diff --git a/pkg/distribution/distribution/client.go b/pkg/distribution/distribution/client.go
index f150adef..b5ba001d 100644
--- a/pkg/distribution/distribution/client.go
+++ b/pkg/distribution/distribution/client.go
@@ -123,6 +123,12 @@ func (c *Client) normalizeModelName(model string) string {
 		return model
 	}
 
+	// Normalize HuggingFace short URL (hf.co) to canonical form (huggingface.co)
+	// This ensures that hf.co/org/model and huggingface.co/org/model are treated as the same model
+	if rest, found := strings.CutPrefix(model, "hf.co/"); found {
+		model = "huggingface.co/" + rest
+	}
+
 	// If it looks like an ID or digest, try to resolve it to full ID
 	if c.looksLikeID(model) || c.looksLikeDigest(model) {
 		if fullID := c.resolveID(model); fullID != "" {
@@ -243,6 +249,24 @@ func (c *Client) PullModel(ctx context.Context, reference string, progressWriter
 	// HuggingFace references always use native pull (download raw files from HF Hub)
 	if isHuggingFaceReference(originalReference) {
 		c.log.Infoln("Using native HuggingFace pull for:", utils.SanitizeForLog(reference))
+
+		// Check if model already exists in local store (reference is already normalized)
+		localModel, err := c.store.Read(reference)
+		if err == nil {
+			c.log.Infoln("HuggingFace model found in local store:", utils.SanitizeForLog(reference))
+			cfg, err := localModel.Config()
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("getting cached model config: %w", err)
+			}
+			if err := progress.WriteSuccess(progressWriter, fmt.Sprintf("Using cached model: %s", cfg.GetSize()), oci.ModePull); err != nil {
+				c.log.Warnf("Writing progress: %v", err)
+			}
+			return nil
+		}
+		if !errors.Is(err, ErrModelNotFound) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("checking for cached HuggingFace model: %w", err)
+		}
+
 		// Pass original reference to preserve case-sensitivity for HuggingFace API
 		return c.pullNativeHuggingFace(ctx, originalReference, progressWriter, token)
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/distribution/distribution/client_test.go b/pkg/distribution/distribution/client_test.go
index 7e3b65f1..3ed11b5a 100644
--- a/pkg/distribution/distribution/client_test.go
+++ b/pkg/distribution/distribution/client_test.go
@@ -1140,3 +1140,56 @@ func randomFile(size int64) (string, error) {
 
 	return f.Name(), nil
 }
+
+func TestPullHuggingFaceModelFromCache(t *testing.T) {
+	testCases := []struct {
+		name    string
+		pullRef string
+	}{
+		{
+			name:    "full URL",
+			pullRef: "huggingface.co/testorg/testmodel:latest",
+		},
+		{
+			name:    "short URL",
+			pullRef: "hf.co/testorg/testmodel:latest",
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tc := range testCases {
+		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			tempDir := t.TempDir()
+
+			// Create client
+			client, err := newTestClient(tempDir)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("Failed to create client: %v", err)
+			}
+
+			// Create a test model and write it to the store with a normalized HuggingFace tag
+			model, err := gguf.NewModel(testGGUFFile)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("Failed to create model: %v", err)
+			}
+
+			// Store with normalized tag (huggingface.co)
+			hfTag := "huggingface.co/testorg/testmodel:latest"
+			if err := client.store.Write(model, []string{hfTag}, nil); err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("Failed to write model to store: %v", err)
+			}
+
+			// Now try to pull using the test case's reference - it should use the cache
+			var progressBuffer bytes.Buffer
+			err = client.PullModel(t.Context(), tc.pullRef, &progressBuffer)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("Failed to pull model from cache: %v", err)
+			}
+
+			// Verify that progress shows it was cached
+			progressOutput := progressBuffer.String()
+			if !strings.Contains(progressOutput, "Using cached model") {
+				t.Errorf("Expected progress to indicate cached model, got: %s", progressOutput)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}