Fix subagent default model precedence (#81783)

* fix subagent default model precedence

* docs changelog for subagent default fix

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - macOS/Gateway: fail managed LaunchAgent stop and restart when the configured gateway port remains busy after cleanup instead of reporting success while a listener survives. Fixes #73132. Thanks @BunsDev.
 - Telegram: ship the isolated polling worker at the root dist path used by the bundled worker loader, avoiding startup failures looking for `dist/telegram-ingress-worker.runtime.js`.
 - Security/sandbox: include Windows `USERPROFILE` in the sandbox blocked home roots so credential-bearing binds (such as `.codex`, `.openclaw`, or `.ssh` under the Windows user profile) are denied even when `HOME` points at a different shell home. (#63074) Thanks @luoyanglang.
+- Agents/subagents: apply `agents.defaults.subagents.model` before target agent primary models during `sessions_spawn`, so model-scoped runtimes such as `claude-cli` stay attached to default child runs. Fixes #81395. (#81783) Thanks @joshavant.
 - Gateway/OpenAI-compatible HTTP: parse shared JSON endpoint paths without trusting malformed Host headers, avoiding 500s before `/v1/chat/completions`, `/v1/responses`, and `/v1/embeddings` request handling.
 - Telegram: keep Bot API polling alive during main event-loop stalls by moving ingress to an isolated worker with a durable local spool. Fixes #81132. (#81746) Thanks @joshavant.
 - Telegram: resolve plugin native commands with the active runtime config so commands like `/codex ...` stay on the native command path.

src/agents/model-selection.test.ts

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { describe, it, expect, vi } from "vitest";
 import type { OpenClawConfig } from "../config/types.js";
 import { resetLogger, setLoggerOverride } from "../logging/logger.js";
 import { createWarnLogCapture } from "../logging/test-helpers/warn-log-capture.js";
+import { resolveAgentHarnessPolicy } from "./harness/policy.js";
 import { migrateLegacyRuntimeModelRef } from "./model-runtime-aliases.js";
 import { isModelKeyAllowedBySet, providerWildcardModelKey } from "./model-selection-shared.js";
 import {
@@ -2186,7 +2187,7 @@ describe("normalizeModelSelection", () => {
 });
 
 describe("resolveSubagentConfiguredModelSelection", () => {
-  it("prefers the agent primary model over agents.defaults.subagents.model", () => {
+  it("prefers agents.defaults.subagents.model over the agent primary model", () => {
     const cfg = {
       agents: {
         defaults: {
@@ -2203,7 +2204,7 @@ describe("resolveSubagentConfiguredModelSelection", () => {
     } as OpenClawConfig;
 
     expect(resolveSubagentConfiguredModelSelection({ cfg, agentId: "research" })).toBe(
-      "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",
+      "openai/gpt-5.4",
     );
   });
 
@@ -2228,6 +2229,34 @@ describe("resolveSubagentConfiguredModelSelection", () => {
       "google/gemini-2.5-pro",
     );
   });
+
+  it("keeps runtime policy attached to the configured default subagent model", () => {
+    const cfg = {
+      agents: {
+        defaults: {
+          subagents: { model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6" },
+          models: {
+            "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6": { agentRuntime: { id: "claude-cli" } },
+          },
+        },
+        list: [{ id: "research", model: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-7" }],
+      },
+    } as OpenClawConfig;
+
+    const resolved = resolveSubagentConfiguredModelSelection({ cfg, agentId: "research" });
+
+    expect(resolved).toBe("anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6");
+    expect(
+      resolveAgentHarnessPolicy({
+        provider: "anthropic",
+        modelId: "claude-sonnet-4-6",
+        config: cfg,
+      }),
+    ).toEqual({
+      runtime: "claude-cli",
+      runtimeSource: "model",
+    });
+  });
 });
 
 describe("resolveSubagentSpawnModelSelection", () => {

src/agents/model-selection.ts

@@ -322,8 +322,8 @@ export function resolveSubagentConfiguredModelSelection(params: {
   const agentConfig = resolveAgentConfig(params.cfg, params.agentId);
   return (
     normalizeModelSelection(agentConfig?.subagents?.model) ??
-    normalizeModelSelection(agentConfig?.model) ??
-    normalizeModelSelection(params.cfg.agents?.defaults?.subagents?.model)
+    normalizeModelSelection(params.cfg.agents?.defaults?.subagents?.model) ??
+    normalizeModelSelection(agentConfig?.model)
   );
 }
 

src/agents/openclaw-tools.subagents.sessions-spawn.model.test.ts

@@ -121,6 +121,29 @@ describe("subagent spawn model + thinking plan", () => {
     expect(plan.initialSessionPatch.modelOverrideSource).toBe("auto");
   });
 
+  it("prefers default subagent model over target agent primary model", () => {
+    const cfg = createConfig({
+      agents: {
+        defaults: { subagents: { model: "minimax/MiniMax-M2.7" } },
+        list: [{ id: "research", model: { primary: "opencode/claude" } }],
+      },
+    });
+    const targetAgentConfig = {
+      id: "research",
+      model: { primary: "opencode/claude" },
+    };
+    const plan = expectOkPlan(
+      resolveSubagentModelAndThinkingPlan({
+        cfg,
+        targetAgentId: "research",
+        targetAgentConfig,
+      }),
+    );
+    expect(plan.resolvedModel).toBe("minimax/MiniMax-M2.7");
+    expect(plan.initialSessionPatch.model).toBe("minimax/MiniMax-M2.7");
+    expect(plan.initialSessionPatch.modelOverrideSource).toBe("auto");
+  });
+
   it("prefers target agent primary model over global default", () => {
     const cfg = createConfig({
       agents: {