Models and aliases

This page describes model selection, model tiers, reasoning effort, and aliases.

Overview

The LLM provider layer decouples prompt handling from the underlying LLM backend. All providers share a common preprocessing pipeline, subprocess streaming mechanism, and postprocessing workflow. The actual LLM invocation is delegated to a pluggable provider selected at runtime.

Key design principles:

• Providers are thin: They only construct CLI commands and run subprocesses. All preprocessing and postprocessing lives in the shared orchestration layer.
• Registry-based selection: Providers register themselves by name and are resolved via config or explicit override.
• Tier-based model selection: Callers request a "large" or "small" tier; the provider maps it to a concrete model.
• Runtime-uniform commit enforcement: SASE agent runs use a shared commit finalizer instead of provider-specific native stop hooks.

Moved to LLM invocation internals.

Per-Prompt Provider Switching

The %model directive (see macro directives) can switch both the model and the LLM provider for a single prompt. Provider resolution uses configured aliases first, then concrete provider/model syntax and known model metadata.

Configured Model Aliases

Use llm_provider.model_aliases.custom to define launch-time aliases for reusable prompts. Each custom alias must carry a short description:

llm_provider:
  model_aliases:
    custom:
      fast:
        model: claude/sonnet
        description: Quick follow-up agents.

Use llm_provider.model_aliases.builtin only to override the five size aliases (see below):

llm_provider:
  model_aliases:
    builtin:
      large: "@xlarge"
      medium: codex/gpt-6.1-sol@xhigh

Then prompts can use the alias with a leading @:

%model:@fast
%{%m:@fast | %m:gpt-6.1-sol}

Agents launched through the @<alias> spelling show that launch-time provenance in their Model: field, for example Model: CLAUDE(sonnet) ← @fast or Model: CLAUDE(sonnet) @ high ← @fast. The chip records the alias named at launch and is never re-resolved, so completed agents keep telling the truth after an alias is retargeted, overridden, or deleted. Launches without a %model directive record whichever alias llm_provider.default_model currently references the same way — ← @large under the shipped default — and omit the chip entirely when default_model resolves to a concrete model with no alias reference.

Alias values may point at another alias (for example @large or @medium), a bare known model such as opus, an explicit provider/model string such as claude/opus, or a nested provider-local path such as opencode/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5. An alias reference may carry a trailing effort such as @large@high, which overrides the referenced alias's effort; an effort on the outer reference still wins. Alias-to-alias chains are followed with cycle and depth protection; a cyclic or unresolved reference falls back to the raw input rather than crashing a launch. The @ marker is only directive surface syntax: alias keys and macro values stay bare. A bare configured/implicit alias raises with a migration hint, and @ in front of a non-alias raises.

An alias value can instead use one of two selector operators, or a parenthesized last-resort form that combines them. A | B is an availability-filtered round-robin pool: each real LLM invocation advances the machine-global cursor in ~/.sase/llm_lb.json exactly once, under a machine-wide lock, immediately before the provider is called — never during metadata preparation, a display/marker preview, or a doctor/dry-run check, which only peek. The cursor is the next position in that pool's weighted cycle (identical to a member index when every weight is 1). Any alias that merely delegates to a pool-owning alias (directly or through further aliasing) shares that pool-owning alias's cursor rather than keeping one of their own. A || B is an ordered fallback chain: the first registered provider whose CLI is installed and not hard-disabled always wins — a soft-disabled first candidate still wins, so a soft disable never diverts the chain — and resolution never reads or changes the round-robin cursor, including during a real launch. (A | B) || C is a last-resort expression: the parenthesized | pool is primary, and the || tail is used only when every pool member is unavailable (CLI missing, unregistered, or hard-disabled). An all-soft pool still rotates among itself and does not divert. Selecting a last-resort candidate does not consume the pool cursor. A real soft disable is not the same thing as a priority backup: usable primary members without an actual soft disable outrank actually soft-disabled members even when the priority provider is only in the tail, absent, or unavailable. A queued pool reservation can be invalidated before invocation — redemption re-checks the reserved primary member, spends it when an actual soft disable now has a usable non-soft primary alternative, and then performs one fresh consuming resolution. Priority-only backups stay redeemable, and a healthy tail alone does not invalidate a soft primary reservation. Unparenthesized A | B || C is still rejected. Fallback and last-resort selection are based on the cached CLI-installation probe (including SASE_<PROVIDER>_PATH) plus a captured active-disable snapshot, not a later model or runtime failure; SASE does not relaunch with the next candidate after such a failure. If every provider is unavailable, both modes preserve a candidate for the ordinary provider lookup to report: fallback (and a last-resort tail) preserves its first member, while a pool with no tail preserves its current rotation choice.

