diff --git a/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/context/args.tsx b/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/context/args.tsx
index ffd43009a41..c8185bceb40 100644
--- a/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/context/args.tsx
+++ b/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/context/args.tsx
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { createSimpleContext } from "./helper"
 
 export interface Args {
   model?: string
+  variant?: string
   agent?: string
   prompt?: string
   continue?: boolean
diff --git a/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/context/local.tsx b/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/context/local.tsx
index 63f1d9743bf..da03a4d4f39 100644
--- a/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/context/local.tsx
+++ b/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/context/local.tsx
@@ -383,6 +383,16 @@ export const { use: useLocal, provider: LocalProvider } = createSimpleContext({
       }
     })
 
+    // Initialize variant from CLI args
+    const args = useArgs()
+    let variantInitialized = false
+    createEffect(() => {
+      if (variantInitialized) return
+      if (!model.ready || !args.variant || !model.current()) return
+      variantInitialized = true
+      model.variant.set(args.variant)
+    })
+
     const result = {
       model,
       agent,
diff --git a/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/thread.ts b/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/thread.ts
index 7b6f028fcd9..83da0891a32 100644
--- a/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/thread.ts
+++ b/packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/tui/thread.ts
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ export const TuiThreadCommand = cmd({
       .option("agent", {
         type: "string",
         describe: "agent to use",
+      })
+      .option("variant", {
+        type: "string",
+        describe: "model variant (provider-specific reasoning effort, e.g., high, max, minimal)",
       }),
   handler: async (args) => {
     // Resolve relative paths against PWD to preserve behavior when using --cwd flag
@@ -95,6 +99,7 @@ export const TuiThreadCommand = cmd({
         sessionID: args.session,
         agent: args.agent,
         model: args.model,
+        variant: args.variant,
         prompt,
       },
       onExit: async () => {