@@ -235,6 +235,21 @@ function makeClaudeTestTurnInput(input: {
 }
 
 describe("ClaudeAdapterV2 runtime query policy", () => {
+  it.each([
+    "-- --thinking-display omitted",
+    "--thinking-display summarized -- --thinking-display omitted",
+  ])("does not treat operands after -- as SDK flags: %s", (launchArgs) => {
+    const options = ClaudeAdapterV2.makeClaudeQueryOptions({
+      modelSelection: CLAUDE_TEST_MODEL_SELECTION,
+      nativeThreadId: "thinking-thread",
+      resume: false,
+      cwd: "/workspace",
+      settings: { ...DEFAULT_CLAUDE_SETTINGS, launchArgs },
+    });
+    assert.deepEqual(options.thinking, { type: "adaptive", display: "summarized" });
+    assert.equal(options.extraArgs?.["thinking-display"], "summarized");
+  });
+
   it.each([
     ["--permission-mode acceptEdits", "acceptEdits"],
     ["--dangerously-skip-permissions", "bypassPermissions"],
 
@@ -54,10 +54,41 @@ describe("parseCliArgs", () => {
     });
   });
 
-  it("ignores bare -- with no flag name", () => {
+  it("accepts a trailing -- without operands", () => {
     expect(parseCliArgs("--")).toEqual({ flags: {}, positionals: [] });
   });
 
+  it.each([
+    { args: "--effort low -- --effort high --chrome" },
+    { args: ["--effort", "low", "--", "--effort", "high", "--chrome"] },
+  ])("ends option parsing at -- for $args", ({ args }) => {
+    expect(parseCliArgs(args)).toEqual({
+      flags: { effort: "low" },
+      positionals: ["--effort", "high", "--chrome"],
+    });
+  });
+
+  it("preserves all operands after --, including empty strings and another --", () => {
+    expect(parseCliArgs(["--", "", "--", "--model=example", "-x"])).toEqual({
+      flags: {},
+      positionals: ["", "--", "--model=example", "-x"],
+    });
+  });
+
+  it("ends option parsing with explicit boolean flags too", () => {
+    expect(parseCliArgs(["--chrome", "--", "--verbose"], { booleanFlags: ["chrome"] })).toEqual({
+      flags: { chrome: null },
+      positionals: ["--verbose"],
+    });
+  });
+
+  it("keeps -- inside an equals-form option value", () => {
+    expect(parseCliArgs("--append-system-prompt=-- --chrome")).toEqual({
+      flags: { "append-system-prompt": "--", chrome: null },
+      positionals: [],
+    });
+  });
+
   it("boolean flag does not consume next token as value", () => {
     expect(parseCliArgs(["--github-output", "1.2.3"], { booleanFlags: ["github-output"] })).toEqual(
       {
 
@@ -77,9 +77,13 @@ export function parseCliArgs(
   for (let i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++) {
     const token = tokens[i]!;
 
+    if (token === "--") {
+      positionals.push(...tokens.slice(i + 1));
+      break;
+    }
+
     if (token.startsWith("--")) {
       const rest = token.slice(2);
-      if (!rest) continue;
 
       const eqIndex = rest.indexOf("=");
       if (eqIndex !== -1) {