diff --git a/src/gateway/gateway-models.profiles.live.test.ts b/src/gateway/gateway-models.profiles.live.test.ts
index d9d27512ed1..b5cc8ca0d05 100644
--- a/src/gateway/gateway-models.profiles.live.test.ts
+++ b/src/gateway/gateway-models.profiles.live.test.ts
@@ -1410,6 +1410,83 @@ type LiveModelRegistry = {
   getAll(): Array<Model<Api>>;
 };
 
+function toGatewayLiveModel(params: {
+  provider: string;
+  providerConfig: ModelProviderConfig;
+  modelConfig: NonNullable<ModelProviderConfig["models"]>[number];
+}): Model<Api> | null {
+  const id = params.modelConfig.id?.trim();
+  const api = params.modelConfig.api ?? params.providerConfig.api;
+  const baseUrl = params.modelConfig.baseUrl ?? params.providerConfig.baseUrl;
+  if (!id || !api || !baseUrl) {
+    return null;
+  }
+  const input = params.modelConfig.input.filter(
+    (value): value is "text" | "image" => value === "text" || value === "image",
+  );
+  return {
+    id,
+    name: params.modelConfig.name ?? id,
+    api: api as Api,
+    provider: params.provider,
+    baseUrl,
+    reasoning: params.modelConfig.reasoning ?? false,
+    thinkingLevelMap: params.modelConfig.thinkingLevelMap,
+    input: input.length > 0 ? input : ["text"],
+    cost: params.modelConfig.cost ?? {
+      input: 0,
+      output: 0,
+      cacheRead: 0,
+      cacheWrite: 0,
+    },
+    contextWindow: params.modelConfig.contextWindow ?? 128_000,
+    maxTokens: params.modelConfig.maxTokens ?? 16_384,
+    compat: params.modelConfig.compat ?? params.providerConfig.compat,
+  };
+}
+
+async function loadProviderScopedConfiguredModels(params: {
+  agentDir: string;
+  providerList: readonly string[];
+}): Promise<Array<Model<Api>>> {
+  const modelsPath = path.join(params.agentDir, "models.json");
+  let parsed: { providers?: Record<string, ModelProviderConfig> };
+  try {
+    parsed = JSON.parse(await fs.readFile(modelsPath, "utf8")) as {
+      providers?: Record<string, ModelProviderConfig>;
+    };
+  } catch {
+    return [];
+  }
+
+  const providers = parsed.providers ?? {};
+  const models: Array<Model<Api>> = [];
+  const seen = new Set<string>();
+  for (const rawProvider of params.providerList) {
+    const normalizedProvider = normalizeProviderId(rawProvider);
+    const entry = Object.entries(providers).find(
+      ([provider]) => normalizeProviderId(provider) === normalizedProvider,
+    );
+    if (!entry) {
+      continue;
+    }
+    const [provider, providerConfig] = entry;
+    for (const modelConfig of providerConfig.models ?? []) {
+      const model = toGatewayLiveModel({ provider, providerConfig, modelConfig });
+      if (!model) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      const key = `${normalizeProviderId(model.provider)}/${model.id.toLowerCase()}`;
+      if (seen.has(key)) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      seen.add(key);
+      models.push(model);
+    }
+  }
+  return models;
+}
+
 function loadProviderScopedBuiltInModels(providerList: readonly string[]): Array<Model<Api>> {
   const models: Array<Model<Api>> = [];
   const seen = new Set<string>();
@@ -1430,6 +1507,17 @@ function loadProviderScopedBuiltInModels(providerList: readonly string[]): Array
   return models;
 }
 
+async function loadProviderScopedModels(params: {
+  agentDir: string;
+  providerList: readonly string[];
+}): Promise<Array<Model<Api>>> {
+  const configured = await loadProviderScopedConfiguredModels(params);
+  if (configured.length > 0) {
+    return configured;
+  }
+  return loadProviderScopedBuiltInModels(params.providerList);
+}
+
 function createStaticLiveModelRegistry(models: Array<Model<Api>>): LiveModelRegistry {
   return {
     find(provider, modelId) {
@@ -2459,7 +2547,10 @@ describeLive("gateway live (dev agent, profile keys)", () => {
         let all: Array<Model<Api>>;
         if (useProviderScopedBuiltIns) {
           logProgress("[all-models] loading provider-scoped model refs");
-          all = loadProviderScopedBuiltInModels(providerList);
+          all = await withGatewayLiveSetupTimeout(
+            loadProviderScopedModels({ agentDir, providerList }),
+            "[all-models] load provider-scoped model refs",
+          );
           modelRegistry = createStaticLiveModelRegistry(all);
         } else {
           logProgress("[all-models] loading auth profiles");