diff --git a/src/agents/model-catalog-order.ts b/src/agents/model-catalog-order.ts
index 3a547f7256fe..0667bfb9bf9c 100644
--- a/src/agents/model-catalog-order.ts
+++ b/src/agents/model-catalog-order.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import type { ModelCatalogEntry } from "./model-catalog.types.js";
 export function assignProviderModelOrder(
   entries: readonly ModelCatalogEntry[],
   existingEntries: readonly ModelCatalogEntry[] = [],
+  options: { appendUnknown?: boolean } = {},
 ): ModelCatalogEntry[] {
   const orderByModel = new Map<string, number>();
   const nextOrderByProvider = new Map<string, number>();
@@ -30,6 +31,9 @@ export function assignProviderModelOrder(
     if (existingOrder !== undefined) {
       return { ...entry, providerOrder: existingOrder };
     }
+    if (options.appendUnknown === false) {
+      return entry;
+    }
     const providerOrder = nextOrderByProvider.get(provider) ?? 0;
     nextOrderByProvider.set(provider, providerOrder + 1);
     orderByModel.set(key, providerOrder);
diff --git a/src/agents/model-catalog.test.ts b/src/agents/model-catalog.test.ts
index ed2cc0c7ccae..0d1602bdcc69 100644
--- a/src/agents/model-catalog.test.ts
+++ b/src/agents/model-catalog.test.ts
@@ -112,6 +112,18 @@ describe("prepared model catalog builder", () => {
     expect(snapshot.routeVariants).toEqual(snapshot.entries);
   });
 
+  it("keeps unranked registry rows in deterministic model-id order", async () => {
+    const snapshot = await build({
+      entries: [
+        { id: "model-b", name: "Model B", provider: "demo" },
+        { id: "model-a", name: "Model A", provider: "demo" },
+      ],
+    });
+
+    expect(snapshot.entries.map((entry) => entry.id)).toEqual(["model-a", "model-b"]);
+    expect(snapshot.entries.every((entry) => entry.providerOrder === undefined)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   it("keeps account-denied runtime models out of the prepared catalog", async () => {
     const config: OpenClawConfig = { plugins: { enabled: false } };
     const runtimeManifest = providerManifestSnapshot({
@@ -153,6 +165,30 @@ describe("prepared model catalog builder", () => {
     ]);
   });
 
+  it("ranks runtime registry rows from the manifest without augmentation", async () => {
+    const snapshot = await build({
+      entries: [
+        { id: "gpt-5.4", name: "GPT-5.4", provider: "openai" },
+        { id: "gpt-5.6-luna", name: "GPT-5.6 Luna", provider: "openai" },
+        { id: "gpt-5.6-sol", name: "GPT-5.6 Sol", provider: "openai" },
+        { id: "gpt-5.6-terra", name: "GPT-5.6 Terra", provider: "openai" },
+      ],
+      metadataSnapshot: providerManifestSnapshot({
+        provider: "openai",
+        discovery: "runtime",
+        modelIds: ["gpt-5.6-sol", "gpt-5.6-terra", "gpt-5.6-luna", "gpt-5.4"],
+      }),
+      includeProviderPluginAugmentation: false,
+    });
+
+    expect(snapshot.entries.map((entry) => entry.id)).toEqual([
+      "gpt-5.6-sol",
+      "gpt-5.6-terra",
+      "gpt-5.6-luna",
+      "gpt-5.4",
+    ]);
+  });
+
   it("canonicalizes manifest-owned provider aliases in registry rows", async () => {
     const snapshot = await build({
       entries: [
@@ -230,6 +266,47 @@ describe("prepared model catalog builder", () => {
     ]);
   });
 
