diff --git a/src/model/app_config.rs b/src/model/app_config.rs
index ab6bc10..e6da578 100644
--- a/src/model/app_config.rs
+++ b/src/model/app_config.rs
@@ -104,8 +104,25 @@ impl AppConfig {
         // Auto-detect provider from ~/.claude/settings.json
         if let Some(claude_provider) = detect_claude_settings_provider() {
             cfg.providers.entry("claude".to_string()).or_insert(claude_provider);
+            // Register known Claude models as named model roles
+            let claude_models = [
+                ("claude-opus-4-8", "claude-opus-4-8"),
+                ("claude-sonnet-5", "claude-sonnet-5"),
+                ("claude-haiku-4-5", "claude-haiku-4-5-20251001"),
+            ];
+            for (role_name, model_name) in &claude_models {
+                cfg.model_roles.entry(role_name.to_string()).or_insert(ModelRole {
+                    provider: "claude".to_string(),
+                    model: model_name.to_string(),
+                    max_tokens: Some(8192),
+                    context_window: Some(200_000),
+                    temperature: Some(0.7),
+                });
+            }
+            // Set as default provider only if user hasn't picked a custom default
             if cfg.default_provider == defaults.default_provider {
                 cfg.default_provider = "claude".to_string();
+                cfg.default_model = "claude-opus-4-8".to_string();
             }
         }
         cfg