[BUG] Agent-teams — spawned teammates ignore the configured model/effort (settings.json + the lead's model), booting at defaults

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

ENVIRONMENT: Claude Code (experimental agent teams enabled), tmux backend, Linux.

Summary

When a team lead spawns a teammate, the new teammate boots at a DEFAULT model and effort level,
ignoring both (a) the model / effortLevel set in the active config dir's settings.json, and
(b) the lead's own model. The teammate's recorded config may even list the intended model, yet
the running process uses the default.

What Should Happen?

Reproduction

1. In the config dir's settings.json, set a specific model and a high effort level.
2. Run a team whose lead uses that model.
3. Have the lead spawn a teammate; inspect the teammate's running model/effort (e.g. via its

status line).

1. Observe: the teammate runs at the DEFAULT model/effort — settings.json and the lead's model

are both ignored for spawned teammates.

Expected vs actual

• Expected: a spawned teammate inherits the config dir's settings.json model/effort (or the

lead's), not a hardcoded default.

• Actual: teammates boot at the default model/effort regardless of configuration.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Impact

Teams silently run at the wrong model and effort. Operators must manually re-set model+effort on
every teammate after each spawn, and the recorded team config does not match the running process
(a correctness and cost surprise).

Suggested fix

Honor settings.json (model + effortLevel), and/or the lead's model, when spawning teammates.

Severity

Medium — silent; easy to miss; affects correctness and cost.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.172 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

_No response_