diff --git a/hermes_cli/auth.py b/hermes_cli/auth.py
index ad2c48037db1..13f7cf362f6b 100644
--- a/hermes_cli/auth.py
+++ b/hermes_cli/auth.py
@@ -1605,6 +1605,12 @@ def is_provider_explicitly_configured(provider_id: str) -> bool:
     # not by the user explicitly configuring anthropic in Hermes.
     _IMPLICIT_ENV_VARS = {"CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN"}
     pconfig = PROVIDER_REGISTRY.get(normalized)
+    # Fallback to ProviderDef from models.dev catalog when the provider
+    # isn't in the manually-maintained PROVIDER_REGISTRY (e.g. openrouter).
+    # Both expose .auth_type and .api_key_env_vars with the same shape.
+    if pconfig is None:
+        from hermes_cli.providers import get_provider
+        pconfig = get_provider(normalized)
     if pconfig and pconfig.auth_type == "api_key":
         for env_var in pconfig.api_key_env_vars:
             if env_var in _IMPLICIT_ENV_VARS:
diff --git a/scripts/release.py b/scripts/release.py
index fef6b716fd3a..d6ffb4d26026 100755
--- a/scripts/release.py
+++ b/scripts/release.py
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ ACP_REGISTRY_MANIFEST = REPO_ROOT / "acp_registry" / "agent.json"
 
 # Auto-extracted from noreply emails + manual overrides
 AUTHOR_MAP = {
+    "zzpigpinggai@users.noreply.github.com": "zzpigpinggai",  # PR #66017 salvage of #63617 (OpenRouter explicit-provider picker visibility)
     "sam7894604@gmail.com": "sam7894604",  # PR #55803 salvage (discord: /reasoning slash choices)
     "bryan@users.noreply.github.com": "hydraxman",  # PR #62028 salvage (copilot xhigh) — regression-test commit authored under a bare-noreply local git identity; PR author is @hydraxman
     "antydizajn@gmail.com": "antydizajn",  # PR #36043 salvage (auxiliary: route custom:<name> through named-provider arm + Palantir Bearer auth)
diff --git a/tests/hermes_cli/test_auth_provider_gate.py b/tests/hermes_cli/test_auth_provider_gate.py
index d379bdd262d4..ecb602f588b1 100644
--- a/tests/hermes_cli/test_auth_provider_gate.py
+++ b/tests/hermes_cli/test_auth_provider_gate.py
@@ -171,3 +171,22 @@ def test_env_pool_entry_counts_when_var_still_resolves(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
 
     from hermes_cli.auth import is_provider_explicitly_configured
     assert is_provider_explicitly_configured("deepseek") is True
+
+
+def test_provider_not_in_registry_but_in_models_dev(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    """Providers absent from PROVIDER_REGISTRY but present in the models.dev
+    catalog (e.g. openrouter) must still be detected via their env vars.
+
+    Regression: is_provider_explicitly_configured() only checked
+    PROVIDER_REGISTRY for env-var names, so providers that exist solely in
+    the models.dev catalog were never recognised as explicitly configured -
+    hiding them from the desktop model picker even when their API key was
+    set in .env.
+    """
+    monkeypatch.setenv("HERMES_HOME", str(tmp_path / "hermes"))
+    monkeypatch.setenv("OPENROUTER_API_KEY", "sk-or-test-key-12345678")
+    monkeypatch.delenv("CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN", raising=False)
+    (tmp_path / "hermes").mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+
+    from hermes_cli.auth import is_provider_explicitly_configured
+    assert is_provider_explicitly_configured("openrouter") is True