Description

Setting models.mode: "replace" with a restricted models.providers list does not filter the output of openclaw models list. Built-in provider catalogs (openai, groq, opencode-go, zai, cerebras, anthropic, etc.) continue to appear in the model list despite not being in the configured providers.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Set models.mode to "replace" in config:

{
  "models": {
    "mode": "replace",
    "providers": ["deepseek", "xai"]
  }
}

2. Set plugins.allow to only the desired providers:

{
  "plugins": {
    "allow": ["deepseek", "xai", "infra"]
  }
}

3. Set agents.defaults.models as an explicit allowlist:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "models": {
        "deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro": true,
        "deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash": true,
        "xai/grok-4.3": true
      }
    }
  }
}

4. Remove API keys from .env and gateway.systemd.env for unwanted providers
5. Full gateway restart (systemctl stop + start)
6. Run openclaw models list

Expected Behavior

openclaw models list should only show models from configured providers (deepseek + xai). The replace mode documentation suggests it replaces the built-in catalog with only the configured providers.

Actual Behavior

openclaw models list still shows 40+ models from 6 providers including openai, groq, opencode-go, zai (plus deepseek and xai).

$ openclaw models list | awk -F/ 'NR>1{print $1}' | sort -u
deepseek
groq
manifest
openai
opencode-go
xai
zai

Workaround / Observations

• The agents.defaults.models allowlist does work at runtime — trying to switch to a non-allowlisted model correctly returns "Model is not allowed"
• The issue is cosmetic but confusing — openclaw models list output doesn't reflect what the agent can actually use

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.6.8 (844f405)
• OS: Linux (WSL2)
• Node: v24.16.0
• Config: standard openclaw.json