diff --git a/src/agents/model-selection.ts b/src/agents/model-selection.ts
index e39b850e915..515742eab1f 100644
--- a/src/agents/model-selection.ts
+++ b/src/agents/model-selection.ts
@@ -425,10 +425,29 @@ export function resolveThinkingDefault(params: {
   model: string;
   catalog?: ModelCatalogEntry[];
 }): ThinkLevel {
+  // 1. Per-model thinkingDefault (highest priority)
+  // Normalize config keys via parseModelRef (consistent with buildModelAliasIndex,
+  // buildAllowedModelSet, etc.) so aliases like "anthropic/opus-4.6" resolve correctly.
+  const configModels = params.cfg.agents?.defaults?.models ?? {};
+  for (const [rawKey, entry] of Object.entries(configModels)) {
+    const parsed = parseModelRef(rawKey, params.provider);
+    if (
+      parsed &&
+      parsed.provider === params.provider &&
+      parsed.model === params.model &&
+      entry?.thinkingDefault
+    ) {
+      return entry.thinkingDefault as ThinkLevel;
+    }
+  }
+
+  // 2. Global thinkingDefault
   const configured = params.cfg.agents?.defaults?.thinkingDefault;
   if (configured) {
     return configured;
   }
+
+  // 3. Auto-detect from model catalog (reasoning-capable → "low")
   const candidate = params.catalog?.find(
     (entry) => entry.provider === params.provider && entry.id === params.model,
   );
diff --git a/src/config/types.agent-defaults.ts b/src/config/types.agent-defaults.ts
index 4c9dba0a238..d7ee643893c 100644
--- a/src/config/types.agent-defaults.ts
+++ b/src/config/types.agent-defaults.ts
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ export type AgentModelEntryConfig = {
   params?: Record<string, unknown>;
   /** Enable streaming for this model (default: true, false for Ollama to avoid SDK issue #1205). */
   streaming?: boolean;
+  /** Per-model default thinking level (overrides global thinkingDefault). */
+  thinkingDefault?: "off" | "minimal" | "low" | "medium" | "high" | "xhigh";
 };
 
 export type AgentModelListConfig = {
diff --git a/src/config/zod-schema.agent-defaults.ts b/src/config/zod-schema.agent-defaults.ts
index 2508179707c..cfcb81404ed 100644
--- a/src/config/zod-schema.agent-defaults.ts
+++ b/src/config/zod-schema.agent-defaults.ts
@@ -38,6 +38,17 @@ export const AgentDefaultsSchema = z
             params: z.record(z.string(), z.unknown()).optional(),
             /** Enable streaming for this model (default: true, false for Ollama to avoid SDK issue #1205). */
             streaming: z.boolean().optional(),
+            /** Per-model default thinking level (overrides global thinkingDefault). */
+            thinkingDefault: z
+              .union([
+                z.literal("off"),
+                z.literal("minimal"),
+                z.literal("low"),
+                z.literal("medium"),
+                z.literal("high"),
+                z.literal("xhigh"),
+              ])
+              .optional(),
           })
           .strict(),
       )