Opus always defaults to medium reasoning effort — should remember max effort preference

Problem

When using Claude Code with Opus, it always opens with medium reasoning effort. I exclusively use max effort and have to manually change it every single time I start a conversation. This is really annoying and adds unnecessary friction.

Expected behavior

Claude Code should either:

1. Remember my last-used effort level and default to that on next conversation, or
2. Allow configuring a default reasoning effort in settings (e.g., in .claude/settings.json or similar)

Current behavior

Every new conversation with Opus starts at medium effort, requiring a manual switch to max effort before I can begin working.

Why this matters

For users who always work at max effort, this is a constant source of friction. There's no reason the tool shouldn't persist this preference — it already persists other user preferences.

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