Configuring thinking level per agent | Friends of the Crustacean 🦞🤝 | Page 1

languid cypress Mar 9, 2026, 9:47 AM

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I figured out how to set the model to use per agent (in agents.list - model property), but how do I define the thinking level for the agent? For example if I want to use GPT with thinking level "high", where do I configure that?

wooden craneBOT Mar 9, 2026, 9:47 AM

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analog plumeBOT Mar 9, 2026, 9:52 AM

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Thinking level isn’t configured next to agents.list[].model.

In OpenClaw, thinking is resolved per-message / per-session, with a global default:

Per message (one-off): add an inline directive like /think:high (or /t high)
Per session (sticky for that chat/session): send a message that is only /think:high
Global default (config): set agents.defaults.thinkingDefault

Config example (JSON5):

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      thinkingDefault: "high", // off|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh|adaptive
    },

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  },
}

Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/thinking (directive behavior + resolution order) and https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway/configuration-reference (search thinkingDefault)

If what you want is “Agent A always high, Agent B always off” purely via config, I don’t think that’s supported today (no agents.list[].thinkingDefault). Workaround is to set it once per session with /think:high in the chat you route to that agent.

#Configuring thinking level per agent