A temporary provider priority is a preference layer for | pools. When the priority provider is an available member, that member is preferred and other usable providers remain labeled backups; the selector expression, weights, and cursor are not rewritten. Priority does not reorder || fallback chains and does not displace direct %model:provider/model intent. Hard disables and missing CLIs still make a provider unavailable, even if it has active priority intent. Priority backups are not actual soft disables, so a usable non-soft primary member still outranks an actually soft-disabled member when the two would otherwise share the same sparing label.

Both selectors accept two or more members using the same single-target grammar, including candidate-specific trailing reasoning effort. A load-balanced pool member may be prefixed with a positive integer weight and at least one space (A | 3 B selects B three times as often as A, spreading B's turns through the cycle). Valid weights are 1–99; weight 1 is the default and is omitted from the canonical spelling. Weights are invalid in || ordered fallback chains and last-resort tails. Whitespace is trimmed and empty members are invalid. Unparenthesized | and || cannot be mixed in one value. A member may follow an ordinary alias chain but cannot reach another pool or fallback, including when it sits in a last-resort tail. Selector expressions are config-only: %model values, launch-scoped alias overrides, and temporary overrides remain single targets. sase's TUI Launch Control's persistent Edit path authors selectors directly — hand-typed in the custom input or assembled with a guided pool/fallback builder (w/W raise and lower a pool member's weight; f adds a last-resort candidate) — while its temporary Override path refuses a typed pool or fallback outright, pointing at Edit, rather than silently accepting and corrupting it. An override on the alias that owns a selector bypasses that expression for the override's lifetime. sase's TUI Launch Control shows every member's availability, an aggregate pool <available>/<total> chip that counts only pool members (not the last-resort tail), and a → on the current selection. A temporary alias override labels the member list suspended only while its provider is available. If its provider is hard-disabled, the stored override is paused, the live selector target is shown instead, and the override resumes automatically after the provider disable is cleared or expires while the override itself is still active. A soft disable does not pause the override.

To verify pool fairness from real launches, count recorded llm_provider/model pairs for agents whose metadata has a matching model_alias value for the alias being audited — a no-%model launch's model_alias records whichever alias llm_provider.default_model currently references, @large under the shipped default. Over a full weighted cycle the member counts should match the configured weight ratio (an unweighted two-member pool stays within one launch of each other), ignoring periods where provider availability caused a member to be skipped.

When the same name appears in both maps, model_aliases.custom wins. sase doctor -C config.model_aliases warns about flat keys in model_aliases, removed top-level custom_model_aliases, custom names under model_aliases.builtin, builtin names under model_aliases.custom, collisions between the two maps, missing custom descriptions/models, dangling @alias references, empty or mixed selectors, and nested selectors. Unavailable selector providers are reported as informational notes; for an ordered fallback the note also identifies the current winner. In sase's TUI, Launch Control shows descriptions from config; a user alias without one shows the llm_provider.model_aliases.custom.<name>.description path to fix.

The same alias vocabulary appears in the %model: / %m: completion menu in sase's TUI and in editors through the macro LSP: alias rows sit beneath the concrete model names with their kind, resolved PROVIDER(model) target, and provenance, and typing @ right after the colon narrows the menu to aliases only. Concrete model rows and provider-scope rows for hard-disabled providers are omitted, while aliases remain and show their current fallback target. Soft-disabled providers stay in the menu, annotated soft; priority providers are annotated priority, and providers left behind the active priority provider are annotated backup. Provider rows such as claude/ sit at the bottom of the broad menu; accepting one opens that provider's scoped model list and inserts qualified values such as claude/opus. See macro directive syntax for the row anatomy. The completion menu is read-only; sase's TUI Launch Control (,m) remains the authoritative place to edit alias targets and to set or clear temporary overrides.

There are no built-in Launch Control buckets: the compact five-size-alias contract ships no automatic grouping. sase's TUI Launch Control instead shows the three scalar launch model settings (default model, epic lander, big epic lander) as their own rows, alongside the five size aliases and any custom aliases. Optional model_aliases.buckets.<name> metadata still creates a display-only bucket for custom aliases: a collapsed bucket summarizes its effective-model mix and active overrides, opening it exposes independently editable aliases, and a custom alias tagged with bucket: <name> coalesces into that bucket.

