diff --git a/src/modules/llms/server/listModels.dispatch.ts b/src/modules/llms/server/listModels.dispatch.ts
index 8ea56ba51..ea710b5df 100644
--- a/src/modules/llms/server/listModels.dispatch.ts
+++ b/src/modules/llms/server/listModels.dispatch.ts
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ import { openPipeModelDescriptions, openPipeModelSort, openPipeModelToModelDescr
 import { openRouterInjectVariants, openRouterModelFamilySortFn, openRouterModelToModelDescription } from './openai/models/openrouter.models';
 import { openAIInjectVariants, openAIModelFilter, openAIModelToModelDescription, openAISortModels, openaiValidateModelDefs_DEV } from './openai/models/openai.models';
 import { perplexityHardcodedModelDescriptions, perplexityInjectVariants } from './openai/models/perplexity.models';
+import { tlusApiHeuristic, tlusApiTryParse } from './openai/models/tlusapi.models';
 import { togetherAIModelsToModelDescriptions } from './openai/models/together.models';
 import { xaiFetchModelDescriptions, xaiModelSort } from './openai/models/xai.models';
 
@@ -314,6 +315,13 @@ function _listModelsCreateDispatch(access: AixAPI_Access, signal?: AbortSignal):
           if (dialect === 'togetherai')
             return togetherAIModelsToModelDescriptions(openAIWireModelsResponse);
 
+          // [TLUS-style API] detect by structure: { data: [{ id, tier, capabilities, ... }] }
+          if (tlusApiHeuristic(openAIWireModelsResponse)) {
+            const tlusModels = tlusApiTryParse(openAIWireModelsResponse);
+            if (tlusModels) return tlusModels;
+            // fall through if failed
+          }
+
           // NOTE: we don't zod here as it would strip unknown properties needed for some dialects - so we proceed optimistically
           // let maybeModels = OpenAIWire_API_Models_List.Response_schema.parse(openAIWireModelsResponse).data || [];
           let maybeModels = openAIWireModelsResponse?.data || [];
diff --git a/src/modules/llms/server/openai/models/tlusapi.models.ts b/src/modules/llms/server/openai/models/tlusapi.models.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b9e91e226
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/modules/llms/server/openai/models/tlusapi.models.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,145 @@
+import * as z from 'zod/v4';
+
+import { DModelInterfaceV1, LLM_IF_OAI_Chat, LLM_IF_OAI_Fn, LLM_IF_OAI_Json, LLM_IF_OAI_PromptCaching, LLM_IF_OAI_Reasoning, LLM_IF_OAI_Vision, LLM_IF_Outputs_Audio, LLM_IF_Outputs_Image, LLM_IF_Tools_WebSearch } from '~/common/stores/llms/llms.types';
+
+import type { ModelDescriptionSchema } from '../../llm.server.types';
+
+
+// -- Wires --
+
+type TlusApiResponse = z.infer<typeof tlusApiResponseSchema>;
+type TlusApiModel = TlusApiResponse['data'][number];
+
+const tlusApiResponseSchema = z.object({
+  total_models: z.number().optional(),
+  free_models: z.number().optional(),
+  pro_models: z.number().optional(),
+  data: z.array(z.object({
+    id: z.string(),
+    tier: z.string().optional(),
+    description: z.string().optional(),
+    capabilities: z.array(z.enum([
+      // chat
+      'text', 'vision', 'audio', 'tool-calling', 'reasoning', 'agentic', 'websearch', 'roleplay', 'implicit-caching',
+      // media generation
+      'image-generation', 'image-edit', 'text-to-video', 'image-to-video', 'i2v-only',
+      // audio
+      'text-to-speech', 'audio-transcription', 'music-generation', 'lyrics',
+      // status
+      'status:online', 'status:offline',
+    ]).or(z.string())),
+    context_length: z.union([z.number(), z.literal('N/A')]),
+    supports_tools: z.boolean().optional(),
+  })),
+});
+
+
+/**
+ * Heuristic to detect TLUS-style API responses.
+ * Requires: summary counts (free_models, pro_models, total_models) + data array.
