Bundled agents ignore the configured default LLM

[andrewgbell]

Describe the bug

On a clean install, I can choose Codex as the default model and complete setup without configuring Claude or DeepSeek. The main Condor chat then works as expected, but the bundled specialist agents do not inherit that choice.

For example:

• Adaptive Grid Trader is pinned to claude-acp:opus.
• Several other bundled agents are pinned to claude-acp:sonnet.
• Smart-Money Flow is pinned to custom@opencode:deepseek-v4-flash.

Starting one of these agents tries to use its pinned provider even when that provider was never installed or configured during setup. There is no fallback to CONDOR_DEFAULT_AGENT.

This is also difficult to fix locally without affecting updates because the model is stored in the tracked AGENT.md file. Changing the bundled agents to use the provider selected during setup makes the checkout dirty, and /update expects a clean checkout.

PR #175 already notes that the shipped agents hardcode Claude models and suggests resolution-time inheritance such as agent_key: auto, but I could not find a separate issue tracking it.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install Condor using the standard setup.
2. Select Codex as the default model.
3. Do not install or authenticate Claude, and do not configure an OpenCode/DeepSeek endpoint.
4. Confirm that the main Condor chat works with Codex.
5. Start Adaptive Grid Trader or Smart-Money Flow.
6. The specialist tries to use its pinned Claude or DeepSeek provider instead of Codex.

Expected behaviour

Bundled agents should inherit the configured default model unless the user explicitly pins a different model.

A clean way to support this could be an agent_key: auto/inherit option, or an ignored deployment-level override. If a bundled agent must use a specific provider, setup should check and configure that provider before presenting the agent as ready to use.

[andrewgbell]

I had a closer look through the current model resolution paths. This appears to be an incomplete inheritance path rather than just an unfortunate set of bundled defaults.

The API description for clearing a specialist's agent_key says it falls back to the chat default, and the existing tests describe agent_key == "" as “inherit”. In practice, binding only resolves the session override and the value in AGENT.md. If both are empty, the empty value eventually reaches resolve_acp(""), which falls through to the Claude ACP bridge. So even clearing a specialist's model can still start Claude instead of the configured default.

The same gap exists in consult/delegate and autonomous strategy resolution. Smart Money Flow also has a separate model pin in its strategy.md, so removing only the Agent-level pin would not fix that path.

A narrow fix looks manageable:

• resolve in this order: run/session override → strategy pin → Agent pin → user's active model → deployment default;
• treat an empty model as inheritance and never pass it to the backend resolver;
• remove mandatory model pins from the bundled agents, including the Smart Money Flow strategy pin;
• resolve and hold the model when an autonomous run starts, so changing a preference cannot switch a live trading loop;
• keep explicit Agent and strategy pins working as they do now.

I searched the open and closed PRs and couldn't find one already implementing this.

Would this approach be welcome? Also, would you prefer to keep the existing empty-value meaning for inheritance, or introduce an explicit value such as agent_key: auto? If the direction makes sense, I'm happy to take a look at putting together a PR.