A bare %model token that is not a configured alias, an explicit provider/model target, or a known provider model silently falls back to the default provider rather than erroring. To catch this drift — for example a removed model_aliases entry that quietly reroutes a #m_<provider>_* preset to the default provider — sase doctor (-C config.model_macros) scans configured model presets and warns with <macro> -> <token> does not resolve to a provider; it will fall back to the default provider. The check is provider-neutral and read-only. For retired prompt directive syntax such as %wait(priority=...), use sase doctor -C config.macro_directives.

Macro model inputs

A macro input declared with type: model (see Supported Types) is valid exactly when %model:<value> would be accepted by the directive parser and would route to a provider without the default-provider fallback. Aliases need @ (@large routes; bare large does not). provider/model is open for unknown model ids (codex/new-model routes) and closed for unknown providers (cluade/opus does not). A trailing @<level> peels only when <level> is one of the seven effort levels; any other @suffix is rejected unless the body before it would route on its own. Validation never moves the alias cursor, never checks provider availability, and never changes %model fallback: %model:opsu still parses and still falls back to the default provider at launch.

Implicit role aliases

On top of any aliases you configure, SASE always exposes a fixed set of implicit role aliases that resolve even when you have not defined them: @xsmall, @small, @medium, @large, and @xlarge. Each is a direct selector — a concrete model, an A | B round-robin pool, an A || B ordered fallback, or a parenthesized (A | B) || C last-resort — with no further alias indirection. Three related scalar config fields, llm_provider.default_model, llm_provider.epic_lander_model, and llm_provider.big_epic_lander_model, are not aliases themselves, but ship with the same kind of automatic, shipped-default target and accept the same model-expression grammar; this section covers both. The current shipped size-alias defaults are generated from src/sase/llm_provider/models.yml:

Alias	Description	Shipped default
@xsmall	Extra-small launch alias for lookup, formatting, and tiny edits with obvious checks.	claude/claude-haiku-5-5@xhigh \| codex/gpt-6-luna@medium \| agy/gemini-3.8-flash-high \| muse/muse-spark-1.3-contributor@medium
@small	Small launch alias for straightforward task and phase work.	claude/sonnet@high \| codex/gpt-6-luna@high \| grok/grok-4.6@medium \| muse/muse-spark-1.3-contributor@high
@medium	Medium launch alias for ordinary implementation work.	claude/sonnet@xhigh \| codex/gpt-6-luna@xhigh \| grok/grok-4.6@high \| muse/muse-spark-1.3-contributor@xhigh
@large	Large launch alias for planning-heavy work and default launches.	claude/opus@high \| codex/gpt-6.1-sol@xhigh \| grok/grok-4.7@xhigh
@xlarge	Extra-large launch alias for maximum-effort work.	claude/opus@xhigh \|\| codex/gpt-6.1-sol@xhigh \|\| grok/grok-4.7@xhigh

Override any of the five size aliases by configuring llm_provider.model_aliases.builtin.<size> with a matching name (xsmall, small, medium, large, or xlarge). Override the three scalar launch-model settings directly under llm_provider instead — they are plain config fields, not model_aliases.builtin entries:

The generated provider configuration reference lists these fields and their shipped defaults.

An outer effort suffix and an approval-time concrete model remain authoritative over either kind of override. Accepted tale follow-ups without an explicit model use the validated tale size to choose the matching size alias directly; tales without stored size normalize to @medium. Threshold-selected epic land agents diverge from the launch default entirely: epic_lander_model governs below-threshold epics and big_epic_lander_model governs epics at or above bead.big_epic_phase_threshold, independent of default_model and of each other — see Role Aliases for Delegated Work for the full per-role breakdown. A configured alias value or temporary override still takes precedence over a role's shipped target.

llm_provider:
  default_model: "@large"
  epic_lander_model: "@large"
  big_epic_lander_model: codex/gpt-6.1-sol # large epic land agents only
  model_alias_history_limit: 10
  model_aliases:
    builtin:
      xsmall: claude/haiku@minimal | codex/gpt-4.1-mini@low
      small: claude/haiku | codex/gpt-4.1-mini
      medium: codex/o3@xhigh | claude/sonnet@xhigh
      large: codex/gpt-6.1-sol@xhigh | claude/opus@xhigh
      xlarge: claude/sonnet@max