+ */
+export function tlusApiHeuristic(response: unknown): response is TlusApiResponse {
+  if (!response || typeof response !== 'object') return false;
+  const r = response as Record<string, unknown>;
+
+  // must have summary counts (very distinctive)
+  if (typeof r.total_models !== 'number' || typeof r.free_models !== 'number' || typeof r.pro_models !== 'number') return false;
+
+  // must have data array, with a 'tier' field inside
+  return Array.isArray(r.data) && r.data.length > 0
+    && typeof r.data[0] === 'object' && !!(r.data[0]) && 'tier' in r.data[0];
+}
+
+
+export function tlusApiTryParse(response: unknown): ModelDescriptionSchema[] | null {
+  const parsed = tlusApiResponseSchema.safeParse(response);
+  if (!parsed.success) return null;
+
+  // [DEV] collect unique capabilities and tiers
+  // _tlusApiCollectEnumValues_DEV(parsed.data.data);
+
+  return parsed.data.data
+    // .filter(_filterChatModels) // we hide them instead, for now
+    .map(_modelToDescription);
+  // .sort(_sortModels);
+}
+
+
+// function _tlusApiCollectEnumValues_DEV(models: TlusApiModel[]): void {
+//   const capabilities = new Set<string>();
+//
+//   for (const model of models)
+//     for (const cap of model.capabilities || [])
+//       capabilities.add(cap);
+//
+//   console.log('[DEV] TLUS API - unique capabilities:', [...capabilities].sort());
+// }
+
+
+function _filterChatModels(model: TlusApiModel): boolean {
+  const caps = model.capabilities || [];
+  if (caps.length === 0) return false;
+
+  // exclusion by caps
+  const exclusions: string[] = ['status:offline'];
+  if (caps.some(c => exclusions.includes(c))) return false;
+
+  // inclusion by caps
+  const inclusions = ['text'];
+  return caps.some(c => inclusions.includes(c));
+}
+
+
+function _modelToDescription(model: TlusApiModel): ModelDescriptionSchema {
+  const caps = model.capabilities || [];
+
+  // label from id
+  let label = model.id.endsWith('-Free')
+    ? model.id.slice(0, -5).replaceAll('-', ' ') + ' (Free)'
+    : model.id;
+  label = label.replaceAll('-', ' ');
+
+  // build interfaces from capabilities
+  const interfaces: DModelInterfaceV1[] = [LLM_IF_OAI_Chat];
+  // inputs
+  if (caps.includes('vision')) interfaces.push(LLM_IF_OAI_Vision);
+  // outputs
+  if (caps.includes('image-generation')) interfaces.push(LLM_IF_Outputs_Image);
+  if (caps.includes('audio') || caps.includes('text-to-speech')) interfaces.push(LLM_IF_Outputs_Audio);
+  if (caps.includes('tool-calling') || model.supports_tools) interfaces.push(LLM_IF_OAI_Fn, LLM_IF_OAI_Json);
+  if (caps.includes('websearch')) interfaces.push(LLM_IF_Tools_WebSearch);
+  // other
+  if (caps.includes('implicit-caching')) interfaces.push(LLM_IF_OAI_PromptCaching);
+  if (caps.includes('reasoning')) interfaces.push(LLM_IF_OAI_Reasoning);
+
+  // context window
+  const contextWindow = typeof model.context_length === 'number' ? model.context_length : null;
+
+  // tier - free models get zero pricing
+  const isFree = model.tier === 'free';
+
+  return {
+    id: model.id,
+    label,
+    // created: undefined,
+    // updated: undefined,
+    description: model.description || 'No description provided.',
+    contextWindow,
+    interfaces,
+    // parameterSpecs:
+    // maxCompletionTokens: contextWindow ? Math.round(contextWindow / 2) : undefined, // done downstream
+    // benchmark
+    ...(isFree && { chatPrice: { input: 'free', output: 'free' } }),
+    hidden: !_filterChatModels(model),
+    // initialTemperature
+  };
+}
+
+
+// function _sortModels(a: ModelDescriptionSchema, b: ModelDescriptionSchema): number {
+//   // free models first, then by id
+//   const aFree = a.chatPrice?.input === 'free' ? 0 : 1;
+//   const bFree = b.chatPrice?.input === 'free' ? 0 : 1;
+//   if (aFree !== bFree) return aFree - bFree;
+//   return a.id.localeCompare(b.id);
+// }