diff --git a/aider/coders/base_coder.py b/aider/coders/base_coder.py
index 97354fec3..d5bedec8d 100755
--- a/aider/coders/base_coder.py
+++ b/aider/coders/base_coder.py
@@ -1015,9 +1015,9 @@ class Coder:
             or total_tokens < max_input_tokens
             and self.gpt_prompts.system_reminder
         ):
-            if self.main_model.reminder_as_sys_msg:
+            if self.main_model.reminder == "sys":
                 chunks.reminder = reminder_message
-            elif final["role"] == "user":
+            elif self.main_model.reminder == "user" and final["role"] == "user":
                 # stuff it into the user message
                 new_content = (
                     final["content"]
diff --git a/aider/models.py b/aider/models.py
index 1339f9bd8..303f048d1 100644
--- a/aider/models.py
+++ b/aider/models.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class ModelSettings:
     send_undo_reply: bool = False
     accepts_images: bool = False
     lazy: bool = False
-    reminder_as_sys_msg: bool = False
+    reminder: str = "user"
     examples_as_sys_msg: bool = False
     extra_headers: Optional[dict] = None
     max_tokens: Optional[int] = None
@@ -87,31 +87,31 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         "gpt-3.5-turbo",
         "whole",
         weak_model_name="gpt-4o-mini",
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-3.5-turbo-0125",
         "whole",
         weak_model_name="gpt-4o-mini",
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-3.5-turbo-1106",
         "whole",
         weak_model_name="gpt-4o-mini",
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-3.5-turbo-0613",
         "whole",
         weak_model_name="gpt-4o-mini",
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-3.5-turbo-16k-0613",
         "whole",
         weak_model_name="gpt-4o-mini",
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     # gpt-4
     ModelSettings(
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         send_undo_reply=True,
         accepts_images=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-4-turbo",
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         send_undo_reply=True,
         accepts_images=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "openai/gpt-4o",
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         send_undo_reply=True,
         accepts_images=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "openai/gpt-4o-2024-08-06",
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         send_undo_reply=True,
         accepts_images=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-4o-2024-08-06",
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         send_undo_reply=True,
         accepts_images=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-4o",
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         send_undo_reply=True,
         accepts_images=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-4o-mini",
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         weak_model_name="gpt-4o-mini",
         accepts_images=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "openai/gpt-4o-mini",
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         weak_model_name="openai/gpt-4o-mini",
         accepts_images=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-4-0125-preview",
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         use_repo_map=True,
         send_undo_reply=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
         examples_as_sys_msg=True,
     ),
     ModelSettings(
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         use_repo_map=True,
         send_undo_reply=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-4-vision-preview",
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         use_repo_map=True,
         send_undo_reply=True,
         accepts_images=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-4-0314",
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         weak_model_name="gpt-4o-mini",
         use_repo_map=True,
         send_undo_reply=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
         examples_as_sys_msg=True,
     ),
     ModelSettings(
@@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         weak_model_name="gpt-4o-mini",
         use_repo_map=True,
         send_undo_reply=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "gpt-4-32k-0613",
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         weak_model_name="gpt-4o-mini",
         use_repo_map=True,
         send_undo_reply=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     # Claude
     ModelSettings(
@@ -275,6 +275,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
             "anthropic-beta": ANTHROPIC_BETA_HEADER,
         },
         cache_control=True,
+        reminder=None,
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet-20240620",
@@ -287,6 +288,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
             "anthropic-beta": ANTHROPIC_BETA_HEADER,
         },
         cache_control=True,
+        reminder=None,
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "anthropic/claude-3-haiku-20240307",
@@ -321,6 +323,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
             "HTTP-Referer": AIDER_SITE_URL,
             "X-Title": AIDER_APP_NAME,
         },
+        reminder=None,
     ),
     # Vertex AI Claude models
     # Does not yet support 8k token
@@ -331,6 +334,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         use_repo_map=True,
         examples_as_sys_msg=True,
         accepts_images=True,
+        reminder=None,
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "vertex_ai/claude-3-opus@20240229",
@@ -389,7 +393,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         use_repo_map=True,
         send_undo_reply=True,
         examples_as_sys_msg=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "deepseek/deepseek-coder",
@@ -397,7 +401,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         use_repo_map=True,
         send_undo_reply=True,
         examples_as_sys_msg=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-coder",
@@ -405,7 +409,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         use_repo_map=True,
         send_undo_reply=True,
         examples_as_sys_msg=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
     ModelSettings(
         "openrouter/openai/gpt-4o",
@@ -415,7 +419,7 @@ MODEL_SETTINGS = [
         send_undo_reply=True,
         accepts_images=True,
         lazy=True,
-        reminder_as_sys_msg=True,
+        reminder="sys",
     ),
 ]
 
@@ -500,12 +504,13 @@ class Model:
             return  # <--
 
         if "gpt-3.5" in model or "gpt-4" in model:
-            self.reminder_as_sys_msg = True
+            self.reminder = "sys"
 
         if "3.5-sonnet" in model or "3-5-sonnet" in model:
             self.edit_format = "diff"
             self.use_repo_map = True
             self.examples_as_sys_msg = True
+            self.reminder = None
 
         # use the defaults
         if self.edit_format == "diff":
diff --git a/aider/website/docs/config/adv-model-settings.md b/aider/website/docs/config/adv-model-settings.md
index 4ec8949e5..e3bba0010 100644
--- a/aider/website/docs/config/adv-model-settings.md
+++ b/aider/website/docs/config/adv-model-settings.md
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ The yaml file should be a a list of dictionary objects for each model, as follow
   send_undo_reply: false
   accepts_images: false
   lazy: false
-  reminder_as_sys_msg: true
+  reminder: sys
   examples_as_sys_msg: false
 - name: "gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09"
   edit_format: "udiff"
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ The yaml file should be a a list of dictionary objects for each model, as follow
   send_undo_reply: true
   accepts_images: true
   lazy: true
-  reminder_as_sys_msg: true
+  reminder: sys
   examples_as_sys_msg: false
 ```