diff --git a/packages/app/src/context/local.tsx b/packages/app/src/context/local.tsx
index 84a613c0d285..f05da70b6c2d 100644
--- a/packages/app/src/context/local.tsx
+++ b/packages/app/src/context/local.tsx
@@ -7,7 +7,12 @@ import { useModels } from "@/context/models"
 import { useProviders } from "@/hooks/use-providers"
 import { modelEnabled, modelProbe } from "@/testing/model-selection"
 import { Persist, persisted } from "@/utils/persist"
-import { cycleModelVariant, getConfiguredAgentVariant, resolveModelVariant } from "./model-variant"
+import {
+  cycleModelVariant,
+  getConfiguredAgentVariant,
+  getConfiguredModelVariant,
+  resolveModelVariant,
+} from "./model-variant"
 import { useSDK } from "./sdk"
 import { useSync } from "./sync"
 
@@ -235,11 +240,22 @@ export const { use: useLocal, provider: LocalProvider } = createSimpleContext({
     const configured = () => {
       const item = agent.current()
       const model = current()
-      if (!item || !model) return undefined
-      return getConfiguredAgentVariant({
-        agent: { model: item.model, variant: item.variant },
-        model: { providerID: model.provider.id, modelID: model.id, variants: model.variants },
-      })
+      if (!model) return undefined
+      return (
+        (item &&
+          getConfiguredAgentVariant({
+            agent: { model: item.model, variant: item.variant },
+            model: { providerID: model.provider.id, modelID: model.id, variants: model.variants },
+          })) ??
+        getConfiguredModelVariant({
+          model: {
+            providerID: model.provider.id,
+            modelID: model.id,
+            options: model.options,
+            variants: model.variants,
+          },
+        })
+      )
     }
 
     const selected = () => scope()?.variant
diff --git a/packages/app/src/context/model-variant.test.ts b/packages/app/src/context/model-variant.test.ts
index 583bc5c3dc71..2b9ddbe87d72 100644
--- a/packages/app/src/context/model-variant.test.ts
+++ b/packages/app/src/context/model-variant.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 import { describe, expect, test } from "bun:test"
-import { cycleModelVariant, getConfiguredAgentVariant, resolveModelVariant } from "./model-variant"
+import {
+  cycleModelVariant,
+  getConfiguredAgentVariant,
+  getConfiguredModelVariant,
+  resolveModelVariant,
+} from "./model-variant"
 
 describe("model variant", () => {
   test("resolves configured agent variant when model matches", () => {
@@ -34,6 +39,67 @@ describe("model variant", () => {
     expect(value).toBeUndefined()
   })
 
+  test("infers configured model variant from matching options", () => {
+    const value = getConfiguredModelVariant({
+      model: {
+        providerID: "openai",
+        modelID: "gpt-5.4",
+        options: { reasoningEffort: "high" },
+        variants: { low: { reasoningEffort: "low" }, high: { reasoningEffort: "high" } },
+      },
+    })
+
+    expect(value).toBe("high")
+  })
+
+  test("infers configured model variant when built-in variant adds extra defaults", () => {
+    const value = getConfiguredModelVariant({
+      model: {
+        providerID: "openai",
+        modelID: "gpt-5.4",
+        options: { reasoningEffort: "high" },
+        variants: {
+          low: { reasoningEffort: "low", reasoningSummary: "auto", include: ["reasoning.encrypted_content"] },
+          high: { reasoningEffort: "high", reasoningSummary: "auto", include: ["reasoning.encrypted_content"] },
+        },
+      },
+    })
+
+    expect(value).toBe("high")
+  })
+
+  test("infers configured model variant from nested options", () => {
+    const value = getConfiguredModelVariant({
+      model: {
+        providerID: "google",
+        modelID: "gemini-3",
+        options: { thinkingConfig: { thinkingLevel: "high", includeThoughts: true } },
+        variants: {
+          low: { thinkingConfig: { thinkingLevel: "low", includeThoughts: true } },
+          high: { thinkingConfig: { thinkingLevel: "high", includeThoughts: true } },
+        },
+      },
+    })
+
+    expect(value).toBe("high")
+  })
+
+  test("does not infer a variant from auxiliary defaults alone", () => {
+    const value = getConfiguredModelVariant({
+      model: {
+        providerID: "openai",
+        modelID: "gpt-5.4",
+        options: { reasoningSummary: "auto" },
+        variants: {
+          low: { reasoningEffort: "low", reasoningSummary: "auto" },
+          high: { reasoningEffort: "high", reasoningSummary: "auto" },
+        },
+      },
+    })
+
+    expect(value).toBeUndefined()
+  })
+
   test("prefers selected variant over configured variant", () => {
     const value = resolveModelVariant({
       variants: ["low", "high", "xhigh"],
@@ -54,6 +120,16 @@ describe("model variant", () => {
     expect(value).toBeUndefined()
   })
 
+  test("lets an explicit default override the inferred model variant", () => {
+    const value = resolveModelVariant({
+      variants: ["low", "high", "xhigh"],
+      selected: null,
+      configured: "high",
+    })
+
+    expect(value).toBeUndefined()
+  })
+
   test("cycles from configured variant to next", () => {
     const value = cycleModelVariant({
       variants: ["low", "high", "xhigh"],
diff --git a/packages/app/src/context/model-variant.ts b/packages/app/src/context/model-variant.ts
index 525acbba3219..2117d163e77e 100644
--- a/packages/app/src/context/model-variant.ts
+++ b/packages/app/src/context/model-variant.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ type Agent = {
 }
 
 type Model = AgentModel & {
+  options?: Record<string, unknown>
   variants?: Record<string, unknown>
 }
 
@@ -28,6 +29,46 @@ export function getConfiguredAgentVariant(input: { agent: Agent | undefined; mod
   return input.agent.variant
 }
 
+function record(value: unknown): value is Record<string, unknown> {
+  return typeof value === "object" && value !== null && !Array.isArray(value)
+}
+
+function pick(value: unknown, path: string[]) {
+  return path.reduce<unknown>((acc, key) => (record(acc) ? acc[key] : undefined), value)
+}
+
+function signal(value: unknown) {
+  const keys = [
+    ["reasoningEffort"],
+    ["reasoning", "effort"],
+    ["effort"],
+    ["thinkingLevel"],
+    ["thinkingBudget"],
+    ["thinking_budget"],
+    ["thinkingConfig", "thinkingLevel"],
+    ["thinkingConfig", "thinkingBudget"],
+    ["thinking", "budgetTokens"],
+    ["reasoningConfig", "budgetTokens"],
+    ["reasoningConfig", "maxReasoningEffort"],
+  ]
+
+  return keys.flatMap((path) => {
+    const item = pick(value, path)
+    return item === undefined ? [] : [[path.join("."), item] as const]
+  })
+}
+
+export function getConfiguredModelVariant(input: { model: Model | undefined }) {
+  if (!input.model?.variants) return undefined
+  if (!input.model.options) return undefined
+  const cfg = signal(input.model.options)
+  if (cfg.length === 0) return undefined
+  return Object.entries(input.model.variants).find(([, value]) => {
+    const variant = new Map(signal(value))
+    return cfg.every(([key, item]) => variant.get(key) === item)
+  })?.[0]
+}
+
 export function resolveModelVariant(input: VariantInput) {
   if (input.selected === null) return undefined
   if (input.selected && input.variants.includes(input.selected)) return input.selected