";
+import { customModelPickerOption } from "../../lib/models/picker";
 import { handleRovingFocusKeyDown } from "../accessibility/AccessibleDialog";
 
 export type ModelPickerOption = {
@@ -231,7 +232,13 @@ export function ModelPickerMenu({
   onSelect: (uri: string) => void;
   footer?: ReactNode;
 }) {
-  const rows = useMemo(() => models.map(toRow), [models]);
+  const rows = useMemo(() => {
+    const options = models.map(toRow);
+    const active = activeUri ? customModelPickerOption(activeUri) : undefined;
+    if (active && !options.some((row) => row.key === getModelKey(active.uri)))
+      options.push(toRow(active));
+    return options;
+  }, [models, activeUri]);
   const activeKey = getModelKey(activeUri);
   const activeVendorId = rows.find((row) => row.key === activeKey)?.vendor.id;
 
@@ -277,6 +284,8 @@ export function ModelPickerMenu({
 
   const normalizedQuery = query.trim().toLowerCase();
   const visibleRows = useMemo(() => {
+    const custom = customModelPickerOption(query);
+    if (custom) return [toRow(custom)];
     if (normalizedQuery) {
       return rows.filter((row) =>
         `${row.label} ${row.id} ${row.uri} ${row.vendor.label}`
@@ -288,7 +297,7 @@ export function ModelPickerMenu({
       return rows.filter((row) => favoriteSet.has(row.key));
     }
     return rows.filter((row) => row.vendor.id === railId);
-  }, [favoriteSet, normalizedQuery, railId, rows]);
+  }, [favoriteSet, normalizedQuery, query, railId, rows]);
 
   useEffect(() => {
     const handleKeyDown = (event: globalThis.KeyboardEvent) => {
@@ -356,7 +365,7 @@ export function ModelPickerMenu({
           <input
             ref={searchRef}
             value={query}
-            placeholder="Search models..."
+            placeholder="Search models or paste llm://…"
             onChange={(event) => setQuery(event.target.value)}
           />
         </label>
diff --git a/src/lib/models/picker.ts b/src/lib/models/picker.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ff3a6cb91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/models/picker.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+import { parse } from "llm-strings";
+import type { ModelRegistry, ModelRegistryEntry } from "./registry";
+
+export function customModelPickerOption(input: string): ModelRegistryEntry | undefined {
+  const uri = input.trim();
+  if (!uri.startsWith("llm://")) return undefined;
+  try {
+    const model = parse(uri);
+    if (!model.model || !model.host) return undefined;
+    return {
+      id: uri,
+      uri,
+      label: `${model.hostAlias ?? model.host}: ${model.model}`,
+      capabilities: ["chat"],
+    };
+  } catch {
+    return undefined;
+  }
+}
+
+export function getModelPickerOptions(
+  config:
+    | { modelUri?: string; modelOverrides?: Record<string, string | undefined> }
+    | null
+    | undefined,
+  registry: ModelRegistry,
+): ModelRegistryEntry[] {
+  const options = Object.values(registry).filter(
+    (entry) => entry.pickerStatus === "current" && entry.capabilities.includes("chat"),
+  );
+  const key = (uri: string) => {
+    const model = parse(uri);
+    return `${model.hostAlias ?? model.host}/${model.model}`;
+  };
+  const seen = new Set(options.map((option) => key(option.uri)));
+  for (const uri of [config?.modelUri, ...Object.values(config?.modelOverrides ?? {})]) {
+    if (!uri) continue;
+    const custom = customModelPickerOption(uri);
+    if (!custom || seen.has(key(custom.uri))) continue;
+    const known = Object.values(registry).find((option) => key(option.uri) === key(custom.uri));
+    options.push(known ? { ...known, uri: custom.uri } : custom);
+    seen.add(key(custom.uri));
+  }
+  return options;
+}
diff --git a/src/lib/models/registry.ts b/src/lib/models/registry.ts
index 57c0f127c..9a4eaff3f 100644
--- a/src/lib/models/registry.ts
+++ b/src/lib/models/registry.ts
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ export interface ModelRegistryEntry {
   readonly id: string;
   readonly label: string;
   readonly uri: string;
+  readonly pickerStatus?: "current";
   readonly capabilities: readonly ModelCapability[];
   readonly defaultFor?: readonly string[];
   readonly contextWindow?: number;
@@ -281,7 +282,6 @@ const BUILT_IN_MODEL_ENTRIES = [
     pricingUpdatedAt: "2026-08-17",
   }),
   openRouterModel("deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash", "DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash", 0.07938, 0.15876, {
-    defaultFor: ["chat", "fast", "security-research", "multimodal", "browser-summary"],
     uriParams: DEEPSEEK_SECURITY_RESEARCH_PARAMS,
     pricingOptions: { cacheReadPerMillion: 0.015876 },
     pricingUpdatedAt: "2026-09-06",
@@ -289,6 +289,7 @@ const BUILT_IN_MODEL_ENTRIES = [
   // Catalog base rates are conservative fallbacks; exact provider usage retains
   // DeepSeek's time-dependent discounts when the provider reports them.
   openRouterModel("deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash", "DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash", 0.099, 0.6, {
+    defaultFor: ["chat", "fast", "security-research", "multimodal", "browser-summary"],
     capabilities: ["chat", "reasoning", "security-research", "tool-use", "json", "vision"],
     contextWindow: 1_048_576,
     maxOutputTokens: 384_000,
@@ -813,13 +814,72 @@ const BUILT_IN_MODEL_ENTRIES = [
   ...DEV03_LMSTUDIO_MODELS.map(lmStudioModel),
 ] satisfies readonly ModelRegistryEntry[];
 
