diff --git a/client/src/components/settings/LocalLlmLibraryView.test.jsx b/client/src/components/settings/LocalLlmLibraryView.test.jsx
index 5e965e193f..4d59f90a1c 100644
--- a/client/src/components/settings/LocalLlmLibraryView.test.jsx
+++ b/client/src/components/settings/LocalLlmLibraryView.test.jsx
@@ -154,6 +154,36 @@ describe('LocalLlmLibraryView information architecture', () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe('LocalLlmLibraryView model-list diagnostics', () => {
+  it('shows an Ollama list failure and clears it after a successful empty refresh', async () => {
+    const emptyOllama = {
+      installed: true,
+      available: true,
+      modelCount: 0,
+      models: [],
+    };
+    getLocalLlmStatus.mockResolvedValueOnce({
+      backend: 'ollama',
+      ollama: { ...emptyOllama, modelsError: 'Ollama model list returned no data' },
+      lmstudio: { installed: false, available: false, modelCount: 0, models: [] },
+    });
+
+    await renderLibrary();
+
+    expect(screen.getByText(/Couldn't list Ollama models/)).toHaveTextContent('Ollama model list returned no data');
+
+    getLocalLlmStatus.mockResolvedValueOnce({
+      backend: 'ollama',
+      ollama: { ...emptyOllama, modelsError: null },
+      lmstudio: { installed: false, available: false, modelCount: 0, models: [] },
+    });
+    const progressHandler = socket.on.mock.calls.find(([event]) => event === 'localLlm:progress')[1];
+    act(() => progressHandler({ event: 'complete' }));
+
+    await waitFor(() => expect(screen.queryByText(/Couldn't list Ollama models/)).toBeNull());
+  });
+});
+
 // The Ollama auto-upgrade banner lives beside the install that triggers it. Its
 // only entry point is a model install, which is a Model Library action — before
 // the view split the banner rendered inside the Runtimes panel, where the flow
diff --git a/server/services/localLlm.js b/server/services/localLlm.js
index 28095402e4..2a464f7e08 100644
--- a/server/services/localLlm.js
+++ b/server/services/localLlm.js
@@ -715,6 +715,8 @@ export async function getStatus() {
       baseUrl: ollamaStatus.baseUrl,
       modelCount: ollamaStatus.modelCount,
       models: ollamaModels,
+      contextLength: ollamaStatus.contextLength,
+      modelsError: ollamaManager.getLastInstalledModelsError(),
       // Best installed model for editorial review/editing, surfaced so the
       // manuscript editor can suggest it (and warn against the embedding model).
       recommendations: { editorial: recommendEditorialModel(ollamaModels, { measured: measuredOllama }) },
diff --git a/server/services/localLlm.test.js b/server/services/localLlm.test.js
index a327b8b64d..448c86865d 100644
--- a/server/services/localLlm.test.js
+++ b/server/services/localLlm.test.js
@@ -938,6 +938,46 @@ describe('localLlm', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  describe('getStatus Ollama diagnostics', () => {
+    it('preserves the manager context-window diagnostics', async () => {
+      const contextLength = { runtime: 32768, applied: 65536, agentMinimum: 65536 };
+      mocks.ollama.getStatus.mockResolvedValueOnce({
+        available: true,
+        baseUrl: 'x',
+        version: '0.5.7',
+        modelCount: 0,
+        models: [],
+        contextLength,
+      });
+
+      const status = await svc.getStatus();
+
+      expect(status.ollama.contextLength).toEqual(contextLength);
+    });
+
+    it('keeps a null runtime and separates a failed model read from an empty list', async () => {
+      mocks.ollama.getStatus.mockResolvedValueOnce({
+        available: true,
+        baseUrl: 'x',
+        version: '0.5.7',
+        modelCount: 0,
+        models: [],
+        contextLength: { runtime: null, applied: 65536, agentMinimum: 65536 },
+      });
+      mocks.ollama.getLastInstalledModelsError.mockReturnValueOnce('Ollama model list failed');
+
+      const failedStatus = await svc.getStatus();
+
+      expect(failedStatus.ollama.contextLength.runtime).toBeNull();
+      expect(failedStatus.ollama.models).toEqual([]);
+      expect(failedStatus.ollama.modelsError).toBe('Ollama model list failed');
+
+      const emptyStatus = await svc.getStatus();
+      expect(emptyStatus.ollama.models).toEqual([]);
+      expect(emptyStatus.ollama.modelsError).toBeNull();
+    });
+  });
+
   describe('getStatus editorial recommendation with measured evidence', () => {
     const installed = [
       { id: 'qwen3.6:35b', name: 'qwen3.6:35b', params: '35B' },