Mode-aware reasoning effort / model switching (plan mode vs execution)
Problem
Plan mode benefits from high reasoning effort (deep thinking, architecture, trade-offs), while execution mode benefits from faster, cheaper inference. Today there's no way to switch automatically — MAX_THINKING_TOKENS and model selection in settings.json are global and require a session restart.
Users can manually flip profiles (e.g. via a keybinding that swaps Opus+high-thinking ↔ Sonnet+medium), but this relies on remembering to toggle on every mode change.
Requested
One of:
- Mode-aware settings — allow
settings.jsonto specify differentmodel/MAX_THINKING_TOKENSper permission mode:
``json``
{
"modes": {
"plan": { "model": "opus", "maxThinkingTokens": 32000 },
"acceptEdits": { "model": "sonnet", "maxThinkingTokens": 4000 }
}
}
- Mode exposed to hooks — surface the current permission mode in
UserPromptSubmit/ add aModeChangehook event, plus a supported way for a hook to adjust model / thinking budget for the next turn.
Either unlocks the pattern "think hard while planning, move fast while executing" without manual toggling.
Why it matters
- Aligns cost/latency with the actual cognitive demand of each phase
- Removes a class of "oops, forgot to switch back to Sonnet" waste
- Plays well with the existing plan-mode UX — the signal is already there, it's just not actionable
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