diff --git a/common/common.cpp b/common/common.cpp
index 97f55b053..2e7ddce12 100644
--- a/common/common.cpp
+++ b/common/common.cpp
@@ -1338,9 +1338,25 @@ bool gpt_params_parse_ex(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
         throw std::invalid_argument("error: --prompt-cache-all not supported in interactive mode yet\n");
     }
 
-    // short-hand to avoid specifying --hf-file -> default it to --model
-    if (!params.hf_repo.empty() && params.hf_file.empty()) {
-        params.hf_file = params.model;
+    if (!params.hf_repo.empty()) {
+        // short-hand to avoid specifying --hf-file -> default it to --model
+        if (params.hf_file.empty()) {
+            if (params.model.empty()) {
+                throw std::invalid_argument("error: --hf-repo requires either --hf-file or --model\n");
+            }
+            params.hf_file = params.model;
+        } else if (params.model.empty()) {
+            params.model = "models/" + string_split(params.hf_file, '/').back();
+        }
+    } else if (!params.model_url.empty()) {
+        if (params.model.empty()) {
+            auto f = string_split(params.model_url, '#').front();
+            f = string_split(f, '?').front();
+            f = string_split(f, '/').back();
+            params.model =  "models/" + f;
+        }
+    } else if (params.model.empty()) {
+        params.model =  "models/7B/ggml-model-f16.gguf";
     }
 
     if (params.escape) {
diff --git a/common/common.h b/common/common.h
index 87361e8e9..ff0eed055 100644
--- a/common/common.h
+++ b/common/common.h
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ struct gpt_params {
     // // sampling parameters
     struct llama_sampling_params sparams;
 
-    std::string model                = "models/7B/ggml-model-f16.gguf"; // model path
+    std::string model                = "";  // model path
     std::string model_draft          = "";  // draft model for speculative decoding
     std::string model_alias          = "unknown"; // model alias
     std::string model_url            = "";  // model url to download