diff --git a/studio/frontend/src/hooks/use-hf-model-search.ts b/studio/frontend/src/hooks/use-hf-model-search.ts
index 32b261956b..e697544d5c 100644
--- a/studio/frontend/src/hooks/use-hf-model-search.ts
+++ b/studio/frontend/src/hooks/use-hf-model-search.ts
@@ -104,6 +104,11 @@ function makeMapModel(excludeGguf: boolean) {
 
 /** Number of unsloth results to pull up-front before yielding general results. */
 const UNSLOTH_PREFETCH = 20;
+/** When the user searched for a specific publisher, show fewer unsloth results
+ *  before the pinned (original publisher) model. */
+const UNSLOTH_PINNED_PREFETCH = 4;
+/** Matches a valid "owner/repo" identifier (exactly two non-empty segments). */
+const PUBLISHER_RE = /^([^/\s]+)\/([^/\s]+)$/;
 
 /**
  * Prime the hf-cache from a listModels result. For public (non-gated,
@@ -131,6 +136,7 @@ async function* mergedModelIterator(
   query: string,
   task?: PipelineType,
   accessToken?: string,
+  pinnedId?: string,
 ): AsyncGenerator<unknown> {
   const common = {
     additionalFields: ["safetensors", "tags"] as ("safetensors" | "tags")[],
@@ -148,6 +154,18 @@ async function* mergedModelIterator(
     ...common,
   });
 
+  // Start pinned model lookup immediately so it can run in parallel with
+  // the Phase 1 unsloth iteration instead of blocking Phase 2.
+  const pinnedPromise = pinnedId
+    ? cachedModelInfo({
+        name: pinnedId,
+        additionalFields: ["safetensors", "tags"],
+        ...(accessToken ? { credentials: { accessToken } } : {}),
+      }).catch(() => null)
+    : null;
+
+  const limit = pinnedId ? UNSLOTH_PINNED_PREFETCH : UNSLOTH_PREFETCH;
+
   // Phase 1: pull & yield unsloth models first
   const seen = new Set<string>();
   let count = 0;
@@ -159,10 +177,26 @@ async function* mergedModelIterator(
     }
     yield model;
     count++;
-    if (count >= UNSLOTH_PREFETCH) break;
+    if (count >= limit) break;
   }
 
-  // Phase 2: yield general results, skipping already-seen unsloth models
+  // Phase 1b: yield the pinned (original publisher) model before general results
+  if (pinnedId && !seen.has(pinnedId) && pinnedPromise) {
+    const pinned = await pinnedPromise;
+    if (pinned) {
+      // Record both the raw input and the canonical name returned by HF
+      // so phase 2 deduplication works even when casing differs
+      // (e.g. user typed "OpenAI/gpt-oss-20b", HF returns "openai/gpt-oss-20b").
+      seen.add(pinnedId);
+      const canonicalName = (pinned as { name?: string }).name;
+      if (canonicalName && canonicalName !== pinnedId) {
+        seen.add(canonicalName);
+      }
+      yield pinned;
+    }
+  }
+
+  // Phase 2: yield general results, skipping already-seen models
   for await (const model of generalIter) {
     const m = model as { name?: string };
     if (m.name && seen.has(m.name)) continue;
@@ -235,11 +269,24 @@ export function useHfModelSearch(
 ) {
   const { task, accessToken, excludeGguf = false, priorityIds } = options ?? {};
 
+  // Parse publisher detection once and share between the iterator factory
+  // and the secondary sort gate (avoids duplicating the regex + logic).
+  const { isPublisherQuery, searchQuery, pinnedId, trimmed } = useMemo(() => {
+    const t = query.trim();
+    const m = PUBLISHER_RE.exec(t);
+    const is = !!m && m[1].toLowerCase() !== "unsloth";
+    return {
+      isPublisherQuery: is,
+      searchQuery: is ? m![2] : t,
+      pinnedId: is ? t : undefined,
+      trimmed: t,
+    };
+  }, [query]);
+
   const createIter = useCallback(
     () => {
-      const trimmed = query.trim();
       if (!trimmed) {
-        // No query → show priority models first (with full metadata), then general unsloth listing
+        // No query: show priority models first (with full metadata), then general unsloth listing
         if (priorityIds && priorityIds.length > 0) {
           return priorityThenListingIterator(priorityIds, task, accessToken) as AsyncGenerator<unknown>;
         }
@@ -250,24 +297,35 @@ export function useHfModelSearch(
           ...(accessToken ? { credentials: { accessToken } } : {}),
         }) as AsyncGenerator<unknown>;
       }
-      // Typed query: disable task filter so explicitly searched models still appear even if HF task metadata is wrong/missing.
-      return mergedModelIterator(trimmed, undefined, accessToken) as AsyncGenerator<unknown>;
+      // Typed query: disable task filter so explicitly searched models still
+      // appear even if HF task metadata is wrong/missing.
+      // If the query is a valid "owner/repo" identifier (exactly two non-empty,
+      // slash-free, space-free segments), strip the org prefix so unsloth
+      // variants surface, then pin the original publisher model after a small
+      // batch of unsloth results.  Queries for unsloth-owned models are left
+      // as-is so they get the full 20-result prefetch and secondary sort.
+      return mergedModelIterator(searchQuery, undefined, accessToken, pinnedId) as AsyncGenerator<unknown>;
     },
-    [query, task, accessToken, priorityIds],
+    [trimmed, searchQuery, pinnedId, task, accessToken, priorityIds],
   );
 
   const mapModel = useMemo(() => makeMapModel(excludeGguf), [excludeGguf]);
   const search = useHfPaginatedSearch(createIter, mapModel);
 
-  // Secondary sort guarantee: unsloth models always float to the top
+  // Secondary sort guarantee: unsloth models always float to the top.
+  // Skip when the user searched for a specific non-unsloth publisher
+  // (e.g. "openai/gpt-oss-20b") -- the iterator already handles the
+  // pinned ordering in that case.
   const results = useMemo(
     () =>
-      [...search.results].sort((a, b) => {
-        const aFirst = a.id.startsWith("unsloth/") ? 0 : 1;
-        const bFirst = b.id.startsWith("unsloth/") ? 0 : 1;
-        return aFirst - bFirst;
-      }),
-    [search.results],
+      isPublisherQuery
+        ? search.results
+        : [...search.results].sort((a, b) => {
+            const aFirst = a.id.startsWith("unsloth/") ? 0 : 1;
+            const bFirst = b.id.startsWith("unsloth/") ? 0 : 1;
+            return aFirst - bFirst;
+          }),
+    [search.results, isPublisherQuery],
   );
 
   return { ...search, results };