From cd3927ad67ae9328eac067930e068c2b8bd06dec Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Peter Steinberger <steipete@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2026 04:15:18 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] fix(sessions): preserve allow-any subagent model overrides
 (#21088) (thanks @Slats24)

---
 CHANGELOG.md               |  1 +
 src/commands/agent.test.ts | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 43 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 358264587..008661d60 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Infra/Windows TOCTOU: handle Windows `dev=0` edge cases in same-file identity checks. (#24939)
 - Exec/Bash tools: clamp poll sleep duration to non-negative values in process polling loops. (#24889)
 - Subagents/Announce queue: add exponential backoff when queue-drain delivery fails to reduce retry storms. (#24783)
+- Sessions/Model overrides: keep stored sub-agent model overrides when `agents.defaults.models` is empty (allow-any mode) instead of resetting to defaults. (#21088) Thanks @Slats24.
 - Config/Kilo Gateway: Kilo provider flow now surfaces an updated list of models. (#24921) thanks @gumadeiras.
 - Agents/Tool warnings: suppress `sessions_send` relay errors from chat-facing warning payloads to avoid leaking transient inter-session transport failures. (#24740) Thanks @Glucksberg.
 - WhatsApp/Logging: redact outbound recipient identifiers in WhatsApp outbound + heartbeat logs and remove message/poll preview text from those log lines. (#24980) Thanks @coygeek.
diff --git a/src/commands/agent.test.ts b/src/commands/agent.test.ts
index 3e26ec3ec..0118e0763 100644
--- a/src/commands/agent.test.ts
+++ b/src/commands/agent.test.ts
@@ -367,6 +367,48 @@ describe("agentCommand", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it("keeps stored session model override when models allowlist is empty", async () => {
+    await withTempHome(async (home) => {
+      const store = path.join(home, "sessions.json");
+      writeSessionStoreSeed(store, {
+        "agent:main:subagent:allow-any": {
+          sessionId: "session-allow-any",
+          updatedAt: Date.now(),
+          providerOverride: "openai",
+          modelOverride: "gpt-custom-foo",
+        },
+      });
+
+      mockConfig(home, store, {
+        model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5" },
+        models: {},
+      });
+
+      vi.mocked(loadModelCatalog).mockResolvedValueOnce([
+        { id: "claude-opus-4-5", name: "Opus", provider: "anthropic" },
+      ]);
+
+      await agentCommand(
+        {
+          message: "hi",
+          sessionKey: "agent:main:subagent:allow-any",
+        },
+        runtime,
+      );
+
+      const callArgs = vi.mocked(runEmbeddedPiAgent).mock.calls.at(-1)?.[0];
+      expect(callArgs?.provider).toBe("openai");
+      expect(callArgs?.model).toBe("gpt-custom-foo");
+
+      const saved = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(store, "utf-8")) as Record<
+        string,
+        { providerOverride?: string; modelOverride?: string }
+      >;
+      expect(saved["agent:main:subagent:allow-any"]?.providerOverride).toBe("openai");
+      expect(saved["agent:main:subagent:allow-any"]?.modelOverride).toBe("gpt-custom-foo");
+    });
+  });
+
   it("keeps explicit sessionKey even when sessionId exists elsewhere", async () => {
     await withTempHome(async (home) => {
       const store = path.join(home, "sessions.json");