Under the hoodTier: how much it should matter to you
2Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
3Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
EffortArea: what it touches
Internal ChangesKind: in v2.1.314,
Internal ChangesSection of the release
Unclear It is not clear what sets the effort cap or whether a user can set it.
What
Effort is how much work the model puts into a reply. Claude Code works out the effort level for each message in a conversation, and that calculation now accepts an optional effort cap. When a cap is given, messages from the start of the latest turn onward are lowered to the cap if they were above it. Earlier messages keep the effort they had. Before, effort was taken straight from each reply.
Why
This points to a way of putting a ceiling on effort that applies to new work in a conversation and leaves earlier history alone.
How sure we are
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubtIt is not clear what sets the effort cap or whether a user can set it.
