Summary
Add effort as a supported frontmatter field in .claude/agents/*.md agent definition files, similar to the existing model field.
Motivation
Currently the only way to control effort level is globally via settings.json → effortLevel. But different agents have very different complexity profiles — a deal-hunting agent doing web scraping needs low effort, while a development agent implementing GitHub issues needs xhigh. There's no way to express this per-agent today.
Proposed API
---
name: development-agent
description: Implements GitHub issues end-to-end
model: opus
effort: xhigh
---
Accepted values should match the API: low, medium, high, xhigh, max.
Note: xhigh and max are Opus-only — if effort is set to one of these on a non-Opus model, Claude Code should either warn or fall back gracefully.
Current workaround
Only global effortLevel in settings.json is available. Per-agent effort is not configurable.
Related issues
#64706, #43083, #63599, #65531, #64033
Summary
Add
effortas a supported frontmatter field in.claude/agents/*.mdagent definition files, similar to the existingmodelfield.Motivation
Currently the only way to control effort level is globally via
settings.json→effortLevel. But different agents have very different complexity profiles — a deal-hunting agent doing web scraping needs low effort, while a development agent implementing GitHub issues needsxhigh. There's no way to express this per-agent today.Proposed API
Accepted values should match the API:
low,medium,high,xhigh,max.Note:
xhighandmaxare Opus-only — ifeffortis set to one of these on a non-Opus model, Claude Code should either warn or fall back gracefully.Current workaround
Only global
effortLevelinsettings.jsonis available. Per-agent effort is not configurable.Related issues
#64706, #43083, #63599, #65531, #64033