Source: src/sase/llm_provider/models.yml (built-in model catalogs, tier defaults, and shipped size-alias defaults — the single edit point), src/sase/llm_provider/model_launch_settings.py (the three scalar launch-model settings), src/sase/llm_provider/model_alias_policy.py

Launch-scoped alias overrides

A prompt can override the five size aliases (or a custom alias) for its SASE-created launch lineage with keyword arguments on %model(...):

%model(opus, medium=codex/gpt-6.1-sol)
%model(medium=claude/sonnet)

The positional value, when present, selects the current agent's model. Without one, the current agent starts from llm_provider.default_model and resolves through the normal alias chain using the map at every hop — so a keyword matching the alias that default_model currently references (large= under the shipped default) changes the current launch directly, while a keyword for an unrelated alias normally affects only a later delegated launch that routes through that alias. Keyword keys are bare size or custom alias names — llm_provider.default_model, epic_lander_model, and big_epic_lander_model are config fields, not keys accepted here. Values may be concrete model targets or @other_alias references. The map is stored in agent metadata and inherited by SASE-created plan/coder follow-ups. An explicit %id(suffix, session=parent) attachment inherits it only when the attached prompt supplies no alias keywords. Ordinary nested launches do not inherit it. This is a propagation rule, not a change to sase.yml or ~/.sase/llm_override.json.

Launch-scoped values have the highest alias-resolution precedence. They beat machine-wide per-alias temporary overrides and configured/implicit aliases at every hop; a launch-scoped keyword matching the alias default_model references also beats the machine-wide temporary override on the default model setting. An explicit concrete model for the current agent remains concrete, while an explicit alias is resolved through this launch map. See Launch-Scoped Model Alias Overrides for syntax and validation rules.

For migration from older role aliases, see the provider migration notes.

Explicit Provider/Model Syntax

Use provider/model to specify both explicitly:

%model:codex/o3
%model:claude/opus
%model:agy/gemini-3.6-flash-high
%model:qwen/qwen3.6-plus
%model:opencode/anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5
%model:muse/muse-spark-1.3
%model:grok/grok-4.7
%model:fakey/fakey-large

In sase's TUI and macro-aware editors, %model: completion includes provider rows such as claude/, codex/, and opencode/ after concrete models and aliases. Typing or accepting a visible provider prefix scopes the menu to that provider, so %m:claude/ offers claude/opus, claude/sonnet, and the rest of Claude's model catalog while %m:opencode/anthropic/ continues narrowing inside OpenCode's slash-bearing model names.

Automatic Provider Resolution

Known model names are automatically mapped to their provider. The per-provider catalog is the generated Built-in Model Catalog below — consult it for the current names rather than any list here.

Each installed plugin contributes its own model names via the llm_known_model_names() hook.

fakey is deliberately hidden from sase's TUI model picker and the %model completion menu (a provider opts in via the llm_hidden_from_model_pickers() hook) since it exists only for testing. Routing, resolution, autodetect, and short aliases are unaffected — %model:fakey-large and the explicit fakey/fakey-large syntax above still work, and typing either by hand (or via the picker's Custom... entry) still selects it.

For unrecognized model names, the prompt falls back to the default provider and a warning is logged at invocation time.

Source: src/sase/llm_provider/registry.py, src/sase/llm_provider/_invoke.py

Built-in Model Catalog

The bundled manifest catalogues every model each built-in provider knows by name, in picker and completion order. This table is generated from src/sase/llm_provider/models.yml:

Provider	Known models
agy	gemini-4-argon-high, gemini-4-argon-medium, gemini-4-argon-low, gemini-3.8-flash-high, gemini-3.8-flash-medium, gemini-3.8-flash-low, gemini-3.7-flash-high, gemini-3.7-flash-medium, gemini-3.7-flash-low, gemini-3.6-flash-high, gemini-3.6-flash-medium, gemini-3.6-flash-low, gemini-3.5-flash-high, gemini-3.5-flash-medium, gemini-3.5-flash-low, gemini-3.1-pro-high, gemini-3.1-pro-low, claude-sonnet-4-6, claude-opus-4-6-thinking, gpt-oss-120b-medium
claude	opus, sonnet, haiku, claude-haiku-5-5, claude-haiku-4-5, claude-fable-5
codex	gpt-6-astra, gpt-6.1-sol, gpt-6-luna, gpt-5.6-sol, gpt-5.6-terra, gpt-5.6-luna, gpt-5.5, gpt-5.3-codex, gpt-5.3-codex-spark, codex-mini-latest, o3, o4-mini, gpt-5.4, gpt-4.1, gpt-4.1-mini, gpt-4o, gpt-4o-mini
grok	grok-4.7, grok-4.6
muse	muse-wonder-1.0, muse-wonder-1.0-contributor, muse-wonder-full-1.0, muse-wonder-full-1.0-contributor, muse-spark-1.3, muse-spark-1.3-contributor, muse-spark-1.2, muse-spark-1.2-contributor, muse-spark-1.1
opencode	anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5, anthropic/claude-opus-4-5, openai/gpt-5, openai/gpt-5-mini, google/gemini-3-flash-preview, qwen/qwen3-coder-plus
qwen	qwen3.6-plus, qwen3-coder-plus, qwen3-coder-flash, qwen3-max, qwen-plus, qwen-max

Model Short Aliases

Providers also declare compact display shorthands for long model ids via the llm_model_short_aliases() hook. These shorthands appear in provider/model agent-name suffixes on the Agents tab and act as filter terms in the coder model picker. They are display-only: %model resolution uses known model names and configured model aliases, not these shorthands. For example, %model:fable does not select claude-fable-5 — it falls back to the default provider (with a warning) unless you define fable as a configured model alias yourself.

Provider	Shorthands
agy	gemini-4-argon-high → argon4h, gemini-4-argon-medium → argon4m, gemini-4-argon-low → argon4l, gemini-3.8-flash-high → flash38h, gemini-3.8-flash-medium → flash38m, gemini-3.8-flash-low → flash38l, gemini-3.7-flash-high → flash37h, gemini-3.7-flash-medium → flash37m, gemini-3.7-flash-low → flash37l, gemini-3.6-flash-high → flash36h, gemini-3.6-flash-medium → flash36m, gemini-3.6-flash-low → flash36l, gemini-3.5-flash-high → flash35h, gemini-3.5-flash-medium → flash35m, gemini-3.5-flash-low → flash35l, gemini-3.1-pro-high → pro31h, gemini-3.1-pro-low → pro31l, claude-sonnet-4-6 → sonnet46, claude-opus-4-6-thinking → opus46t, gpt-oss-120b-medium → gptoss120m
claude	claude-haiku-5-5 → haiku55, claude-haiku-4-5 → haiku45, claude-fable-5 → fable
codex	gpt-6-astra → astra, gpt-6.1-sol → gpt61sol, gpt-6-luna → gpt6luna, codex-mini-latest → mini, gpt-5.6-sol → gpt56sol, gpt-5.6-terra → gpt56terra, gpt-5.6-luna → gpt56luna, gpt-5.5 → gpt55, gpt-5.4 → gpt54, gpt-5.3-codex-spark → gpt53spark, gpt-5.3-codex → gpt53, gpt-4.1 → gpt41, gpt-4.1-mini → gpt41m, gpt-4o-mini → gpt4om
grok	—
muse	muse-wonder-1.0 → wonder10, muse-wonder-1.0-contributor → wonder10c, muse-wonder-full-1.0 → wonderfull10, muse-wonder-full-1.0-contributor → wonderfull10c, muse-spark-1.3 → spark13, muse-spark-1.3-contributor → spark13c, muse-spark-1.2 → spark12, muse-spark-1.2-contributor → spark12c, muse-spark-1.1 → spark11
opencode	anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5 → sonnet45, anthropic/claude-opus-4-5 → opus45, openai/gpt-5 → gpt5, openai/gpt-5-mini → gpt5m, google/gemini-3-flash-preview → flash3, qwen/qwen3-coder-plus → qwen3cp
qwen	qwen3.6-plus → qwen36p, qwen3-coder-plus → qwen3cp, qwen3-coder-flash → qwen3cf

The hidden fakey test provider is not part of the shipped manifest; it additionally declares fakey-large → fakeyl and fakey-small → fakeys for tests.

Source: src/sase/llm_provider/models.yml (built-in providers answer the llm_model_short_aliases() hook from the manifest)

Model Advisories

A provider can flag individual models with an advisory through the llm_model_advisories() hook — a discounted tier that trains on its inputs, a preview model with no stability guarantee, and so on. Each advisory is {"severity": "warn"|"info", "label": <short>, "detail": <sentence>}. Providers that omit the hook contribute nothing, so the map is empty on an install with no advisory-flagged models.

