diff --git a/studio/frontend/src/features/hub/hub-page.tsx b/studio/frontend/src/features/hub/hub-page.tsx
index ee310f6e62..bf20d68037 100644
--- a/studio/frontend/src/features/hub/hub-page.tsx
+++ b/studio/frontend/src/features/hub/hub-page.tsx
@@ -1446,6 +1446,14 @@ export function ModelsPage() {
   // can show the live launch config. A GGUF loaded from an inactive HF cache or
   // straight off disk loads by path but is reported by its clean public id, so the
   // row's path and its settings identity both have to be offered as aliases.
+  // A loose .gguf is one file, so its path already names the quant and its
+  // settings deliberately carry no variant. The loader still derives one from the
+  // filename and /status reports it, so requiring the two to agree would never
+  // hold and the page would withhold the live config from the resident file.
+  const settingsTargetIsStandaloneFile =
+    settingsTarget !== null &&
+    settingsTarget.ggufVariant == null &&
+    settingsTarget.id.toLowerCase().endsWith(".gguf");
   const settingsTargetIsResident =
     settingsTarget !== null &&
     residentModelIdMatches(
@@ -1453,7 +1461,8 @@ export function ModelsPage() {
       settingsTarget.id,
       settingsTarget.configId,
     ) &&
-    ggufVariantsMatch(activeGgufVariant, settingsTarget.ggufVariant);
+    (settingsTargetIsStandaloneFile ||
+      ggufVariantsMatch(activeGgufVariant, settingsTarget.ggufVariant));
   const handleSearchHub = useCallback(
     (next: string) => {
       const trimmed = next.trim();
diff --git a/tests/studio/test_model_picker_contracts.py b/tests/studio/test_model_picker_contracts.py
index 13a722d3b1..69f42ea7dc 100644
--- a/tests/studio/test_model_picker_contracts.py
+++ b/tests/studio/test_model_picker_contracts.py
@@ -1047,3 +1047,24 @@ def test_a_standalone_gguf_has_one_settings_key():
     # The rule this mirrors: a variant is derived only for a single scanned file.
     assert "extract_quant_label(gguf_files[0].name)" in common
     assert "if scan_path.is_file() and len(gguf_files) == 1" in common
+
+
+def test_a_standalone_gguf_is_resident_despite_its_derived_quant():
+    """A loose .gguf keys its settings by the bare path with no variant, but the
+    loader derives one from the filename (llama_cpp sets _hf_variant from
+    _extract_quant_label) and /status reports it, so an equality between the two
+    could never hold and the settings page withheld the live launch config from
+    the very file that was loaded."""
+    hub = " ".join(_read("features/hub/hub-page.tsx").split())
+    assert "const settingsTargetIsStandaloneFile =" in hub
+    assert 'settingsTarget.id.toLowerCase().endsWith(".gguf")' in hub
+    assert (
+        "(settingsTargetIsStandaloneFile || ggufVariantsMatch(activeGgufVariant, settingsTarget.ggufVariant))"
+        in hub
+    )
+    backend = (
+        WORKDIR / "studio" / "backend" / "core" / "inference" / "llama_cpp.py"
+    ).read_text(encoding = "utf-8")
+    assert "self._hf_variant = _extract_quant_label(gguf_path)" in backend, (
+        "the derived label this accounts for"
+    )