effort-profile

name	effort-profile
description	Adjust reasoning depth and workflow behavior — quick/standard/thorough profiles. Trigger: go faster, be more thorough, reasoning depth, effort level.
invocation	/effort <profile>
arguments	{"profile":{"description":"quick | standard | thorough (omit to show current)","required":false}}

Effort Profile Skill

Adjusts Claude's reasoning depth and workflow behavior for the session.

Usage

/effort quick      # Fast mode — typos, lookups, simple edits
/effort standard   # Default — features, refactoring, moderate tasks
/effort thorough   # Deep mode — architecture, security, critical code
/effort            # Show current profile and options

Profiles

quick (green)

For: Typos, simple edits, file reads, lookups, one-line changes.

Behavior:

• Medium reasoning effort
• Skip brainstorming
• Minimal verification
• Direct answers without elaboration
• Do NOT use superpowers:brainstorming or superpowers:verification-before-completion unless explicitly asked

Session instruction: "Skip brainstorming. Minimal verification. Direct answers. Don't use superpowers:brainstorming or superpowers:verification-before-completion unless explicitly asked."

---

standard (default)

For: Features, refactoring, moderate bug fixes, multi-step tasks.

Behavior:

• High reasoning effort (default)
• Standard verification before completion
• Follow workflow defaults from CLAUDE.md
• Use superpowers as directed by CLAUDE.md quality gates

Session instruction: "Follow standard workflow defaults from CLAUDE.md."

---

thorough (orange)

For: Architecture decisions, security-critical code, complex debugging, irreversible changes.

Behavior:

• Maximum reasoning effort
• MANDATORY brainstorming before any creative/feature work
• Run /evaluate after every implementation
• Use superpowers:verification-before-completion before claiming done
• Consider adversarial review for critical changes
• Apply full Failure-Mode Checklist for Station 2+ actions

Session instruction: "MANDATORY: Use superpowers:brainstorming before any creative work. Run /evaluate after every implementation. Use superpowers:verification-before-completion before claiming done. Consider adversarial review for critical changes."

---

Mechanism

When a profile is selected, this skill:

1. Writes profile state to ~/.claude/cache/current-effort-profile.json:

   {
     "profile": "<quick|standard|thorough>",
     "setAt": "<ISO timestamp>"
   }
   

2. Outputs the session-level behavioral instruction for the selected profile

3. Displays a confirmation showing what changed

Implementation Steps

When this skill is invoked, Claude should:

1. Parse the profile argument from the /effort invocation
2. If no argument given, read ~/.claude/cache/current-effort-profile.json and show current profile
3. Validate the profile is one of: quick, standard, thorough
4. Write the profile state using the Write tool to ~/.claude/cache/current-effort-profile.json:

   {"profile": "<name>", "setAt": "<ISO timestamp>"}
   

5. Output the behavioral instruction and confirmation (see format below)

Confirmation Output Format

Effort profile set: [PROFILE NAME]

Reasoning: [medium|high|max]
Brainstorming: [skipped|optional|mandatory]
Verification: [minimal|standard|mandatory]

Session instruction active:
"[instruction text]"

Notes

• Profile persists for the current session only (written to cache, not settings)
• standard is always the fallback if no profile is set
• thorough overrides any shortcuts — even if a task seems simple
• Profile does not affect tool permissions, only behavioral guidance