Advisories render at every point a user meets the model, all reading from the registry so no render site hardcodes a model id:

Surface	Rendering
sase's TUI model picker	⚠ <label> suffix on the row, with detail as secondary text
%model completion detail	— ⚠ <label> appended to the completion description
Resolved model label	An inline ⚠ marker for the run's whole life
sase doctor -C llm.model_advisory	A warning naming each configured route that lands on one

⚠ (orange) marks severity: "warn"; ⓘ (blue) marks severity: "info".

The doctor check resolves the configured default and every configured model alias and warns — it never fails — when one routes SASE traffic to an advisory-flagged model. Opting in globally is the user's call; doing it without being told is not. For that reason, no bundled provider's tier map points at an advisory-flagged model, and a test asserts that so a future cost optimization cannot quietly reintroduce the problem. The tier map is not the only automatic route, though: whichever shipped size aliases include an advisory-flagged member (see the generated shipped size-alias defaults) warn on a stock install, whichever member the round-robin cursor currently selects. Override llm_provider.model_aliases.builtin.<size> to drop the member.

The bundled advisories are the manifest's advisories entries (see Muse Code Integration for the Contributor rationale, and Antigravity (agy) Integration for the informational Gemini 4 Argon entitlement advisory). Muse Wonder Full also carries an informational advisory because Muse Code offers it only on Power and Maximum plans and Meta does not serve it through the Meta Model API.

Source: model_advisory_map() / model_advisory_for() in src/sase/llm_provider/registry.py, src/sase/doctor/checks_providers_advisory.py

Reasoning Effort

A prompt can request a reasoning-effort level for its agent, and a config default can apply one to every launch. The public surface spells it effort; the threaded/stored field is named reasoning_effort everywhere internally.

Requesting an Effort

There are five ways an effort reaches a launch, in precedence order:

1. An explicit per-prompt %effort:<level> directive, or the @<level> suffix on a %model/alias reference (%model:opus@xhigh, %model:@large@medium). See Effort Directive for the directive syntax and per-branch fan-out (%{%m:opus@xhigh | %m:sonnet@low}).
2. A trailing effort on the selected alias target, temporary model override, or pool member (for example claude/opus@medium). An outer alias-reference suffix wins over effort carried by the alias target.
3. An active machine-wide temporary default-effort override from ~/.sase/llm_effort_override.json.
4. The llm_provider.default_effort config value, applied when none of the higher-precedence sources sets effort.
5. Nothing — the provider runs at its own built-in default.

The canonical effort vocabulary, ordered least → most, is none, minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, max. Spelling is validated globally; which levels a given provider honors is decided per provider (below).

sase's TUI Launch Control shows the launch-effective default in its header (default effort: @ <level>), or says provider default when none is configured. The top-bar launch-default pill shows the same launch-effective default as <shortest %model value>[@<effort>] (for example grok-4.7@high, or codex/o3@high when the bare model name does not unambiguously name its provider), omitting the suffix when that value is unset. The pill is toned with the launch default's provider — the model in that provider's model hue and the @<effort> suffix in a recessive tone from the same hue family — while its hover tooltip keeps the unchanged PROVIDER(model) form. An active temporary value carries an override countdown plus an annotation for the underlying configured value. Alias-borne effort appears only on rows that explicitly pin or inherit a suffix, beside the provider/model badge; the description strip compares it with the current effective default. For pools, each member keeps its own suffix in the member list and the row badge reflects the next selected member.

Press Ctrl+E in Launch Control for the global default-effort workflow. e opens a permanent Edit and o opens a temporary Override; when an override is active, x clears it. Both paths use the canonical single-key ladder (1 none through 7 max). Edit additionally offers 0 Provider default and writes the empty sentinel to the user-base sase.yml after a source-preserving preview. With use_chezmoi, the preview names and writes the chezmoi source, applies its home target, and offers the standard tracked commit/pull/push flow when that source is dirty in Git.

Temporary Override reuses the full alias duration UI: 15m, 30m, 1h, 2h, 4h, Until cleared, combined custom durations, and t for an exact configured-timezone end. The versioned ~/.sase/llm_effort_override.json record contains effort, created_at, optional expires_at, and source. Writes are atomically replaced under a bounded advisory lock; malformed and expired state self-cleans, with now >= expires_at considered expired. A permanent edit does not displace an active temporary override, and neither kind of change mutates already-running agents.

