diff --git a/pkg/config/config.go b/pkg/config/config.go
index f0d9aa580..a943fb2eb 100644
--- a/pkg/config/config.go
+++ b/pkg/config/config.go
@@ -1946,6 +1946,7 @@ func SaveConfig(path string, cfg *Config) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	logger.Infof("saving config to %s", path)
 	return fileutil.WriteFileAtomic(path, data, 0o600)
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/config/security.go b/pkg/config/security.go
index 816d465c7..1fda89bf0 100644
--- a/pkg/config/security.go
+++ b/pkg/config/security.go
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ type SecurityConfig struct {
 	// Model API keys. Map key is model_name, can include suffix like "abc:0", "abc:1"
 	// for load balancing with same model_name. The suffix ":N" is used to distinguish
 	// multiple configs that share the same base model_name.
-	ModelList map[string]ModelSecurityEntry `yaml:"model_list,omitempty"`
+	ModelList map[string]ModelSecurityEntry `yaml:"model_list"`
 
 	// Channel tokens/secrets
 	Channels *ChannelsSecurity `yaml:"channels,omitempty"`