+  it("keeps manifest rank for configured runtime models absent from the registry", async () => {
+    mocks.augmentModelCatalogWithProviderPlugins.mockResolvedValueOnce([
+      { id: "gpt-5.4", name: "GPT-5.4", provider: "openai" },
+      { id: "gpt-5.6-sol", name: "GPT-5.6 Sol", provider: "openai" },
+    ]);
+
+    const snapshot = await build({
+      config: {
+        plugins: { enabled: false },
+        models: {
+          providers: {
+            openai: {
+              api: "openai-responses",
+              baseUrl: "https://api.openai.com/v1",
+              models: [
+                {
+                  id: "gpt-5.6-sol",
+                  name: "Configured GPT-5.6 Sol",
+                  contextWindow: 1_050_000,
+                  maxTokens: 128_000,
+                  reasoning: true,
+                  input: ["text", "image"],
+                  cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0 },
+                },
+              ],
+            },
+          },
+        },
+      },
+      entries: [{ id: "gpt-5.4", name: "GPT-5.4", provider: "openai" }],
+      metadataSnapshot: providerManifestSnapshot({
+        provider: "openai",
+        discovery: "runtime",
+        modelIds: ["gpt-5.6-sol", "gpt-5.6-terra", "gpt-5.6-luna", "gpt-5.4"],
+      }),
+      readOnly: false,
+    });
+
+    expect(snapshot.entries.map((entry) => entry.id)).toEqual(["gpt-5.6-sol", "gpt-5.4"]);
+  });
+
   it("preserves explicitly configured runtime-provider models", async () => {
     mocks.augmentModelCatalogWithProviderPlugins.mockResolvedValueOnce([
       {
@@ -276,8 +353,8 @@ describe("prepared model catalog builder", () => {
     });
 
     expect(snapshot.entries.map((entry) => `${entry.provider}/${entry.id}`)).toEqual([
-      "openai/gpt-5.4",
       "openai/gpt-5.5",
+      "openai/gpt-5.4",
     ]);
     expect(snapshot.routeVariants).toEqual(
       expect.arrayContaining([
diff --git a/src/agents/model-catalog.ts b/src/agents/model-catalog.ts
index 1f0cafdcdf85..9d140d97cfc9 100644
--- a/src/agents/model-catalog.ts
+++ b/src/agents/model-catalog.ts
@@ -471,6 +471,11 @@ export async function buildPreparedModelCatalogSnapshot(
     const { buildShouldSuppressBuiltInModel } = await loadModelSuppression();
     logStage("catalog-deps-ready");
     const entries = params.modelRegistry.getAll() as DiscoveredModel[];
+    const declaredManifestModels = loadManifestModelCatalog({
+      config: cfg,
+      env,
+      metadataSnapshot: manifestMetadataSnapshot,
+    });
     logStage("registry-read", `entries=${entries.length}`);
 
     const shouldSuppressBuiltInModel = buildShouldSuppressBuiltInModel({ config: cfg });
@@ -525,8 +530,15 @@ export async function buildPreparedModelCatalogSnapshot(
         compat,
       } satisfies ModelCatalogEntry;
       models.push(model);
-      mergeCatalogRouteVariants(routeVariants, [model]);
     }
+    // Gateway startup may publish registry rows without runtime augmentation.
+    // Rank them here so both static startup and later live enrichment preserve
+    // provider-owned order instead of falling back to model-id sorting.
+    const orderedRegistryModels = assignProviderModelOrder(models, declaredManifestModels, {
+      appendUnknown: false,
+    });
+    models.splice(0, models.length, ...orderedRegistryModels);
+    mergeCatalogRouteVariants(routeVariants, orderedRegistryModels);
     const supplementalManifestPlan = planEffectiveModelCatalogRows({
       registry: {
         plugins: resolveEligibleManifestCatalogPlugins(manifestMetadataSnapshot, cfg),
@@ -544,11 +556,6 @@ export async function buildPreparedModelCatalogSnapshot(
     );
     // Runtime declarations describe possible models, not account entitlement.
     // Only live registry or refreshed rows may publish those provider models.
-    const declaredManifestModels = loadManifestModelCatalog({
-      config: cfg,
-      env,
-      metadataSnapshot: manifestMetadataSnapshot,
-    });
     const manifestModels = declaredManifestModels.filter((entry) =>
       supplementalManifestKeys.has(catalogEntryDedupeKey(entry.provider, entry.id)),
     );
@@ -636,10 +643,10 @@ export async function buildPreparedModelCatalogSnapshot(
         }
         // Manifest ranks are provider-owned policy. Live discovery enriches
         // those rows and appends unknown models without replacing the ranking.
-        const orderedSupplemental = assignProviderModelOrder(
-          normalizedSupplemental,
-          declaredManifestModels,
-        );
+        const orderedSupplemental = assignProviderModelOrder(normalizedSupplemental, [
+          ...declaredManifestModels,
+          ...models,
+        ]);
         mergeCatalogRouteVariants(routeVariants, orderedSupplemental);
         mergeCatalogEntries(models, orderedSupplemental);
       }