diff --git a/src/components/NewSession.tsx b/src/components/NewSession.tsx
index e23420c..799b06c 100644
--- a/src/components/NewSession.tsx
+++ b/src/components/NewSession.tsx
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
 import { useState, useEffect } from 'preact/hooks'
-import { getBackends, getAgents } from '../lib/api'
+import { getBackends, getAgents, fetchModels, loadModelsCache } from '../lib/api'
 
-interface CreateParams {
+export interface CreateParams {
+  name?: string
   cwd: string
   backend: string
   model: string
   agent: string
+  [key: string]: string | undefined
 }
 
 interface Props {
@@ -13,29 +15,33 @@ interface Props {
   onCreate: (p: CreateParams) => Promise<void>
 }
 
-const DEFAULT_MODELS: Record<string, string> = {
-  anthropic:       'claude-opus-4-5',
-  openai:          'gpt-4o',
-  ollama:          'llama3',
-  codewhisperer:   'anthropic.claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022-v2:0',
-  copilot:         'gpt-4o',
-}
+
+
+const ADVANCED_FIELDS = [
+  'maxTokens', 'maxCompletionTokens', 'temperature', 'topP', 'topK',
+  'minP', 'topA', 'frequencyPenalty', 'presencePenalty', 'repetitionPenalty',
+  'reasoning', 'reasoningEffort', 'includeReasoning', 'responseFormat',
+  'stop', 'verbosity',
+] as const
 
 export function NewSession({ onClose, onCreate }: Props) {
+  const [name, setName]       = useState('')
   const [cwd, setCwd]         = useState('~')
   const [backend, setBackend] = useState('anthropic')
-  const [model, setModel]     = useState(DEFAULT_MODELS['anthropic'])
+  const [model, setModel]     = useState('')
   const [agent, setAgent]     = useState('default')
   const [backends, setBackends] = useState<string[]>([])
   const [agents, setAgents] = useState<string[]>(['default'])
+  const [modelCache, setModelCache] = useState(loadModelsCache)
+  const [advanced, setAdvanced] = useState<Record<string, string>>({})
   const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false)
 
   useEffect(() => {
+    fetchModels().then(setModelCache).catch(() => {})
     getBackends().then(bs => {
       if (bs.length > 0) {
         setBackends(bs)
         setBackend(bs[0])
-        setModel(DEFAULT_MODELS[bs[0]] ?? '')
       }
     }).catch(() => {})
     getAgents().then(as => {
@@ -43,17 +49,36 @@ export function NewSession({ onClose, onCreate }: Props) {
     }).catch(() => {})
   }, [])
 
+  // Models for selected backend, sorted
+  const models = (modelCache[backend] ?? []).slice().sort()
+
+  // Auto-select first model when backend or cache changes
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (models.length) setModel(models[0])
+  }, [backend, modelCache])
+
   const handleBackend = (b: string) => {
     setBackend(b)
-    setModel(DEFAULT_MODELS[b] ?? '')
+    const cached = modelCache[b]
+    if (cached?.length) setModel(cached[0])
   }
 
+  const setAdv = (key: string, val: string) =>
+    setAdvanced(prev => ({ ...prev, [key]: val }))
+
   const handleSubmit = async (e: Event) => {
     e.preventDefault()
     if (!cwd.trim() || !model.trim()) return
     setLoading(true)
     try {
-      await onCreate({ cwd: cwd.trim(), backend, model: model.trim(), agent })
+      const params: CreateParams = {
+        ...(name.trim() ? { name: name.trim() } : {}),
+        cwd: cwd.trim(), backend, model: model.trim(), agent,
+      }
+      for (const [k, v] of Object.entries(advanced)) {
+        if (v.trim()) params[k] = v.trim()
+      }
+      await onCreate(params)
     } finally {
       setLoading(false)
     }
@@ -72,6 +97,17 @@ export function NewSession({ onClose, onCreate }: Props) {
         </div>
 
