diff --git a/.changeset/indexing-invalid-model-error.md b/.changeset/indexing-invalid-model-error.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7614ed85bf3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/indexing-invalid-model-error.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@kilocode/cli": patch
+---
+
+Surface an invalid Kilo `indexing.model` configuration as an indexing Error status instead of silently falling back to the default model.