+// Current releases by model family/tier. Older entries remain available for
+// explicit model strings, pricing and historical evidence, rather than presets.
+const CURRENT_PICKER_MODEL_IDS = new Set([
+  "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5",
+  "anthropic/claude-opus-5-5",
+  "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5",
+  "anthropic/claude-opus-5.5",
+  "anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5",
+  "deepseek/deepseek-flash",
+  "deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash",
+  "deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro",
+  "alibaba/qwen3.7-max",
+  "alibaba/qwen3.7-plus",
+  "google/gemini-3.8-flash",
+  "google/gemini-3.5-flash-lite",
+  "google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it",
+  "google/gemma-4-31b-it",
+  "tencent/hy3",
+  "tencent/hy3:free",
+  "x-ai/grok-4.7",
+  "poolside/laguna-xs-2.1",
+  "poolside/laguna-s-2.1",
+  "upstage/solar-pro4",
+  "thinkingmachines/inkling",
+  "meituan/longcat-2.0",
+  "nex-agi/nex-n2-mini",
+  "minimax/minimax-m3",
+  "moonshotai/kimi-k3",
+  "openrouter/openai/gpt-6-astra",
+  "openrouter/openai/gpt-6.1-sol",
+  "openrouter/openai/gpt-6-luna",
+  "openai/gpt-6-astra",
+  "openai/gpt-6.1-sol",
+  "openai/gpt-6-luna",
+  "qwen/qwen3.7-flash",
+  "qwen/qwen3.7-plus",
+  "qwen/qwen3.7-max",
+  "qwen/qwen3.8-2.4t-a95b",
+  "qwen/qwen3.8-omni-flash",
+  "bytedance-seed/seed-2-1-turbo",
+  "meta/muse-spark-1.3-contributor",
+  "meta/muse-glimmer-30b",
+  "inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash",
+  "z-ai/glm-5.3",
+  "z-ai/glm-5.3-flash",
+  "z-ai/glm-5.3-flashx",
+  "xiaomi/mimo-v2.6-flash",
+]);
+
 export const DEFAULT_MODEL_REGISTRY = Object.fromEntries(
-  BUILT_IN_MODEL_ENTRIES.map((entry) => [entry.id, entry]),
+  BUILT_IN_MODEL_ENTRIES.map((entry) => [
+    entry.id,
+    {
+      ...entry,
+      ...(CURRENT_PICKER_MODEL_IDS.has(entry.id) ||
+      (entry.pricingSource === "local" &&
+        /(?:gemma-4|glm-5\.3|qwopus3\.6|qwopus-moe|nemotron-3-nano)/i.test(entry.id))
+        ? { pickerStatus: "current" as const }
+        : {}),
+    },
+  ]),
 ) as ModelRegistry;
 
-export const DEFAULT_MODEL_ID = "deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash";
-export const DEFAULT_RESEARCH_MODEL_ID = "deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash";
-export const DEFAULT_FAST_MODEL_ID = "deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash";
+export const DEFAULT_MODEL_ID = "deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash";
+export const DEFAULT_RESEARCH_MODEL_ID = "deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash";
+export const DEFAULT_FAST_MODEL_ID = "deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash";
 export const DEFAULT_OLLAMA_FALLBACK_MODEL = "gemma4:12b";
 
 export const LOCAL_EVAL_MODEL_CONFIGS = {
diff --git a/tests/integration/model-config-api.test.ts b/tests/integration/model-config-api.test.ts
index 6d0612792..0ccb6b45a 100644
--- a/tests/integration/model-config-api.test.ts
+++ b/tests/integration/model-config-api.test.ts
@@ -1,51 +1,77 @@
 import { describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
 
