ZaStoGram_desktop/.agents/shared/phase-effort.md

Workflow phase effort

The parent selects effort before each phase or worker starts, using its actual scope and current evidence. Keep the parent model unless a host adapter below specifies otherwise. This policy applies to all three workflow skills and the evidence loop; it does not create extra delegation or change phase ownership.

Select effort

Work	Effort
Routine scheduler bookkeeping, helper-driven setup/publication, running already specified build or test commands, collecting artifacts, and mechanical text normalization	medium, only while no design, diagnosis, source repair, or verdict is needed
Context and planning, visual design, independent assessment, implementation, all review lenses and synthesis, fixes, evidence design/authoring/assessment, failure diagnosis, and convergence or rescoping	Default to xhigh
Inbox planning, split/discovery routing, pending-task consolidation, and a stateful performer that owns the whole implementation/evidence campaign	Default to xhigh

Use high instead of xhigh only when the parent is sure there is nothing complex in that phase and can state the concrete reason from the inspected scope. A short prompt, small diff, expected NOT_APPLICABLE, or time pressure is not enough. Unknown scope, ambiguous behavior, interacting subsystems, lifetime/concurrency/security concerns, or a failed earlier approach favor xhigh. Do not select below medium.

Classify the whole assignment. A worker that includes planning, repair, or judgment does not qualify for medium merely because it also runs commands. In particular, the scheduler's routine work does not make its performer or routing workers medium.

Include the selected effort and a brief scope reason in the existing worker prompt; for phase logs, also record the applied setting or inheritance fallback in the result's NOTES:. Give a concrete justification for every high choice.

If a medium execution phase encounters a failure needing diagnosis or repair, preserve the output and return it to the parent before expanding the work. The parent selects xhigh, or justified high, for that follow-up and resumes the existing validation/review contract. Likewise, unexpected complexity in a high phase calls for xhigh. Preserve completed artifacts and checks.

Apply on the current host

• Codex: When the exposed spawn schema supports it, pass reasoning_effort: "medium", "high", or "xhigh" as selected above. Omit model to retain the parent model. Use fork_turns: "none" or the smallest necessary positive turn window; a full-history fork cannot carry these overrides. Put required context and exact paths in the prompt.
• Claude Code: For an assignment classified as medium or justified high, pass model: "opus" on the Agent call. The high choice requires the parent's concrete reason from the inspected scope that the phase contains nothing complex, as above. For xhigh assignments, omit model and inherit the parent model; this remains the default for non-routine work. Do not pass a reasoning field: the Agent tool does not expose one. The opus pin changes the model; actual reasoning effort remains inherited.
• Grok Build: Keep the adapter's inherited model and effort; do not invent unsupported effort arguments.
• Same-session work or unavailable overrides: Retain the actual session setting and record that limitation in existing notes. Prompt wording does not change effort. Do not start another CLI process, modify global settings, or add workers solely to tune effort.

Re-evaluate effort before reusing a child for a new scope. If a disposable leaf needs an unavailable effort/model change, let its writes finish, then launch a fresh leaf with the selected setting and the saved artifacts. Keep the single stateful performer; do not replace it solely to change effort.