diff --git a/src/llama-model-saver.cpp b/src/llama-model-saver.cpp
index 0a27367c9..0f5155b2e 100644
--- a/src/llama-model-saver.cpp
+++ b/src/llama-model-saver.cpp
@@ -15,26 +15,11 @@
 
 bool llama_model_saver_supports_arch(llm_arch arch) {
     switch (arch) {
-        case LLM_ARCH_PLAMO3:
-        case LLM_ARCH_GEMMA3:
         case LLM_ARCH_GEMMA3N:
-        case LLM_ARCH_COHERE2:
-        case LLM_ARCH_COHERE2MOE:
-        case LLM_ARCH_OLMO2:
         case LLM_ARCH_BITNET:
         case LLM_ARCH_T5:
-        case LLM_ARCH_EXAONE_MOE:
-        case LLM_ARCH_AFMOE:
         case LLM_ARCH_APERTUS:
-        case LLM_ARCH_MIMO2:
         case LLM_ARCH_STEP35:
-        case LLM_ARCH_SPARK2_5:
-        case LLM_ARCH_MUSE_GLIMMER:
-        case LLM_ARCH_MELLUM:
-        case LLM_ARCH_LAGUNA:
-        case LLM_ARCH_GRANITE_SWA:
-        case LLM_ARCH_DOTS3NOTE: // TODO: need to handle SWA pattern and MLA+SWA config
-        case LLM_ARCH_MAPLE:
             return false;
         default:
             return true;
@@ -290,7 +275,11 @@ void llama_model_saver::add_kv_from_model() {
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_RELATIVE_BUCKETS_COUNT,  hparams.n_rel_attn_bkts);
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_ROPE_PATTERN,            hparams.rope_pattern, true);
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW,          hparams.n_swa);
-    // add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN,  ???);
+    if (hparams.swa_type != LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_NONE) {
+        // never collapsed to a scalar: the loaders read a scalar as a period
+        add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, std::vector<uint32_t>(
+                hparams.is_swa_impl.begin(), hparams.is_swa_impl.begin() + hparams.n_layer_all));
+    }
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SCALE,                   hparams.f_attention_scale);
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_OUTPUT_SCALE,            hparams.f_attn_out_scale);
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_VALUE_SCALE,             hparams.f_attn_value_scale);
@@ -300,6 +289,9 @@ void llama_model_saver::add_kv_from_model() {
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_VALUE_LENGTH_MLA,        hparams.n_embd_head_v_mla_impl);
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_KEY_LENGTH_SWA,          hparams.n_embd_head_k_swa);
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_VALUE_LENGTH_SWA,        hparams.n_embd_head_v_swa);
+    add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_KEY_LENGTH_MLA_SWA,      hparams.n_embd_head_k_mla_swa);
+    add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_VALUE_LENGTH_MLA_SWA,    hparams.n_embd_head_v_mla_swa);
+    add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_KV_LORA_RANK_SWA,        hparams.n_lora_kv_swa);
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_INDEXER_HEAD_COUNT,      hparams.indexer_n_head);
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_INDEXER_KEY_LENGTH,      hparams.indexer_head_size);
     add_kv(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_INDEXER_TOP_K,           hparams.indexer_top_k);
diff --git a/src/llama-model.cpp b/src/llama-model.cpp
index de3b2e38f..e195f50d0 100644
--- a/src/llama-model.cpp
+++ b/src/llama-model.cpp
@@ -3305,6 +3305,15 @@ void llama_model_base::create_tensor_qkv(llama_layer & layer, int bid,
     }
 }
 
+void llama_model_base::load_swa_pattern(llama_model_loader & ml, uint32_t n_pattern, bool dense_first) {
+    if (ml.get_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, hparams.is_swa_impl, false)) {
+        return;
+    }
+
+    ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, n_pattern, false);
+    hparams.set_swa_pattern(n_pattern, dense_first);
+}
+
 const int32_t * llama_model_target_layer_ids(const struct llama_model * model) {
     const auto & v = model->target_layer_ids;
     return v.empty() ? nullptr : v.data();
diff --git a/src/llama-model.h b/src/llama-model.h
index d61afa2cb..984b2cf38 100644
--- a/src/llama-model.h
+++ b/src/llama-model.h
@@ -814,6 +814,9 @@ struct llama_model_base : public llama_model {
                 int64_t n_embd_, int64_t n_embd_q_, int64_t n_embd_k_, int64_t n_embd_v_,
                 int flags);
 
