/agent-models

name: agent-models
description: Show, check, and change the model and effort every agent role runs on (interactive sessions, /vet reviewers, review panels, audits, Claude subagents and Workflow agents, prun workers, the Claude advisor) through the one registry at user/agent-models.json. Use when the user asks which model something runs on, wants to switch a model or effort, suspects a setting is not taking effect, or adds a script that launches a model.

agent-models

Overview

One file names the model and effort of every agent: `user/agent-models.json`, the registry. One script reads it: `scripts/agent_models.py`, the resolver. Nothing else in a source repository or a consumer names a concrete model or effort. A dispatcher asks the resolver at run time, and bootstrap writes the interactive values into each tool's own config.

This skill does not repeat the values. Run `show` to see them.

Find the resolver at `scripts/agent_models.py` in a source repository (`agent-config`, `anywhere-agents`) and at `.agent-config/repo/scripts/agent_models.py` in a consumer. Run it with the project's Python (`.agent-config/repo/scripts/_python` or `~/.claude/hooks/_python` finds one). The commands are the same under Claude Code, Codex, and any other agent, on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

The rules

1. **One row per family.** The registry has a row for `claude`, `codex`, and `agy`, and an optional row for `grok`. Every role of a family runs on that row unless the registry lists an override for the role. The advisor is the one role that never inherits it. 2. **Roles.** `interactive` is the session a person types into. `reviewer` covers every review: a `/vet` reviewer, a venue or proposal review panel, an internal-review audit. `worker` is a Claude subagent or Workflow agent that does fan-out work. `prun-worker` is a unit `prun` runs. `premium` is optional: a model whose plan allowance is small, for a writing task or another task the user decides is worth it. Nothing dispatches to it automatically, and every task works without it. `advisor` is the model Claude Code's advisor tool consults. It is optional, lists `claude` only, and carries a model with no effort. See "Use the advisor row". A role other than the advisor with no override equals the family row, so a review runs on the same model and effort as the interactive session by default. 3. **Exceptions are listed, never implied.** An override exists only as an entry under `roles` in the registry. If a role should differ from its family, add the entry there; do not put a value in a script, a skill, or a rule file. 4. **No literal outside the registry.** Code resolves at run time. Prose states the rule and points here. `tests/test_agent_models.py` scans the tracked files and fails on a concrete model name or effort value outside the registry, the changelog, archived records, and test fixtures. A line that must quote one (a past measurement, a parser example) carries the marker `agent-models: allow`. 5. **Per-run overrides stay possible.** `CODEX_DISPATCH_MODEL`, `CODEX_DISPATCH_REASONING`, `ANTIGRAVITY_DISPATCH_MODEL`, `ANTIGRAVITY_DISPATCH_EFFORT`, `GROK_DISPATCH_MODEL`, and `GROK_DISPATCH_EFFORT` change one run and outrank the registry. They are for a single run, not a place to keep a default. The Antigravity and Grok variables are read by both `/vet` and `prun`. 6. **Effective, not configured.** A value counts only when the CLI reports it ran on that value. Every dispatcher records the requested and the actual model and effort, and prints `MODEL-MISMATCH` when they differ. See "Check that it took effect".

How each tool receives its value

| Role | Path | |---|---| | Claude interactive | `user/settings.json` carries `model`, `effortLevel`, and the env entry `CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL`; `agent_models.py render` keeps them equal to the registry, and bootstrap merges the file into `~/.claude/settings.json`. | | Claude advisor | `user/settings.json` carries `advisorModel` while the registry lists an advisor; `render` keeps it equal to the registry, and bootstrap merges the file into `~/.claude/settings.json`. | | Claude reviewer | `dispatch-claude` passes `--model` and `--effort` and sets `CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL` in the child environment. | | Claude worker | The env entry `CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL` in `user/settings.json`. A subagent or Workflow agent that acts as a reviewer passes the reviewer model in the call, which outranks that entry. | | Codex interactive | `agent_models.py sync`, run by bootstrap, sets `model` and `model_reasoning_effort` at the top of `~/.codex/config.toml`. | | Codex reviewer | `dispatch-codex` passes `-c model=` and `-c model_reasoning_effort=`. | | Agy interactive | `sync` sets `model` in `~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/settings.json` to the display name `agy models` lists. | | Agy reviewer | `dispatch-gemini.py` takes the family stem and effort and floats to the newest version Agy lists. | | Grok reviewer / prun worker | No interactive config sync (`~/.grok/config.toml` is untouched). `dispatch-grok.py` and `dispatch-task-grok.py` pass `-m` and `--effort` from the `reviewer` and `prun-worker` rows; `verify --family grok` checks this dispatcher route. | | prun worker | `dispatch-task-agy.py` takes the Agy `prun-worker` row. `dispatch-task.sh` and `.ps1`, used only when the user names Codex for a unit, take the Codex one. `dispatch-task-grok.py`, used only when the user names Grok, takes the Grok one. |

Facts that explain most surprises:

• In Claude Code, `CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL` outranks `/effort`, `--effort`, and the per-model `modelSettings` entry that `/effort` saves. A session reads it once at start, so a running session keeps its old effort until it is restarted.
• A child `claude -p` inherits that variable from a Claude parent. `--setting-sources project,local` skips user settings but does not clear it.
• `codex exec --ignore-user-config` drops the configured model and effort, so the dispatcher passes b