diff --git a/codex-rs/core/config.schema.json b/codex-rs/core/config.schema.json
index e73a71bb3..4de4da6e4 100644
--- a/codex-rs/core/config.schema.json
+++ b/codex-rs/core/config.schema.json
@@ -1807,7 +1807,7 @@
           "$ref": "#/definitions/AbsolutePathBuf"
         }
       ],
-      "description": "Optional path to a JSON file containing a complete model catalog. When set, this replaces the bundled catalog for this process."
+      "description": "Optional path to a JSON model catalog (applied on startup only). Per-thread `config` overrides are accepted but do not reapply this (no-ops)."
     },
     "model_context_window": {
       "description": "Size of the context window for the model, in tokens.",
diff --git a/codex-rs/core/src/config/mod.rs b/codex-rs/core/src/config/mod.rs
index 3b8e0382e..76ba2fcb2 100644
--- a/codex-rs/core/src/config/mod.rs
+++ b/codex-rs/core/src/config/mod.rs
@@ -1109,8 +1109,8 @@ pub struct ConfigToml {
     /// Override to force-enable reasoning summaries for the configured model.
     pub model_supports_reasoning_summaries: Option<bool>,
 
-    /// Optional path to a JSON file containing a complete model catalog.
-    /// When set, this replaces the bundled catalog for this process.
+    /// Optional path to a JSON model catalog (applied on startup only).
+    /// Per-thread `config` overrides are accepted but do not reapply this (no-ops).
     pub model_catalog_json: Option<AbsolutePathBuf>,
 
     /// Optionally specify a personality for the model