diff --git a/internal/plugin/howami.go b/internal/plugin/howami.go
index f478a57..c67ea63 100644
--- a/internal/plugin/howami.go
+++ b/internal/plugin/howami.go
@@ -218,5 +218,13 @@ func callOllama(host, model, prompt string) (string, error) {
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("parse response: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	return strings.TrimSpace(result.Response), nil
+	response := result.Response
+	// Strip <think>...</think> blocks (Qwen 3.5 reasoning)
+	if i := strings.Index(response, "<think>"); i != -1 {
+		if j := strings.Index(response, "</think>"); j != -1 {
+			response = response[:i] + response[j+len("</think>"):]
+		}
+	}
+
+	return strings.TrimSpace(response), nil
 }
diff --git a/internal/plugin/llm_passive.go b/internal/plugin/llm_passive.go
index 60c8d2b..5a9fc7e 100644
--- a/internal/plugin/llm_passive.go
+++ b/internal/plugin/llm_passive.go
@@ -548,6 +548,14 @@ Message: %s`, messageText)
 func parseClassification(raw string) (*classificationResult, error) {
 	cleaned := raw
 
+	// Remove <think>...</think> blocks (Qwen 3.5 reasoning)
+	if i := strings.Index(cleaned, "<think>"); i != -1 {
+		if j := strings.Index(cleaned, "</think>"); j != -1 {
+			cleaned = cleaned[:i] + cleaned[j+len("</think>"):]
+			cleaned = strings.TrimSpace(cleaned)
+		}
+	}
+
 	// Remove markdown code fences
 	cleaned = strings.TrimSpace(cleaned)
 	if strings.HasPrefix(cleaned, "```json") {
diff --git a/internal/plugin/wotd.go b/internal/plugin/wotd.go
index e284d7c..f57f40b 100644
--- a/internal/plugin/wotd.go
+++ b/internal/plugin/wotd.go
@@ -347,7 +347,14 @@ Respond with ONLY "yes" or "no".`, message, word)
 		return false
 	}
 
-	answer := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(result.Response))
+	response := result.Response
+	// Strip <think>...</think> blocks (Qwen 3.5 reasoning)
+	if i := strings.Index(response, "<think>"); i != -1 {
+		if j := strings.Index(response, "</think>"); j != -1 {
+			response = response[:i] + response[j+len("</think>"):]
+		}
+	}
+	answer := strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(response))
 	accepted := strings.HasPrefix(answer, "yes")
 	slog.Debug("wotd: LLM verification", "word", word, "answer", answer, "accepted", accepted)
 	return accepted