diff --git a/pkg/agent/loop.go b/pkg/agent/loop.go
index db476c212..74336e37f 100644
--- a/pkg/agent/loop.go
+++ b/pkg/agent/loop.go
@@ -1941,23 +1941,41 @@ turnLoop:
 				return al.abortTurn(ts)
 			}
 
-			errMsg := strings.ToLower(err.Error())
-			isTimeoutError := errors.Is(err, context.DeadlineExceeded) ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "deadline exceeded") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "client.timeout") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "timed out") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "timeout exceeded")
+			// Extract typed FailoverReason from the error chain.
+			// FallbackChain already classifies errors; the outer retry loop
+			// only handles specific recoverable scenarios.
+			var failErr *providers.FailoverError
+			failReason := providers.FailoverUnknown
+			if errors.As(err, &failErr) {
+				failReason = failErr.Reason
+			} else if errors.Is(err, context.DeadlineExceeded) {
+				failReason = providers.FailoverTimeout
+			} else {
+				// Single-candidate path: classify raw error via ClassifyError
+				// to maintain backward compatibility with provider error messages.
+				errMsg := strings.ToLower(err.Error())
+				if strings.Contains(errMsg, "deadline exceeded") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "client.timeout") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "timed out") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "timeout exceeded") {
+					failReason = providers.FailoverTimeout
+				} else if strings.Contains(errMsg, "context_length_exceeded") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "context window") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "context_window") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "maximum context length") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "token limit") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "too many tokens") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "max_tokens") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "invalidparameter") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "prompt is too long") ||
+					strings.Contains(errMsg, "request too large") {
+					failReason = providers.FailoverContextOverflow
+				}
+			}
 
-			isContextError := !isTimeoutError && (strings.Contains(errMsg, "context_length_exceeded") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "context window") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "context_window") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "maximum context length") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "token limit") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "too many tokens") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "max_tokens") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "invalidparameter") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "prompt is too long") ||
-				strings.Contains(errMsg, "request too large"))
+			isTimeoutError := failReason == providers.FailoverTimeout
+
+			isContextError := failReason == providers.FailoverContextOverflow
 
 			if isTimeoutError && retry < maxRetries {
 				backoff := time.Duration(retry+1) * 5 * time.Second
diff --git a/pkg/providers/error_classifier.go b/pkg/providers/error_classifier.go
index e7691aa93..4a14b268c 100644
--- a/pkg/providers/error_classifier.go
+++ b/pkg/providers/error_classifier.go
@@ -102,6 +102,16 @@ var (
 		rxp(`image exceeds.*mb`),
 	}
 
+	modelNotFoundPatterns = []errorPattern{
+		rxp(`model[_ ]?not[_ ]?found`),
+		rxp(`does not exist.*model`),
+		rxp(`model.*does not exist`),
+		rxp(`invalid model`),
+		rxp(`model.*not available`),
+		rxp(`model.*not supported`),
+		rxp(`unknown model`),
+	}
+
 	// Transient HTTP status codes that map to timeout (server-side failures).
 	transientStatusCodes = map[int]bool{
 		500: true, 502: true, 503: true,
@@ -147,6 +157,21 @@ func ClassifyError(err error, provider, model string) *FailoverError {
 	// Try HTTP status code extraction first.
 	if status := extractHTTPStatus(msg); status > 0 {
 		if reason := classifyByStatus(status); reason != "" {
+			// For transient status codes (5xx), the message body may contain a
+			// more specific, non-transient error (e.g. zhipu returns 503 with
+			// "model_not_found"). Check message patterns and prefer them when
+			// they indicate a concrete, non-transient failure.
+			if isTransientStatus(status) {
+				if msgReason := classifyByMessage(msg); msgReason != "" && msgReason != FailoverTimeout {
+					return &FailoverError{
+						Reason:  msgReason,
+						Provider: provider,
+						Model:    model,
+						Status:   status,
+						Wrapped:  err,
+					}
+				}
+			}
 			return &FailoverError{
 				Reason:   reason,
 				Provider: provider,
@@ -192,6 +217,9 @@ func classifyByStatus(status int) FailoverReason {
 // classifyByMessage matches error messages against patterns.
 // Priority order matters (from OpenClaw classifyFailoverReason).
 func classifyByMessage(msg string) FailoverReason {
+	if matchesAny(msg, modelNotFoundPatterns) {
+		return FailoverFormat // model_not_found is a configuration error, not retriable
+	}
 	if matchesAny(msg, rateLimitPatterns) {
 		return FailoverRateLimit
 	}
@@ -263,3 +291,9 @@ func parseDigits(s string) int {
 	}
 	return n
 }
+
+// isTransientStatus returns true for 5xx status codes that represent
+// server-side transient failures (should be retried via fallback).
+func isTransientStatus(status int) bool {
+	return transientStatusCodes[status]
+}
diff --git a/pkg/providers/fallback.go b/pkg/providers/fallback.go
index 549ec7837..94922f17b 100644
--- a/pkg/providers/fallback.go
+++ b/pkg/providers/fallback.go
@@ -302,3 +302,14 @@ func (e *FallbackExhaustedError) Error() string {
 	}
 	return sb.String()
 }
+
+// Unwrap returns the last non-skipped attempt's error for errors.Is/As traversal.
+// This allows errors.As(err, &FailoverError{}) to work through FallbackExhaustedError.
+func (e *FallbackExhaustedError) Unwrap() error {
+	for i := len(e.Attempts) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {
+		if !e.Attempts[i].Skipped && e.Attempts[i].Error != nil {
+			return e.Attempts[i].Error
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}