diff --git a/server/modules/providers/list/claude/claude-models.provider.ts b/server/modules/providers/list/claude/claude-models.provider.ts
index 2c80cc4034..af1c369653 100644
--- a/server/modules/providers/list/claude/claude-models.provider.ts
+++ b/server/modules/providers/list/claude/claude-models.provider.ts
@@ -139,6 +139,13 @@ const ANSI_PATTERN = new RegExp(
   'g',
 );
 
+// Claude Code stamps locally-fabricated assistant rows (API-error notices,
+// "No response requested.", session-limit messages) with the placeholder
+// model "<synthetic>". Adopting it would feed a non-model into the send path,
+// so placeholder values are skipped and the transcript scan keeps walking back
+// to the last real turn.
+const isPlaceholderClaudeModel = (value: string): boolean => /^<.*>$/.test(value);
+
 const extractClaudeEventModel = (event: ClaudeInitEvent, sessionId: string): string | null => {
   const eventSessionId = event.sessionId ?? event.session_id;
   if (eventSessionId && eventSessionId !== sessionId) {
@@ -151,12 +158,16 @@ const extractClaudeEventModel = (event: ClaudeInitEvent, sessionId: string): str
   }
 
   const directModel = event.model?.trim();
-  if (directModel) {
+  if (directModel && !isPlaceholderClaudeModel(directModel)) {
     return directModel;
   }
 
   const messageModel = event.message?.model?.trim();
-  return messageModel || null;
+  if (messageModel && !isPlaceholderClaudeModel(messageModel)) {
+    return messageModel;
+  }
+
+  return null;
 };
 
 const stripAnsi = (value: string): string => value.replace(ANSI_PATTERN, '');
diff --git a/server/modules/providers/tests/claude-models.test.ts b/server/modules/providers/tests/claude-models.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d80ef96656
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/modules/providers/tests/claude-models.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
+import { mkdtemp, rm, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import os from 'node:os';
+import path from 'node:path';
+import test from 'node:test';
+
+import { closeConnection, initializeDatabase, sessionsDb } from '@/modules/database/index.js';
+import {
+  CLAUDE_FALLBACK_MODELS,
+  ClaudeProviderModels,
+} from '@/modules/providers/list/claude/claude-models.provider.js';
+
+const PROVIDER_SESSION_ID = '77af7791-311d-4f0e-abbf-381f25ed775a';
+
+async function withIsolatedDatabase(runTest: () => void | Promise<void>): Promise<void> {
+  const previousDatabasePath = process.env.DATABASE_PATH;
+  const tempDirectory = await mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'claude-models-db-'));
+  const databasePath = path.join(tempDirectory, 'auth.db');
+
+  closeConnection();
+  process.env.DATABASE_PATH = databasePath;
+  await initializeDatabase();
+
+  try {
+    await runTest();
+  } finally {
+    closeConnection();
+    if (previousDatabasePath === undefined) {
+      delete process.env.DATABASE_PATH;
+    } else {
+      process.env.DATABASE_PATH = previousDatabasePath;
+    }
+    await rm(tempDirectory, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+}
+
+const writeSessionJsonl = async (dir: string, rows: unknown[]): Promise<string> => {
+  const jsonlPath = path.join(dir, `${PROVIDER_SESSION_ID}.jsonl`);
+  await writeFile(jsonlPath, `${rows.map((row) => JSON.stringify(row)).join('\n')}\n`, 'utf8');
+  return jsonlPath;
+};
+
+const registerSession = (jsonlPath: string, projectPath: string): string =>
+  sessionsDb.createSession(
+    PROVIDER_SESSION_ID,
+    'claude',
+    projectPath,
+    undefined,
+    undefined,
+    undefined,
+    jsonlPath,
+  );
+
+test('claude current active model reads the last assistant turn from the transcript', async () => {
+  await withIsolatedDatabase(async () => {
+    const dir = await mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'claude-models-test-'));
+    try {
+      const jsonlPath = await writeSessionJsonl(dir, [
+        { type: 'user', sessionId: PROVIDER_SESSION_ID, message: { content: 'hello' } },
+        {
+          type: 'assistant',
+          sessionId: PROVIDER_SESSION_ID,
+          message: { model: 'claude-sonnet-4-5', content: [] },
+        },
+      ]);
+      const sessionId = registerSession(jsonlPath, dir);
+
+      const active = await new ClaudeProviderModels().getCurrentActiveModel(sessionId);
+      assert.equal(active.model, 'claude-sonnet-4-5');
+    } finally {
+      await rm(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+});
+
+test('claude current active model skips synthetic error rows and recovers the real model', async () => {
+  await withIsolatedDatabase(async () => {
+    const dir = await mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'claude-models-test-'));
+    try {
+      // After a 529 the CLI appends assistant rows with model "<synthetic>"
+      // (the API-error notice and "No response requested."); the session's real
+      // model lives in the last genuine turn before them.
+      const jsonlPath = await writeSessionJsonl(dir, [
+        { type: 'user', sessionId: PROVIDER_SESSION_ID, message: { content: 'hello' } },
+        {
+          type: 'assistant',
+          sessionId: PROVIDER_SESSION_ID,
+          message: { model: 'claude-sonnet-4-5', content: [] },
+        },
+        {
+          type: 'assistant',
+          sessionId: PROVIDER_SESSION_ID,
+          // Placeholder in the top-level event model field.
+          model: '<synthetic>',
+          message: {
+            model: '<synthetic>',
+            content: [{ type: 'text', text: 'API Error: 529 Overloaded.' }],
+          },
+        },
+        {
+          type: 'assistant',
+          sessionId: PROVIDER_SESSION_ID,
+          // Placeholder only in message.model.
+          message: {
+            model: '<synthetic>',
+            content: [{ type: 'text', text: 'No response requested.' }],
+          },
+        },
+      ]);
+      const sessionId = registerSession(jsonlPath, dir);
+
+      const active = await new ClaudeProviderModels().getCurrentActiveModel(sessionId);
+      assert.equal(active.model, 'claude-sonnet-4-5');
+    } finally {
+      await rm(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+});
+
+test('claude current active model falls back to the catalog default when every row is synthetic', async () => {
+  await withIsolatedDatabase(async () => {
+    const dir = await mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'claude-models-test-'));
+    try {
+      const jsonlPath = await writeSessionJsonl(dir, [
+        {
+          type: 'assistant',
+          sessionId: PROVIDER_SESSION_ID,
+          message: {
+            model: '<synthetic>',
+            content: [{ type: 'text', text: 'API Error: 529 Overloaded.' }],
+          },
+        },
+      ]);
+      const sessionId = registerSession(jsonlPath, dir);
+
+      const active = await new ClaudeProviderModels().getCurrentActiveModel(sessionId);
+      assert.equal(active.model, CLAUDE_FALLBACK_MODELS.DEFAULT);
+    } finally {
+      await rm(dir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+});