ADR 0192: Alias a configured model and make model ids copyable

• Status: Accepted
• Date: 2026-09-08
• Deciders: PI-Desktop renderer and UX maintainers
• Amends: D266
• Related: E2E-201

Context

Settings → Model configuration lists models by their wire id, while the composer shows the catalog's published displayName. Two gaps surfaced in daily use:

1. One provider row can carry several models with near-identical published names, and a user cannot attach a short personal label ("fast", "pro") to one of them. The published display name is catalog-owned and read-only.
2. Model ids in the configuration page could not be copied. The shell disables text selection globally, and the id sits inside the row's <label>, so a drag-select toggled the model checkbox instead of selecting text.

Decision

1. ModelBinding gains an optional alias?: string, persisted with the provider's models array. It is a display label only: id remains the wire identity sent to the provider.
2. The alias is edited in the selected model's Advanced body and shown as a chip beside the id in the selected-model row.
3. Where the composer names a model, a non-empty trimmed alias replaces the published display name. An absent or blank alias leaves the published name unchanged, so clearing the field restores catalog naming.
4. Model ids and names in the configuration page opt back into text selection (.selectable). A click that carries a selection no longer toggles the model checkbox, so drag-to-copy and click-to-toggle coexist.
5. Host-core persists and normalizes the alias inside the existing provider config_json models array: a blank or absent alias is dropped, and an alias longer than 60 characters is rejected with MODEL_ALIAS_TOO_LONG. No protocol, host RPC, or SQLite schema change; the storage schema stays v13.

Consequences

• One provider can host several models under short personal labels without renaming anything the catalog owns.
• The composer, its search, and the model picker show the alias, while the configuration page and the transcript badge keep the real id, so a mistyped alias cannot hide which model will be called.
• Copying a model id no longer requires retyping it by hand.

Rejected alternatives

• Rename displayName on the binding: duplicates catalog data and loses the published name once the alias is cleared.
• A separate alias registry keyed by model id: an alias belongs to one provider row's configuration; a global map would collide across providers that serve the same id.
• Make the whole row selectable and drop click-to-toggle: removes the fast multi-select gesture the page is built around.