+    // helper: read the SWA pattern as one flag per layer, or as a period expanded by set_swa_pattern
+    void load_swa_pattern(llama_model_loader & ml, uint32_t n_pattern, bool dense_first = false);
+
     void load_stats  (llama_model_loader & ml) override;
     void load_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) override;
     void load_vocab  (llama_model_loader & ml) override;
diff --git a/src/models/afmoe.cpp b/src/models/afmoe.cpp
index cf0220367..08c22b6ed 100644
--- a/src/models/afmoe.cpp
+++ b/src/models/afmoe.cpp
@@ -14,9 +14,7 @@ void llama_model_afmoe::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     // Pattern: 3 sliding - 1 full (global_attn_every_n_layers = 4)
     if (hparams.n_swa > 0) {
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
-        uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 4);
 
         hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
         hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;
diff --git a/src/models/cohere2.cpp b/src/models/cohere2.cpp
index e2b366256..7ad5244e4 100644
--- a/src/models/cohere2.cpp
+++ b/src/models/cohere2.cpp
@@ -2,9 +2,7 @@
 
 void llama_model_cohere2::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
-    uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-    ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-    hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+    load_swa_pattern(ml, 4);
 
     hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
     hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;
diff --git a/src/models/cohere2moe.cpp b/src/models/cohere2moe.cpp
index 5e02cd56e..7704cbb87 100644
--- a/src/models/cohere2moe.cpp
+++ b/src/models/cohere2moe.cpp
@@ -25,12 +25,7 @@ void llama_model_cohere2moe::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     }
 
     hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
-    uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-    if (ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false)) {
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period, true);
-    } else {
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, hparams.is_swa_impl, hparams.n_layer());
-    }
+    load_swa_pattern(ml, 4, true);
 
     hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
     hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;
diff --git a/src/models/exaone-moe.cpp b/src/models/exaone-moe.cpp
index 976ee050a..840da5f67 100644
--- a/src/models/exaone-moe.cpp
+++ b/src/models/exaone-moe.cpp
@@ -3,9 +3,7 @@
 void llama_model_exaone_moe::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
     hparams.n_swa = 128;
-    uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-    ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-    hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+    load_swa_pattern(ml, 4);
     hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
     hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;
 
diff --git a/src/models/exaone4.cpp b/src/models/exaone4.cpp
index 9ba978956..c1c55957a 100644
--- a/src/models/exaone4.cpp
+++ b/src/models/exaone4.cpp
@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@ void llama_model_exaone4::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     if (hparams.n_layer() == 64) {    // 32B
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
         hparams.n_swa = 4096;
-        uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 4);
 
         hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
         hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;
diff --git a/src/models/gemma-embedding.cpp b/src/models/gemma-embedding.cpp
index 80ed3b1a4..6c97883d8 100644
--- a/src/models/gemma-embedding.cpp
+++ b/src/models/gemma-embedding.cpp
@@ -2,9 +2,7 @@
 
 void llama_model_gemma_embedding::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_SYMMETRIC;
-    uint32_t swa_period = 6;
-    ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-    hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+    load_swa_pattern(ml, 6);
 
     hparams.causal_attn = false; // embeddings do not use causal attention
 
diff --git a/src/models/gemma2.cpp b/src/models/gemma2.cpp
index 2fbfb15a9..9e5243465 100644
--- a/src/models/gemma2.cpp
+++ b/src/models/gemma2.cpp
@@ -3,9 +3,7 @@
 void llama_model_gemma2::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
     hparams.n_swa = 4096; // default value of gemma 2
-    uint32_t swa_period = 2;
-    ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-    hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+    load_swa_pattern(ml, 2);
     hparams.attn_soft_cap = true;
     hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
     hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;
diff --git a/src/models/gemma3.cpp b/src/models/gemma3.cpp
index 690194529..f99bbaacd 100644
--- a/src/models/gemma3.cpp
+++ b/src/models/gemma3.cpp
@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@ void llama_model_gemma3::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     const bool found_swa = ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW, hparams.n_swa, false);
     if (found_swa && hparams.n_swa > 0) {
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
-        uint32_t swa_period = 6;
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 6);
 
         ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ROPE_FREQ_BASE_SWA, hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa, false);
     } else {
diff --git a/src/models/gemma3n.cpp b/src/models/gemma3n.cpp
index bb628203a..4d47ddc62 100644
--- a/src/models/gemma3n.cpp
+++ b/src/models/gemma3n.cpp
@@ -1,10 +1,8 @@
 #include "models.h"
 
 void llama_model_gemma3n::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
-    uint32_t swa_period = 5;
-    ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
     hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
-    hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+    load_swa_pattern(ml, 5);
 
     hparams.n_layer_kv_from_start = 20;
     hparams.f_attention_scale     = 1.0f;
diff --git a/src/models/laguna.cpp b/src/models/laguna.cpp
index 556400bfc..2bc4fa8a0 100644
--- a/src/models/laguna.cpp
+++ b/src/models/laguna.cpp
@@ -36,9 +36,7 @@ void llama_model_laguna::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     if (hparams.n_swa > 0) {
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
 
-        uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period, /*dense_first=*/true);  // XS.2: FULL at il%4==0
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 4, /*dense_first=*/true);  // XS.2: FULL at il%4==0
 
