Expose thinking mode and effort level in status line JSON
Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Apr 1, 2026 by misette-boob Closed Apr 24, 2026
Problem
The status line script receives a JSON payload with session data, but it does not include thinking mode (extended thinking on/off) or effort level (low/medium/high).
Currently:
- Effort level is only available by reading
~/.claude/settings.jsondirectly, which works for/configchanges but may not reflect runtime overrides - Thinking mode toggled via
Alt+T(session-only) is not persisted anywhere accessible —alwaysThinkingEnabledin settings.json only reflects the/configtoggle
Requested behavior
Add two fields to the status line JSON payload:
{
"thinking_mode": true,
"effort_level": "high"
}
These should reflect the current runtime state regardless of how they were changed (settings.json, /config, Alt+T, /think, or any other method).
Use case
Users who customize their status line want to see at a glance whether thinking is active and what effort level is set — especially since these affect cost, latency, and response quality. Without runtime values in the JSON, the status line shows stale or incorrect information.
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