         <form onSubmit={handleSubmit} style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:18px;">
+          <div class="field">
+            <label>name</label>
+            <input
+              type="text"
+              value={name}
+              onInput={e => setName((e.target as HTMLInputElement).value)}
+              placeholder="optional"
+              autofocus
+            />
+          </div>
+
           <div class="field">
             <label>working directory</label>
             <input
@@ -80,7 +116,6 @@ export function NewSession({ onClose, onCreate }: Props) {
               onInput={e => setCwd((e.target as HTMLInputElement).value)}
               placeholder="~/src/myproject"
               required
-              autofocus
             />
           </div>
 
@@ -109,15 +144,33 @@ export function NewSession({ onClose, onCreate }: Props) {
 
           <div class="field">
             <label>model</label>
-            <input
-              type="text"
+            <select
               value={model}
-              onInput={e => setModel((e.target as HTMLInputElement).value)}
-              placeholder="model name"
+              onChange={e => setModel((e.target as HTMLSelectElement).value)}
               required
-            />
+            >
+              {models.map(m => (
+                <option key={m} value={m}>{m}</option>
+              ))}
+            </select>
           </div>
 
+          <details class="advanced-section">
+            <summary>Advanced</summary>
+            <div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:14px;padding-top:12px;">
+              {ADVANCED_FIELDS.map(key => (
+                <div class="field" key={key}>
+                  <label>{key}</label>
+                  <input
+                    type="text"
+                    value={advanced[key] ?? ''}
+                    onInput={e => setAdv(key, (e.target as HTMLInputElement).value)}
+                  />
+                </div>
+              ))}
+            </div>
+          </details>
+
           <div class="modal-actions">
             <button type="button" class="btn btn-ghost" onClick={onClose}>cancel</button>
             <button
diff --git a/src/lib/api.ts b/src/lib/api.ts
index 5601f82..ed8d053 100644
--- a/src/lib/api.ts
+++ b/src/lib/api.ts
@@ -48,10 +48,12 @@ export async function sendCtl(id: string, ctl: string): Promise<void> {
 }
 
 export async function createSession(params: {
+  name?: string
   cwd: string
   backend: string
   model: string
   agent: string
+  [key: string]: string | undefined
 }): Promise<void> {
   await fetch('/s/new', {
     method: 'POST',
@@ -60,6 +62,31 @@ export async function createSession(params: {
   })
 }
 
+// Fetch models grouped by backend. Persisted in localStorage.
+const MODELS_CACHE_KEY = 'ollie:models'
+
+export function loadModelsCache(): Record<string, string[]> {
+  try {
+    const raw = localStorage.getItem(MODELS_CACHE_KEY)
+    if (raw) return JSON.parse(raw)
+  } catch {}
+  return {}
+}
+
+export async function fetchModels(): Promise<Record<string, string[]>> {
+  const r = await fetch('/models')
+  if (!r.ok) return loadModelsCache()
+  const data: {backend: string, models: string[]}[] = await r.json()
+  const out: Record<string, string[]> = {}
+  for (const entry of data) {
+    out[entry.backend] = entry.models
+  }
+  localStorage.setItem(MODELS_CACHE_KEY, JSON.stringify(out))
+  return out
+}
+// Kick off fetch in background to refresh cache.
+fetchModels()
+
 export async function getBackends(): Promise<string[]> {
   const r = await fetch('/backends')
   if (!r.ok) return []
diff --git a/vite.config.ts b/vite.config.ts
index e8cf96b..654704e 100644
--- a/vite.config.ts
+++ b/vite.config.ts
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ export default defineConfig({
       '/t/': 'http://localhost:8080',
       '/sk/': 'http://localhost:8080',
       '/backends': 'http://localhost:8080',
+      '/models': 'http://localhost:8080',
       '/open': 'http://localhost:8080',
       '/openapi.json': 'http://localhost:8080',
     },