+const { config } = vi.hoisted(() => ({
+  config: {
+    modelUri: "llm://acme/current",
+    modelOverrides: {} as Record<string, string>,
+  },
+}));
+
 vi.mock("../../src/server/chat/service", () => ({
-  getModelConfig: vi.fn(async () => ({
-    id: "model-config-default",
-    name: "default",
-    modelUri: "llm://anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
-  })),
+  getModelConfig: vi.fn(async () => config),
   readModelConfigScopeFromParams: vi.fn(() => ({})),
   updateModelConfig: vi.fn(),
 }));
+vi.mock("../../src/lib/models/registry", () => ({
+  DEFAULT_MODEL_REGISTRY: {
+    current: {
+      id: "current",
+      label: "Acme: Current",
+      uri: "llm://acme/current",
+      pickerStatus: "current",
+      capabilities: ["chat"],
+      pricingSource: "provider-list",
+      pricing: { inputPerMillion: 1, outputPerMillion: 2 },
+    },
+    previous: {
+      id: "previous",
+      label: "Acme: Previous",
+      uri: "llm://acme/previous",
+      capabilities: ["chat"],
+      pricing: { inputPerMillion: 0.5, outputPerMillion: 1 },
+    },
+    embedding: {
+      id: "embedding",
+      label: "Acme: Embedding",
+      uri: "llm://acme/embedding",
+      pickerStatus: "current",
+      capabilities: ["embedding"],
+    },
+  },
+}));
 
 const { GET } = await import("../../src/app/api/model-config/route");
 
-describe("model config API", () => {
-  it("returns structured pricing for native AI SDK adapter models", async () => {
-    const response = await GET(new Request("http://localhost:3210/api/model-config"));
-    const body = (await response.json()) as {
-      modelConfig: { modelUri: string };
-      availableModels: Array<{
-        id: string;
-        uri: string;
-        pricingSource?: string;
-        pricing?: {
-          inputPerMillion: number;
-          outputPerMillion: number;
-          cacheReadPerMillion?: number;
-          cacheWritePerMillion?: number;
-        };
-      }>;
-    };
+describe("model config picker API", () => {
+  it("offers current chat presets and preserves explicit older and unknown routes with exact parameters", async () => {
+    config.modelUri = "llm://acme/current";
+    config.modelOverrides = {};
+    const initial = await GET(new Request("http://localhost:3210/api/model-config"));
+    const first = await initial.json();
+    expect(initial.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(first.availableModels).toEqual([
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        id: "current",
+        pricingSource: "provider-list",
+        pricing: { inputPerMillion: 1, outputPerMillion: 2 },
+      }),
+    ]);
 
-    expect(response.status).toBe(200);
-    expect(body.modelConfig.modelUri).toBe("llm://anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6");
-    const selected = body.availableModels.find(
-      (model) => model.uri.split("?", 1)[0] === body.modelConfig.modelUri,
+    const old = "llm://acme/previous?temperature=0.25&maxTokens=128";
+    const custom = "llm://custom-host/vendor/unlisted?maxTokens=777";
+    config.modelUri = old;
+    config.modelOverrides = { planner: custom, research: custom };
+    const configured = await GET(
+      new Request("http://localhost:3210/api/model-config?projectId=fixture"),
     );
-    expect(selected).toMatchObject({
-      id: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
-      pricingSource: "provider-list",
-      pricing: {
-        inputPerMillion: expect.any(Number),
-        outputPerMillion: expect.any(Number),
-      },
-    });
-    expect(Object.values(selected?.pricing ?? {}).every(isFiniteNonNegativeNumber)).toBe(true);
+    const body = await configured.json();
+    expect(body.modelConfig.modelUri).toBe(old);
+    expect(body.availableModels.map((option: { uri: string }) => option.uri)).toEqual([
+      "llm://acme/current",
+      old,
+      custom,
+    ]);
+    expect(body.availableModels[1].pricing).toEqual({ inputPerMillion: 0.5, outputPerMillion: 1 });
+    expect(body.availableModels[2].label).toContain("vendor/unlisted");
   });
 });
-
-const isFiniteNonNegativeNumber = (value: unknown) =>
-  typeof value === "number" && Number.isFinite(value) && value >= 0;