Fixes from problematic pr worth keeping

cmd/obol/model.go

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ func modelCommand(cfg *config.Config) *cli.Command {
 			modelSyncCommand(cfg),
 			modelPullCommand(),
 			modelListCommand(cfg),
+			modelPreferCommand(cfg),
 			modelRemoveCommand(cfg),
 		},
 	}
@@ -194,12 +195,33 @@ func setupCloudProvider(cfg *config.Config, u *ui.UI, provider, apiKey string, m
 	}
 
 	if len(models) == 0 {
-		// Sensible defaults
+		// Per-provider defaults — kept in sync with what the providers
+		// document as their current chat-tuned flagship. Bumping these is a
+		// small follow-up PR when frontier models drop, and it isolates the
+		// "what's good today" maintenance to one place.
+		var defaultModel string
 		switch provider {
 		case "anthropic":
-			models = []string{"claude-sonnet-4-6"}
+			defaultModel = "claude-sonnet-4-6"
 		case "openai":
-			models = []string{"gpt-4.1"}
+			defaultModel = "gpt-5.5"
+		}
+
+		// Interactive: let the user override the default with a free-text
+		// entry. Non-interactive (no TTY): silently use the default — the
+		// caller can always pass --model to be explicit.
+		chosen := defaultModel
+		if defaultModel != "" && u.IsTTY() && !u.IsJSON() {
+			input, err := u.Input(fmt.Sprintf("Model for %s", provider), defaultModel)
+			if err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			if strings.TrimSpace(input) != "" {
+				chosen = strings.TrimSpace(input)
+			}
+		}
+		if chosen != "" {
+			models = []string{chosen}
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -493,6 +515,34 @@ func modelListCommand(cfg *config.Config) *cli.Command {
 	}
 }
 
+func modelPreferCommand(cfg *config.Config) *cli.Command {
+	return &cli.Command{
+		Name:      "prefer",
+		Usage:     "Pull one or more models to the head of the LiteLLM model_list (the head becomes the agent's primary)",
+		ArgsUsage: "<model-name> [<model-name> ...]",
+		Flags: []cli.Flag{
+			&cli.BoolFlag{Name: "no-sync", Usage: "Skip the agent model sync (batch with other model commands, then run `obol model sync` once)"},
+		},
+		Action: func(ctx context.Context, cmd *cli.Command) error {
+			u := getUI(cmd)
+
+			names := cmd.Args().Slice()
+			if len(names) == 0 {
+				return errors.New("at least one model name is required\n\nUsage: obol model prefer <model-name> [<model-name> ...]\n\nList configured models with: obol model list")
+			}
+
+			if err := model.PreferModels(cfg, u, names); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+
+			if cmd.Bool("no-sync") {
+				return nil
+			}
+			return syncAgentModels(cfg, u)
+		},
+	}
+}
+
 func modelRemoveCommand(cfg *config.Config) *cli.Command {
 	return &cli.Command{
 		Name:      "remove",

internal/embed/infrastructure/helmfile.yaml

@@ -2,6 +2,24 @@
 # Orchestrates core infrastructure components deployed with every stack
 # Uses Traefik with Gateway API for routing (replaces nginx-ingress)
 
+# Force helm to use Server-Side Apply with --force-conflicts on every release.
+# Without this, every `obol stack down`/`up` cycle hits a different SSA
+# ownership conflict on resources helm shares with other writers — for example
+# litellm-config.data["config.yaml"] (touched by `obol model setup` patches),
+# remote-signer-keystore-password.metadata.labels (helm 3 pre-SSA default
+# manager was kubectl-client-side-apply), or fields the apiserver synthesises
+# under "before-first-apply" when an Update-managed object first sees an
+# Apply call. --server-side=true switches helm to SSA semantics so it can
+# reason about field ownership at all; --force-conflicts tells it to take
+# ownership when it disagrees with another manager rather than aborting the
+# upgrade. The `=true` form is required: helm's --server-side flag takes a
+# value (auto|true|false), so a bare --server-side would consume the next
+# arg as its value and reject --force-conflicts as an unknown apply method.
+helmDefaults:
+  args:
+    - "--server-side=true"
+    - "--force-conflicts"
+
 repositories:
   - name: traefik
     url: https://traefik.github.io/charts

internal/embed/infrastructure/values/obol-frontend.yaml.gotmpl

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ image:
 
   repository: obolnetwork/obol-stack-front-end
   pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
-  tag: "v0.1.17-rc.5"
+  tag: "v0.1.18"
 
 service:
   type: ClusterIP

internal/hermes/hermes.go

@@ -690,6 +690,19 @@ func writeDeploymentFiles(cfg *config.Config, id, deploymentDir, agentBaseURL st
 func generateHelmfile(namespace string) string {
 	return fmt.Sprintf(`# Managed by obol agent
 
