diff --git a/open-sse/services/combo.ts b/open-sse/services/combo.ts
index 061ccb9de5..6c1e2e9bc4 100644
--- a/open-sse/services/combo.ts
+++ b/open-sse/services/combo.ts
@@ -1042,7 +1042,10 @@ export async function handleComboChat({
             const text = sanitizeDecoder.decode(chunk, { stream: true });
             if (text) {
               if (text.includes("<omniModel>")) {
-                const cleaned = text.replace(/\n?<omniModel>[^<]+<\/omniModel>\n?/g, "");
+                const cleaned = text.replace(
+                  /(?:\\n|\n)?<omniModel>[^<]+<\/omniModel>(?:\\n|\n)?/g,
+                  ""
+                );
                 if (cleaned) controller.enqueue(encoder.encode(cleaned));
               } else {
                 controller.enqueue(encoder.encode(text));
@@ -1053,7 +1056,10 @@ export async function handleComboChat({
             const tail = sanitizeDecoder.decode();
             if (tail) {
               if (tail.includes("<omniModel>")) {
-                const cleaned = tail.replace(/\n?<omniModel>[^<]+<\/omniModel>\n?/g, "");
+                const cleaned = tail.replace(
+                  /(?:\\n|\n)?<omniModel>[^<]+<\/omniModel>(?:\\n|\n)?/g,
+                  ""
+                );
                 if (cleaned) controller.enqueue(encoder.encode(cleaned));
               } else {
                 controller.enqueue(encoder.encode(tail));
diff --git a/src/app/api/settings/background-degradation/route.ts b/src/app/api/settings/background-degradation/route.ts
index 6fb7021c91..cb19443fd6 100644
--- a/src/app/api/settings/background-degradation/route.ts
+++ b/src/app/api/settings/background-degradation/route.ts
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ export async function PUT(request) {
 
     // Persist to database (excluding stats)
     const { stats, ...persistable } = getBackgroundDegradationConfig();
-    await updateSettings({ backgroundDegradation: JSON.stringify(persistable) });
+    await updateSettings({ backgroundDegradation: persistable });
 
     return NextResponse.json({ success: true, ...getBackgroundDegradationConfig() });
   } catch (error) {
diff --git a/src/instrumentation-node.ts b/src/instrumentation-node.ts
index becbc020fe..88bab3ae68 100755
--- a/src/instrumentation-node.ts
+++ b/src/instrumentation-node.ts
@@ -125,6 +125,21 @@ export async function registerNodejs(): Promise<void> {
       }
     }
 
+    if (settings.backgroundDegradation) {
+      try {
+        const bgSettings =
+          typeof settings.backgroundDegradation === "string"
+            ? JSON.parse(settings.backgroundDegradation)
+            : settings.backgroundDegradation;
+        const { setBackgroundDegradationConfig } =
+          await import("@omniroute/open-sse/services/backgroundTaskDetector.ts");
+        setBackgroundDegradationConfig(bgSettings);
+        console.log(`[STARTUP] Restored background task degradation config from settings`);
+      } catch (err: unknown) {
+        console.warn(`[STARTUP] Failed to parse background degradation settings:`, err);
+      }
+    }
+
     const migration = await migrateCodexConnectionDefaultsFromLegacySettings();
     if (migration.migrated) {
       console.log(
diff --git a/src/shared/validation/settingsSchemas.ts b/src/shared/validation/settingsSchemas.ts
index 9deb2be992..582bbc8890 100644
--- a/src/shared/validation/settingsSchemas.ts
+++ b/src/shared/validation/settingsSchemas.ts
@@ -88,5 +88,8 @@ export const updateSettingsSchema = z.object({
   skillsmpApiKey: z.string().max(200).optional(),
   // models.dev sync settings
   modelsDevSyncEnabled: z.boolean().optional(),
-  modelsDevSyncInterval: z.number().int().min(3600).max(604800).optional(),
+  modelsDevSyncInterval: z.number().int().min(1000).max(604800000).optional(),
+  // Missing settings
+  lkgpEnabled: z.boolean().optional(),
+  backgroundDegradation: z.unknown().optional(),
 });
diff --git a/tests/unit/combo-routing-engine.test.mjs b/tests/unit/combo-routing-engine.test.mjs
index 0c3c46ef2b..82dbc2b35b 100644
--- a/tests/unit/combo-routing-engine.test.mjs
+++ b/tests/unit/combo-routing-engine.test.mjs
@@ -1618,7 +1618,7 @@ test("handleComboChat context cache protection flushes cleanly when a stream end
   assert.equal(result.ok, true);
   assert.equal(result.headers.get("X-OmniRoute-Model"), "openai/gpt-4o-mini");
   assert.match(text, /data: \[DONE\]/);
-  assert.match(text, /"content":"\\\\n\\\\n"/);
+  assert.match(text, /"content":""/);
   assert.doesNotMatch(text, /<omniModel>/);
 });