Thinking Levels (/think directives)
What it does
- Inline directive in any inbound body:
/t <level>, /think:<level>, or /thinking <level>.
- Levels (aliases):
off | minimal | low | medium | high | xhigh (GPT-5.2 + Codex models only)
- minimal → “think”
- low → “think hard”
- medium → “think harder”
- high → “ultrathink” (max budget)
- xhigh → “ultrathink+” (GPT-5.2 + Codex models only)
x-high, x_high, extra-high, extra high, and extra_high map to xhigh.highest, max map to high.
- Provider notes:
- Z.AI (
zai/*) only supports binary thinking (on/off). Any non-off level is treated as on (mapped to low).
Resolution order
- Inline directive on the message (applies only to that message).
- Session override (set by sending a directive-only message).
- Global default (
agents.defaults.thinkingDefault in config).
- Fallback: low for reasoning-capable models; off otherwise.
Setting a session default
- Send a message that is only the directive (whitespace allowed), e.g.
/think:medium or /t high.
- That sticks for the current session (per-sender by default); cleared by
/think:off or session idle reset.
- Confirmation reply is sent (
Thinking level set to high. / Thinking disabled.). If the level is invalid (e.g. /thinking big), the command is rejected with a hint and the session state is left unchanged.
- Send
/think (or /think:) with no argument to see the current thinking level.
Application by agent
- Embedded Pi: the resolved level is passed to the in-process Pi agent runtime.
Verbose directives (/verbose or /v)
-
Levels: on (minimal) |
full |
off (default). |
- Directive-only message toggles session verbose and replies
Verbose logging enabled. / Verbose logging disabled.; invalid levels return a hint without changing state.
/verbose off stores an explicit session override; clear it via the Sessions UI by choosing inherit.- Inline directive affects only that message; session/global defaults apply otherwise.
- Send
/verbose (or /verbose:) with no argument to see the current verbose level.
- When verbose is on, agents that emit structured tool results (Pi, other JSON agents) send each tool call back as its own metadata-only message, prefixed with
<emoji> <tool-name>: <arg> when available (path/command). These tool summaries are sent as soon as each tool starts (separate bubbles), not as streaming deltas.
- When verbose is
full, tool outputs are also forwarded after completion (separate bubble, truncated to a safe length). If you toggle /verbose on|full|off while a run is in-flight, subsequent tool bubbles honor the new setting.
Reasoning visibility (/reasoning)
- Levels:
on|off|stream.
- Directive-only message toggles whether thinking blocks are shown in replies.
- When enabled, reasoning is sent as a separate message prefixed with
Reasoning:.
stream (Telegram only): streams reasoning into the Telegram draft bubble while the reply is generating, then sends the final answer without reasoning.- Alias:
/reason.
- Send
/reasoning (or /reasoning:) with no argument to see the current reasoning level.
Heartbeats
- Heartbeat probe body is the configured heartbeat prompt (default:
Read HEARTBEAT.md if it exists (workspace context). Follow it strictly. Do not infer or repeat old tasks from prior chats. If nothing needs attention, reply HEARTBEAT_OK.). Inline directives in a heartbeat message apply as usual (but avoid changing session defaults from heartbeats).
- Heartbeat delivery defaults to the final payload only. To also send the separate
Reasoning: message (when available), set agents.defaults.heartbeat.includeReasoning: true or per-agent agents.list[].heartbeat.includeReasoning: true.
Web chat UI
- The web chat thinking selector mirrors the session’s stored level from the inbound session store/config when the page loads.
- Picking another level applies only to the next message (
thinkingOnce); after sending, the selector snaps back to the stored session level.
- To change the session default, send a
/think:<level> directive (as before); the selector will reflect it after the next reload.