+# Force helm to use Server-Side Apply with --force-conflicts on every
+# release. Without this, every Hermes resync after a fresh install hits SSA
+# ownership conflicts on shared fields — most often
+# remote-signer-keystore-password.metadata.labels, where helm's pre-SSA
+# install left field ownership under "kubectl-client-side-apply" and a
+# subsequent helm upgrade with SSA can't reclaim them. =true is required
+# because helm's --server-side flag takes a value (auto|true|false); a bare
+# --server-side would consume the next arg and reject --force-conflicts.
+helmDefaults:
+  args:
+    - "--server-side=true"
+    - "--force-conflicts"
+
 repositories:
   - name: obol
     url: https://obolnetwork.github.io/helm-charts/
@@ -1260,15 +1273,14 @@ func litellmMasterKey(cfg *config.Config) string {
 	return "sk-obol-" + strings.TrimSpace(string(data))
 }
 
-// rankModels delegates to model.Rank, which knows how to prefer larger local
-// models and frontier cloud models. Kept as a thin wrapper so call sites
-// don't need to import internal/model directly.
+// rankModels delegates to model.Rank, which preserves configured LiteLLM model
+// order and keeps known embedding-only models behind chat-capable models. Kept
+// as a thin wrapper so call sites don't need to import internal/model directly.
 //
-// IMPORTANT: do NOT pre-strip provider prefixes here. model.Rank strips
-// internally for ranking heuristics but returns the ORIGINAL strings so the
-// agent can round-trip them back to LiteLLM. Stripping at this layer would
-// break that round-trip — that's exactly the double-strip bug that
-// ca820c9 worked around for custom endpoints.
+// IMPORTANT: do NOT strip provider prefixes here. model.Rank returns the
+// original strings so the agent can round-trip them back to LiteLLM. Stripping
+// at this layer would break that round-trip — that's exactly the double-strip
+// bug that ca820c9 worked around for custom endpoints.
 func rankModels(models []string) (primary string, fallbacks []string) {
 	return model.Rank(models)
 }

internal/hermes/rankmodels_test.go

@@ -2,42 +2,20 @@ package hermes
 
 import "testing"
 
-// TestRankModels_HermesWrapper_PrefersLargerLocalModel encodes the regression
-// from the colleague's screenshot: Hermes was deploying with `llama3.2:1b` as
-// the default model, which then parroted its own tool list back on every
-// "hello" prompt. The fix moved capability ranking into model.Rank; this test
-// just confirms the Hermes-side wrapper still calls into it correctly.
-//
-// Contract: bare LiteLLM model_name strings come in, the SAME bare strings
-// come back out — no provider-prefix stripping at this layer. The agent must
-// be able to round-trip the returned primary back to LiteLLM without
-// modification.
-func TestRankModels_HermesWrapper_PrefersLargerLocalModel(t *testing.T) {
+// Contract: LiteLLM model_name strings come in, the SAME strings come back
+// out in configured order. The agent must be able to round-trip the returned
+// primary back to LiteLLM without modification.
+func TestRankModels_HermesWrapper_PreservesConfiguredOrder(t *testing.T) {
 	primary, fallbacks := rankModels([]string{
 		"llama3.2:1b",
-		"llama3.1:8b",
-		"llama3.2:3b",
-	})
-	if primary != "llama3.1:8b" {
-		t.Fatalf("primary: got %q, want llama3.1:8b", primary)
-	}
-	if len(fallbacks) != 2 || fallbacks[0] != "llama3.2:3b" || fallbacks[1] != "llama3.2:1b" {
-		t.Fatalf("fallbacks: got %v, want [llama3.2:3b llama3.2:1b]", fallbacks)
-	}
-}
-
-// TestRankModels_HermesWrapper_PrefersClaudeOverLocal exercises the cloud
-// tier. Cloud entries written by buildModelEntries are bare (e.g.
-// `claude-opus-4-7`, not `anthropic/claude-opus-4-7`), and the wrapper must
-// preserve that.
-func TestRankModels_HermesWrapper_PrefersClaudeOverLocal(t *testing.T) {
-	primary, _ := rankModels([]string{
 		"llama3.1:8b",
 		"claude-opus-4-7",
-		"llama3.2:1b",
 	})
-	if primary != "claude-opus-4-7" {
-		t.Fatalf("primary: got %q, want claude-opus-4-7", primary)
+	if primary != "llama3.2:1b" {
+		t.Fatalf("primary: got %q, want llama3.2:1b", primary)
+	}
+	if len(fallbacks) != 2 || fallbacks[0] != "llama3.1:8b" || fallbacks[1] != "claude-opus-4-7" {
+		t.Fatalf("fallbacks: got %v, want [llama3.1:8b claude-opus-4-7]", fallbacks)
 	}
 }
 
@@ -50,12 +28,12 @@ func TestRankModels_HermesWrapper_PrefersClaudeOverLocal(t *testing.T) {
 // reintroducing it.
 func TestRankModels_HermesWrapper_PreservesProviderPrefixIfPresent(t *testing.T) {
 	primary, _ := rankModels([]string{
+		"llama3.1:8b",
 		"anthropic/claude-opus-4-7",
 		"openai/gpt-4o",
-		"llama3.1:8b",
 	})
-	if primary != "anthropic/claude-opus-4-7" {
-		t.Fatalf("primary: got %q, want anthropic/claude-opus-4-7 (unstripped)", primary)
+	if primary != "llama3.1:8b" {
+		t.Fatalf("primary: got %q, want llama3.1:8b", primary)
 	}
 }