         // Per-layer-type RoPE: full layers use YaRN θ=500000 over 64 dims;
         // SWA layers use default RoPE θ=10000 over 128 dims. Base load_hparams
diff --git a/src/models/llama4.cpp b/src/models/llama4.cpp
index 8a812beff..4f79b4d1e 100644
--- a/src/models/llama4.cpp
+++ b/src/models/llama4.cpp
@@ -16,9 +16,7 @@ void llama_model_llama4::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
         hparams.f_attn_temp_scale       = 0.1f;
         hparams.f_attn_temp_offset      = 1.0f;
 
-        uint32_t swa_period = 4; // pattern: 3 chunked - 1 full
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 4); // pattern: 3 chunked - 1 full
 
         hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
         hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;
diff --git a/src/models/mellum.cpp b/src/models/mellum.cpp
index 872a9c8f5..3ab79747a 100644
--- a/src/models/mellum.cpp
+++ b/src/models/mellum.cpp
@@ -8,13 +8,7 @@ void llama_model_mellum::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     if (hparams.n_swa > 0) {
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
 
-        uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-        const auto res = ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        if (res) {
-            hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
-        } else {
-            ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, hparams.is_swa_impl, hparams.n_layer());
-        }
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 4);
 
         hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
         hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;
diff --git a/src/models/modern-bert.cpp b/src/models/modern-bert.cpp
index f3e9407e0..b7542d59b 100644
--- a/src/models/modern-bert.cpp
+++ b/src/models/modern-bert.cpp
@@ -5,9 +5,7 @@ void llama_model_modern_bert::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     if (found_swa && hparams.n_swa > 0) {
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_SYMMETRIC;
         ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ROPE_FREQ_BASE_SWA, hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa, false);
-        uint32_t swa_period = 3;
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period, true);
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 3, true);
     } else {
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_NONE;
     }
diff --git a/src/models/muse-glimmer.cpp b/src/models/muse-glimmer.cpp
index 0e9415308..0e5f75ebe 100644
--- a/src/models/muse-glimmer.cpp
+++ b/src/models/muse-glimmer.cpp
@@ -10,12 +10,7 @@ void llama_model_muse_glimmer::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ROPE_FREQ_BASE_SWA, hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa, false);
 
     hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
-    uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-    if (ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false)) {
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
-    } else {
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, hparams.is_swa_impl, hparams.n_layer());
-    }
+    load_swa_pattern(ml, 4);
 
     switch (hparams.n_layer()) {
         case 52: type = LLM_TYPE_30B; break;
diff --git a/src/models/olmo2.cpp b/src/models/olmo2.cpp
index 05b9394b8..fe5dc88d4 100644
--- a/src/models/olmo2.cpp
+++ b/src/models/olmo2.cpp
@@ -6,9 +6,7 @@ void llama_model_olmo2::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     const bool found_swa = ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW, hparams.n_swa, false);
     if (found_swa && hparams.n_swa > 0) {
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
-        uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 4);
 
         hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
         hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = 1.0; // See olmo2.cpp
diff --git a/src/models/openai-moe.cpp b/src/models/openai-moe.cpp
index c9f9b677d..39660a325 100644
--- a/src/models/openai-moe.cpp
+++ b/src/models/openai-moe.cpp
@@ -6,9 +6,7 @@ void llama_model_openai_moe::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW,    hparams.n_swa);
 
     hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
-    uint32_t swa_period = 2;
-    ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-    hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+    load_swa_pattern(ml, 2);
 
     hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
     hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;
diff --git a/src/models/plamo3.cpp b/src/models/plamo3.cpp
index 16d0b1dce..f8235f8a8 100644
--- a/src/models/plamo3.cpp
+++ b/src/models/plamo3.cpp
@@ -6,9 +6,7 @@ void llama_model_plamo3::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     if (found_swa && hparams.n_swa > 0) {
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
         ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ROPE_FREQ_BASE_SWA, hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa, false);
-        uint32_t swa_period = 8;
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period);
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 8);
     } else {
         hparams.swa_type = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_NONE;
     }
diff --git a/src/models/smallthinker.cpp b/src/models/smallthinker.cpp
index 680ffb8fd..555f8b718 100644
--- a/src/models/smallthinker.cpp
+++ b/src/models/smallthinker.cpp
@@ -6,9 +6,7 @@ void llama_model_smallthinker::load_arch_hparams(llama_model_loader & ml) {
     if (found_swa && hparams.n_swa > 0) {
         hparams.swa_type    = LLAMA_SWA_TYPE_STANDARD;
         hparams.n_swa       = 4096;
-        uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-        ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false);
-        hparams.set_swa_pattern(swa_period, true);
+        load_swa_pattern(ml, 4, true);
 
         hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa  = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
         hparams.rope_freq_scale_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_scale_train;