diff --git a/.github/pr-assets/issue-1118/index.html b/.github/pr-assets/issue-1118/index.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..eb4c4875
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/pr-assets/issue-1118/index.html
@@ -0,0 +1,191 @@
+<!doctype html>
+<html lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta charset="utf-8" />
+    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
+    <title>Issue 1118 Evidence - AI Providers model rules</title>
+    <style>
+      :root {
+        color-scheme: light;
+        --bg: #f8fafc;
+        --panel: #ffffff;
+        --ink: #0f172a;
+        --muted: #475569;
+        --line: #cbd5e1;
+        --bad: #b91c1c;
+        --good: #047857;
+        --code: #111827;
+      }
+
+      * {
+        box-sizing: border-box;
+      }
+
+      body {
+        margin: 0;
+        background: var(--bg);
+        color: var(--ink);
+        font:
+          15px/1.55 Inter,
+          ui-sans-serif,
+          system-ui,
+          -apple-system,
+          BlinkMacSystemFont,
+          "Segoe UI",
+          sans-serif;
+      }
+
+      main {
+        width: min(1040px, calc(100vw - 48px));
+        margin: 0 auto;
+        padding: 48px 0;
+      }
+
+      header {
+        margin-bottom: 24px;
+      }
+
+      h1,
+      h2 {
+        margin: 0;
+        letter-spacing: 0;
+      }
+
+      h1 {
+        font-size: 30px;
+        line-height: 1.15;
+      }
+
+      h2 {
+        font-size: 18px;
+      }
+
+      p {
+        margin: 8px 0 0;
+        color: var(--muted);
+      }
+
+      .grid {
+        display: grid;
+        grid-template-columns: repeat(2, minmax(0, 1fr));
+        gap: 16px;
+        margin-top: 24px;
+      }
+
+      .panel {
+        border: 1px solid var(--line);
+        border-radius: 8px;
+        background: var(--panel);
+        padding: 20px;
+      }
+
+      .status {
+        display: inline-flex;
+        align-items: center;
+        gap: 8px;
+        margin-top: 14px;
+        border-radius: 999px;
+        padding: 4px 10px;
+        font-size: 13px;
+        font-weight: 700;
+      }
+
+      .status.bad {
+        background: #fee2e2;
+        color: var(--bad);
+      }
+
+      .status.good {
+        background: #dcfce7;
+        color: var(--good);
+      }
+
+      pre {
+        overflow-x: auto;
+        margin: 16px 0 0;
+        border-radius: 8px;
+        background: var(--code);
+        color: #f8fafc;
+        padding: 16px;
+        font-size: 13px;
+        line-height: 1.45;
+      }
+
+      ul {
+        margin: 12px 0 0;
+        padding-left: 20px;
+        color: var(--muted);
+      }
+
+      li + li {
+        margin-top: 6px;
+      }
+
+      @media (max-width: 760px) {
+        main {
+          width: min(100vw - 32px, 1040px);
+          padding: 32px 0;
+        }
+
+        .grid {
+          grid-template-columns: 1fr;
+        }
+      }
+    </style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+    <main>
+      <header>
+        <h1>Issue 1118 Evidence</h1>
+        <p>
+          AI Providers route should tolerate plain OpenAI-compatible model rules
+          where an alias is omitted.
+        </p>
+      </header>
+
+      <section class="grid" aria-label="before and after evidence">
+        <article class="panel">
+          <h2>Before: installed dev build</h2>
+          <p>
+            The current installed CLI dashboard API crashes while reading the
+            local AI provider config.
+          </p>
+          <div class="status bad">HTTP 500</div>
+          <pre><code>before: HTTP 500
+{
+  "error": "Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'trim')"
+}</code></pre>
+        </article>
+
+        <article class="panel">
+          <h2>After: patched worktree build</h2>
+          <p>
+            The same local config now loads, and omitted aliases normalize to an
+            empty string.
+          </p>
+          <div class="status good">HTTP 200</div>
+          <pre><code>after: HTTP 200
+{
+  "familyCount": 5,
+  "openaiCompatibilityEntryCount": 1,
+  "normalizedModelAliases": [
+    {
+      "hasName": true,
+      "alias": ""
+    }
+  ]
+}</code></pre>
+        </article>
+      </section>
+
+      <section class="panel" style="margin-top: 16px">
+        <h2>Validation</h2>
+        <ul>
+          <li>Regression covers model entries with missing aliases.</li>
+          <li>Malformed model entries are ignored instead of crashing the API.</li>
+          <li>The AI Providers dashboard route loads against the patched server.</li>
+        </ul>
+      </section>
+    </main>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/src/cliproxy/ai-providers/service.ts b/src/cliproxy/ai-providers/service.ts
index 12a5e496..d35982f4 100644
--- a/src/cliproxy/ai-providers/service.ts
+++ b/src/cliproxy/ai-providers/service.ts
@@ -36,11 +36,20 @@ function toHeaderPairs(
   return Object.entries(headers || {}).map(([key, value]) => ({ key, value }));
 }
 
-function normalizeModelAliases(models: AiProviderModelAlias[] | undefined): AiProviderModelAlias[] {
-  return (models || [])
+function readModelRulePart(model: unknown, key: keyof AiProviderModelAlias) {
+  if (!model || typeof model !== 'object') {
+    return '';
+  }
+
+  const value = (model as Partial<Record<keyof AiProviderModelAlias, unknown>>)[key];
+  return typeof value === 'string' ? value.trim() : '';
+}
+
+function normalizeModelAliases(models: unknown): AiProviderModelAlias[] {
+  return (Array.isArray(models) ? models : [])
     .map((model) => ({
-      name: model.name.trim(),
-      alias: model.alias.trim(),
+      name: readModelRulePart(model, 'name'),
+      alias: readModelRulePart(model, 'alias'),
     }))
     .filter((model) => model.name.length > 0 || model.alias.length > 0);
 }
diff --git a/tests/unit/cliproxy/ai-provider-service-stable-id.test.ts b/tests/unit/cliproxy/ai-provider-service-stable-id.test.ts
index a4de2cf6..f317a8e1 100644
--- a/tests/unit/cliproxy/ai-provider-service-stable-id.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/cliproxy/ai-provider-service-stable-id.test.ts
@@ -144,4 +144,24 @@ describe('ai-provider service stable ids', () => {
       'sk-openrouter'
     );
   });
+
+  it('normalizes plain openai-compatible model rules without aliases', async () => {
+    const { listAiProviders } = await loadAiProviderService();
+
+    writeCliproxyConfig(tempHome, {
+      'openai-compatibility': [
+        {
+          name: 'openrouter',
+          'base-url': 'https://openrouter.ai/api/v1',
+          'api-key-entries': [{ 'api-key': 'sk-openrouter' }],
+          models: [{ name: 'gpt-4o-mini' }, null, { name: 42 }],
+        },
+      ],
+    });
+
+    const listed = await listAiProviders();
+    const family = listed.families.find((entry) => entry.id === 'openai-compatibility');
+
+    expect(family?.entries[0]?.models).toEqual([{ name: 'gpt-4o-mini', alias: '' }]);
+  });
 });
