diff --git a/src/agents/model-catalog.test.ts b/src/agents/model-catalog.test.ts
index 8585741995a..bc03223722b 100644
--- a/src/agents/model-catalog.test.ts
+++ b/src/agents/model-catalog.test.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ let findModelInCatalog: typeof import("./model-catalog.js").findModelInCatalog;
 let loadModelCatalog: typeof import("./model-catalog.js").loadModelCatalog;
 let resetModelCatalogCacheForTest: typeof import("./model-catalog.js").resetModelCatalogCacheForTest;
 let augmentCatalogMock: ReturnType<typeof vi.fn>;
+let ensureOpenClawModelsJsonMock: ReturnType<typeof vi.fn>;
 
 vi.mock("./model-suppression.runtime.js", () => ({
   shouldSuppressBuiltInModel: (params: { provider?: string; id?: string }) =>
@@ -59,8 +60,9 @@ function mockSingleOpenAiCatalogModel() {
 
 describe("loadModelCatalog", () => {
   beforeAll(async () => {
+    ensureOpenClawModelsJsonMock = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ agentDir: "/tmp", wrote: false });
     vi.doMock("./models-config.js", () => ({
-      ensureOpenClawModelsJson: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ agentDir: "/tmp", wrote: false }),
+      ensureOpenClawModelsJson: ensureOpenClawModelsJsonMock,
     }));
     vi.doMock("./agent-paths.js", () => ({
       resolveOpenClawAgentDir: () => "/tmp/openclaw",
@@ -81,6 +83,7 @@ describe("loadModelCatalog", () => {
 
   beforeEach(() => {
     resetModelCatalogCacheForTest();
+    ensureOpenClawModelsJsonMock.mockClear();
   });
 
   afterEach(() => {
@@ -146,6 +149,28 @@ describe("loadModelCatalog", () => {
     }
   });
 
+  it("does not prepare models.json when loading catalog in read-only mode", async () => {
+    const discoverAuthStorage = vi.fn(() => ({}));
+    __setModelCatalogImportForTest(
+      async () =>
+        ({
+          discoverAuthStorage,
+          AuthStorage: function AuthStorage() {},
+          ModelRegistry: class {
+            getAll() {
+              return [{ id: "gpt-4.1", name: "GPT-4.1", provider: "openai" }];
+            }
+          },
+        }) as unknown as PiSdkModule,
+    );
+
+    const result = await loadModelCatalog({ config: {} as OpenClawConfig, readOnly: true });
+
+    expect(result).toEqual([{ id: "gpt-4.1", name: "GPT-4.1", provider: "openai" }]);
+    expect(ensureOpenClawModelsJsonMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(discoverAuthStorage).toHaveBeenCalledWith("/tmp/openclaw", { readOnly: true });
+  });
+
   it("does not synthesize stale openai-codex/gpt-5.3-codex-spark entries from gpt-5.4", async () => {
     mockPiDiscoveryModels([
       {
diff --git a/src/agents/model-catalog.ts b/src/agents/model-catalog.ts
index 5804826800e..b154db0eb6f 100644
--- a/src/agents/model-catalog.ts
+++ b/src/agents/model-catalog.ts
@@ -81,15 +81,17 @@ function instantiatePiModelRegistry(
 export async function loadModelCatalog(params?: {
   config?: OpenClawConfig;
   useCache?: boolean;
+  readOnly?: boolean;
 }): Promise<ModelCatalogEntry[]> {
-  if (params?.useCache === false) {
+  const readOnly = params?.readOnly === true;
+  if (!readOnly && params?.useCache === false) {
     modelCatalogPromise = null;
   }
-  if (modelCatalogPromise) {
+  if (!readOnly && modelCatalogPromise) {
     return modelCatalogPromise;
   }
 
-  modelCatalogPromise = (async () => {
+  const loadCatalog = async () => {
     const models: ModelCatalogEntry[] = [];
     const timingEnabled = shouldLogModelCatalogTiming();
     const startMs = timingEnabled ? Date.now() : 0;
@@ -110,8 +112,10 @@ export async function loadModelCatalog(params?: {
       });
     try {
       const cfg = params?.config ?? loadConfig();
-      await ensureOpenClawModelsJson(cfg);
-      logStage("models-json-ready");
+      if (!readOnly) {
+        await ensureOpenClawModelsJson(cfg);
+        logStage("models-json-ready");
+      }
       // IMPORTANT: keep the dynamic import *inside* the try/catch.
       // If this fails once (e.g. during a pnpm install that temporarily swaps node_modules),
       // we must not poison the cache with a rejected promise (otherwise all channel handlers
@@ -121,7 +125,10 @@ export async function loadModelCatalog(params?: {
       const agentDir = resolveOpenClawAgentDir();
       const { shouldSuppressBuiltInModel } = await loadModelSuppression();
       logStage("catalog-deps-ready");
-      const authStorage = piSdk.discoverAuthStorage(agentDir);
+      const authStorage = piSdk.discoverAuthStorage(
+        agentDir,
+        readOnly ? { readOnly: true } : undefined,
+      );
       logStage("auth-storage-ready");
       const registry = instantiatePiModelRegistry(
         piSdk,
@@ -182,7 +189,9 @@ export async function loadModelCatalog(params?: {
 
       if (models.length === 0) {
         // If we found nothing, don't cache this result so we can try again.
-        modelCatalogPromise = null;
+        if (!readOnly) {
+          modelCatalogPromise = null;
+        }
       }
 
       const sorted = sortModels(models);
@@ -194,14 +203,21 @@ export async function loadModelCatalog(params?: {
         log.warn(`Failed to load model catalog: ${String(error)}`);
       }
       // Don't poison the cache on transient dependency/filesystem issues.
-      modelCatalogPromise = null;
+      if (!readOnly) {
+        modelCatalogPromise = null;
+      }
       if (models.length > 0) {
         return sortModels(models);
       }
       return [];
     }
-  })();
+  };
 
+  if (readOnly) {
+    return loadCatalog();
+  }
+
+  modelCatalogPromise = loadCatalog();
   return modelCatalogPromise;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/commands/models/list.rows.ts b/src/commands/models/list.rows.ts
index 25d87e35fc6..88e0aa3fd1c 100644
--- a/src/commands/models/list.rows.ts
+++ b/src/commands/models/list.rows.ts
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ export async function appendCatalogSupplementRows(params: {
   context: RowBuilderContext;
   seenKeys: Set<string>;
 }): Promise<void> {
-  const catalog = await loadModelCatalog({ config: params.context.cfg });
+  const catalog = await loadModelCatalog({ config: params.context.cfg, readOnly: true });
   for (const entry of catalog) {
     if (
       params.context.filter.provider &&