Effort level

A profile or a project binding can pin a Claude Code effort level. Before exec'ing claude, the shim exports it as CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL, so a session starts at that effort without editing settings.json.

The levels are low, medium, high, xhigh, max, and auto.

Pinning an effort

# A profile's default — the active profile, or a named one:
claude-shim profile effort high
claude-shim profile effort max --profile work

# Seed it when creating the profile:
claude-shim profile new personal --effort high

# This directory's binding — the project or workspace marker in effect:
claude-shim profile effort xhigh --local

# Or when first binding a directory to a profile:
claude-shim profile use work --effort max

--local and --profile are mutually exclusive. --local rewrites the marker the shim resolves here (the nearest .claude/claude-shim.json or .claude-shim.json), keeping its profile name and printing the file it touched; it fails when no binding is in scope.

Precedence

The effort for a session is chosen highest-first:

1. CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL already set in the shell — never overwritten.
2. The effort of the nearest project or workspace marker — only that marker; if it has none, the profile default is used, not a marker farther up.
3. The resolved profile's default (profiles/<name>/claude-shim.json).
4. Otherwise left unset, and Claude Code uses its own default.

TIP

profile effort <level> without --local sets the profile default. If the current directory has a project or workspace override, that override wins — use --local to change the effort in effect here.