effortLevel: "max" in settings.json not respected at startup

Bug

"effortLevel": "max" in ~/.claude/settings.json is silently ignored at startup — the session begins with ◐ medium in the status bar. Setting it to "high" works correctly.

Repro

1. Set "effortLevel": "max" in ~/.claude/settings.json
2. Start a new session (c)
3. Observe the status bar shows ◐ medium · /effort

Expected

Session should start with max effort.

Actual

Session starts with medium effort. Using /model to manually select max effort works fine within the session — the issue is only with the startup default.

Workaround

Setting "effortLevel": "high" is respected correctly. Only "max" is affected.

Environment

• Claude Code v2.1.100
• macOS (Darwin 25.4.0)