diff --git a/src/agent/api/mod.rs b/src/agent/api/mod.rs
index 6ac0fc1..302ac4a 100644
--- a/src/agent/api/mod.rs
+++ b/src/agent/api/mod.rs
@@ -319,22 +319,49 @@ impl SseReader {
 /// Build a response Message from accumulated content and tool calls.
 /// Shared by both backends — the wire format differs but the internal
 /// representation is the same.
+///
+/// If no structured tool calls came from the API but the content
+/// contains leaked tool call XML (e.g. `<tool_call>...</tool_call>`
+/// from models that emit tool calls as text), parse them out and
+/// promote them to structured tool_calls. This way all consumers
+/// see tool calls uniformly regardless of backend.
 pub(crate) fn build_response_message(
     content: String,
     tool_calls: Vec<ToolCall>,
 ) -> Message {
+    // If the API returned structured tool calls, use them as-is.
+    if !tool_calls.is_empty() {
+        return Message {
+            role: Role::Assistant,
+            content: if content.is_empty() { None }
+                     else { Some(MessageContent::Text(content)) },
+            tool_calls: Some(tool_calls),
+            tool_call_id: None,
+            name: None,
+            timestamp: None,
+        };
+    }
+
+    // Check for leaked tool calls in content text.
+    let leaked = crate::agent::parsing::parse_leaked_tool_calls(&content);
+    if !leaked.is_empty() {
+        let cleaned = crate::agent::parsing::strip_leaked_artifacts(&content);
+        return Message {
+            role: Role::Assistant,
+            content: if cleaned.trim().is_empty() { None }
+                     else { Some(MessageContent::Text(cleaned)) },
+            tool_calls: Some(leaked),
+            tool_call_id: None,
+            name: None,
+            timestamp: None,
+        };
+    }
+
     Message {
         role: Role::Assistant,
-        content: if content.is_empty() {
-            None
-        } else {
-            Some(MessageContent::Text(content))
-        },
-        tool_calls: if tool_calls.is_empty() {
-            None
-        } else {
-            Some(tool_calls)
-        },
+        content: if content.is_empty() { None }
+                 else { Some(MessageContent::Text(content)) },
+        tool_calls: None,
         tool_call_id: None,
         name: None,
         timestamp: None,
diff --git a/src/agent/runner.rs b/src/agent/runner.rs
index f5fce7a..0c022b1 100644
--- a/src/agent/runner.rs
+++ b/src/agent/runner.rs
@@ -329,7 +329,8 @@ impl Agent {
                 empty_retries = 0;
             }
 
-            // Structured tool calls from the API
+            // Tool calls (structured from API, or recovered from content
+            // by build_response_message if the model leaked them as XML).
             if let Some(ref tool_calls) = msg.tool_calls {
                 if !tool_calls.is_empty() {
                     self.push_message(msg.clone());
@@ -341,34 +342,8 @@ impl Agent {
                 }
             }
 
-            // No structured tool calls — check for leaked tool calls
-            // (Qwen sometimes outputs <tool_call> XML as text).
-            let text = msg.content_text().to_string();
-            let leaked = crate::agent::parsing::parse_leaked_tool_calls(&text);
-
-            if !leaked.is_empty() {
-                let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Debug(format!(
-                    "recovered {} leaked tool call(s) from text",
-                    leaked.len()
-                )));
-                // Strip tool call XML and thinking tokens from the message
-                // so they don't clutter the conversation history.
-                let cleaned = crate::agent::parsing::strip_leaked_artifacts(&text);
-                let mut clean_msg = msg.clone();
-                clean_msg.content = if cleaned.trim().is_empty() {
-                    None
-                } else {
-                    Some(MessageContent::Text(cleaned))
-                };
-                self.push_message(clean_msg);
-                for call in &leaked {
-                    self.dispatch_tool_call(call, Some("recovered"), ui_tx, &mut ds)
-                        .await;
-                }
-                continue;
-            }
-
             // Genuinely text-only response
+            let text = msg.content_text().to_string();
             let _ = ui_tx.send(UiMessage::Activity(String::new()));
             self.push_message(msg);