diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/app/settings/fallback-models-field.test.tsx b/apps/desktop/src/app/settings/fallback-models-field.test.tsx
index a514396b17..f30869ab75 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/app/settings/fallback-models-field.test.tsx
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/app/settings/fallback-models-field.test.tsx
@@ -78,12 +78,15 @@ describe('FallbackModelsField', () => {
     await waitFor(() => expect(getGlobalModelOptions).toHaveBeenCalled())
   })
 
-  it('removing a row emits the remaining entries', async () => {
-    const onChange = await renderField(CHAIN)
+  it('removing a row emits the remaining entries with their routing keys intact', async () => {
+    // #89184: a hand-written local-gateway chain carries base_url/api_key per
+    // entry; the editor only owns provider/model and must not strip the rest.
+    const routed = { provider: 'custom', model: 'glm-5.08', base_url: 'http://gw:8080/v1', api_key: '${GW_KEY}' }
+    const onChange = await renderField([...CHAIN, routed])
 
     fireEvent.click(screen.getAllByLabelText('Remove')[0])
 
-    expect(onChange.mock.calls.at(-1)?.[0]).toEqual([{ provider: 'openai-codex', model: 'gpt-5.4-mini' }])
+    expect(onChange.mock.calls.at(-1)?.[0]).toEqual([{ provider: 'openai-codex', model: 'gpt-5.4-mini' }, routed])
   })
 
   it('adding a blank row does not persist a partial entry', async () => {
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/app/settings/fallback-models-field.tsx b/apps/desktop/src/app/settings/fallback-models-field.tsx
index d7aa7839df..f9185d95a8 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/app/settings/fallback-models-field.tsx
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/app/settings/fallback-models-field.tsx
@@ -10,14 +10,19 @@ import { cn } from '@/lib/utils'
 
 import { CONTROL_TEXT } from './constants'
 
-interface FallbackEntry {
+// An entry is `{provider, model}` plus whatever routing the user hand-wrote
+// (`base_url`, `api_key`, `key_env`, `api_mode`, ...). The editor only edits
+// the two selects; every other key rides along untouched, or an autosave
+// would rewrite a local-gateway chain as bare provider/model pairs and route
+// fallbacks to the public provider (#89184).
+interface FallbackEntry extends Record<string, unknown> {
   provider: string
   model: string
 }
 
 // Normalize the raw config value (`fallback_providers`: a list of
-// `{provider, model}` dicts) into editor rows. Defensive against legacy string
-// entries ("provider/model") so the editor never crashes on odd data.
+// `{provider, model, ...}` dicts) into editor rows. Defensive against legacy
+// string entries ("provider/model") so the editor never crashes on odd data.
 function normalizeEntries(value: unknown): FallbackEntry[] {
   if (!Array.isArray(value)) {
     return []
@@ -27,7 +32,7 @@ function normalizeEntries(value: unknown): FallbackEntry[] {
     if (item && typeof item === 'object') {
       const record = item as Record<string, unknown>
 
-      return { provider: String(record.provider ?? ''), model: String(record.model ?? '') }
+      return { ...record, provider: String(record.provider ?? ''), model: String(record.model ?? '') }
     }
 
     if (typeof item === 'string') {
@@ -47,10 +52,7 @@ function completeEntries(rows: FallbackEntry[]): FallbackEntry[] {
 }
 
 function entriesEqual(a: FallbackEntry[], b: FallbackEntry[]): boolean {
-  return (
-    a.length === b.length &&
-    a.every((entry, index) => entry.provider === b[index]?.provider && entry.model === b[index]?.model)
-  )
+  return a.length === b.length && a.every((entry, index) => JSON.stringify(entry) === JSON.stringify(b[index]))
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/hermes_cli/web_routers/models.py b/hermes_cli/web_routers/models.py
index 262340bbc0..e35f528b37 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/web_routers/models.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/web_routers/models.py
@@ -255,9 +255,13 @@ def set_moa_models(body: MoaConfigPayload, profile: Optional[str] = None):
                 raise HTTPException(status_code=422, detail="Invalid MoA config: " + "; ".join(problems))
             normalized = normalize_moa_config(raw)
             # Merge, don't overwrite: hand-edited keys not in MoaConfigPayload (save_traces, trace_dir) survive.
-            # See issue #58819.
-            cfg.setdefault("moa", {}).update(normalized)
-            save_config(cfg)
+            # See issue #58819. Write ONLY the moa section (merge_existing deep-merges it over the
+            # on-disk raw file): saving the whole default-expanded ``cfg`` snapshot re-persisted
+            # every other section too, so a Desktop MoA autosave could wipe a chain another
+            # surface wrote meanwhile (#89184, ``fallback_providers: []``).
+            moa_section = dict(cfg.get("moa") or {})
+            moa_section.update(normalized)
+            save_config({"moa": moa_section}, merge_existing=True)
             return {"ok": True, **normalized}
 
 
diff --git a/tests/hermes_cli/test_moa_set_models_preserves_extra_keys.py b/tests/hermes_cli/test_moa_set_models_preserves_extra_keys.py
index f5b719d0ba..4c7aa6dd44 100644
--- a/tests/hermes_cli/test_moa_set_models_preserves_extra_keys.py
+++ b/tests/hermes_cli/test_moa_set_models_preserves_extra_keys.py
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ class TestSetMoaModelsPreservesUndeclaredKeys:
         def fake_load_config():
             return dict(existing_cfg)  # shallow copy
 
-        def fake_save_config(cfg):
+        def fake_save_config(cfg, **_kwargs):
             saved_cfg.update(cfg)
 
         payload = _base_payload()
@@ -82,3 +82,36 @@ class TestSetMoaModelsPreservesUndeclaredKeys:
         )
 
 
+
+
+def test_moa_save_writes_only_the_moa_section(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    """#89184: a MoA autosave must not re-persist the rest of the effective-config snapshot.
+
+    ``load_config()`` is a default-expanded snapshot; saving it whole after a chain was written
+    out-of-band (or was simply stale) rewrote ``fallback_providers`` too. Real config pipeline,
+    temp HERMES_HOME.
+    """
+    import yaml
+    from hermes_cli.config import get_config_path, load_config, read_raw_config
+
+    home = tmp_path / ".hermes"
+    home.mkdir()
+    monkeypatch.setenv("HERMES_HOME", str(home))
+    get_config_path().write_text(yaml.safe_dump({"model": {"default": "m1", "provider": "custom"}}), encoding="utf-8")
+    stale = load_config()                       # snapshot BEFORE the chain exists
+    stale["fallback_providers"] = []            # what the default-expanded snapshot carries
+    chain = [{"provider": "custom", "model": "glm-5.08", "base_url": "http://gw:8080/v1"}]
+    raw = read_raw_config()
+    raw["fallback_providers"] = chain
+    get_config_path().write_text(yaml.safe_dump(raw), encoding="utf-8")
+
+    with (
+        patch("hermes_cli.config.load_config", return_value=stale),
+        patch("hermes_cli.web_server_profiles._profile_scope"),
+    ):
+        set_moa_models(_base_payload())
+
+    on_disk = read_raw_config()
+    assert on_disk["fallback_providers"] == chain, "MoA save clobbered fallback_providers"
+    # The MoA edit itself landed (a non-default value, so default stripping leaves it on disk).
+    assert on_disk["moa"]["presets"]["default"]["reference_models"][0]["model"] == "gpt-5.5"