Explicit vs. Default Semantics

The distinction between an explicitly requested effort and a config-default effort governs what happens on a provider that cannot honor the requested level:

• Explicit (%effort/@effort): an unsupported level raises an error — SASE never silently launches at a different effort than you asked for.
• Config-derived (an alias-target suffix, temporary default override, or llm_provider.default_effort): best-effort. Unsupported levels are logged and skipped so shared configuration never breaks an agy/qwen run.

Provider Support Matrix

Provider	Mechanism	Supported levels	Rejected
Claude	--effort <level>	low, medium, high, xhigh, max	none, minimal
Codex	-c model_reasoning_effort="<level>"	minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh	none, max
OpenCode	--variant <level>	all (validated by OpenCode/model)	—
Antigravity (agy)	none today	—	all
Qwen	none today	—	all
Muse Code	--reasoning-effort <level>	all seven (max for standard 1.3)	—
Grok Build	--effort <level>	low, medium, high, xhigh	none, minimal, max
Fakey	--effort <level>	all	—

For agy and qwen (no reasoning-effort mechanism today), every level is "unsupported": an explicit effort raises, while a config-default effort is skipped with a warning. The effort args are appended alongside the existing SASE_LLM_*_ARGS / SASE_<P>_LARGE_ARGS escape hatches, which remain available.

Source: src/sase/macro/effort.py (vocabulary + split_model_effort), src/sase/llm_provider/config.py (resolve_effective_effort, the temporary-effort facade, and the public default_reasoning_effort config reader), src/sase/llm_provider/_effort_args.py (per-provider translation).

Model Tier System

The model tier system abstracts away specific model names. Callers request either "large" (most capable) or "small" (faster/cheaper), and the provider maps the tier to a concrete model.

Type Definition

ModelTier = Literal["large", "small"]

Provider Tier Defaults

Each built-in provider maps the two tiers to one of its catalogued models. This table is generated from src/sase/llm_provider/models.yml; each provider section above carries its own generated tier table with the same values:

Provider	Large tier	Small tier
agy	gemini-3.7-flash-high	gemini-3.7-flash-low
claude	opus	sonnet
codex	gpt-6.1-sol	codex-mini-latest
grok	grok-4.7	grok-4.6
muse	muse-wonder-1.0	muse-spark-1.3
opencode	anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5	openai/gpt-5-mini
qwen	qwen3.6-plus	qwen3-coder-flash

Global Override

The model tier can be overridden globally via environment variable or CLI flag. The override forces ALL invocations to use the specified tier regardless of what the caller requests.

Resolution order:

1. SASE_MODEL_TIER_OVERRIDE env var (accepts "large", "small", "big", "little")
2. SASE_MODEL_SIZE_OVERRIDE env var (same values)
3. --model-tier / --model-size CLI flag (sets the env var)
4. Caller's model_tier parameter (default: "large")

Maintaining the Built-in Catalog

A routine built-in model addition, tier change, or size-pool retune is a one-file edit:

# 1. Edit the bundled manifest.
$EDITOR src/sase/llm_provider/models.yml
# 2. Regenerate the mirrored tables in this document.
just fix
# 3. Verify formatting, policy, and tests.
just check

just check (and CI) fails on stale generated content or invalid manifest policy, so a forgotten regeneration or a policy breach is caught before landing. The generated Markdown is an expected review diff — no hand edits to prose tables are needed.

Three concepts share the manifest but mean different things:

• Catalog membership (Built-in Model Catalog) is what a provider knows by name: picker rows, %model:provider/model routing, and completion.
• Tier defaults (Provider Tier Defaults) are each provider's "large"/"small" invocation choices.
• Pool selection (Implicit role aliases) is which catalog members the five shipped size aliases (@xsmall … @xlarge) route to, at which effort.

Role Aliases for Delegated Work

Delegated launches do not use a separate "worker lane". Instead, each delegated role resolves through a size-specific implicit role alias, or, for epic land agents, through one of the two epic-lander launch-model settings:

• Coder follow-ups from an accepted tale use the validated tale size to select @xsmall, @small, @medium, @large, or @xlarge directly. Tale plans without size metadata use @medium.
• sase bead work phase agents without an explicit per-bead model use the size alias matching their normalized size: @xsmall, @small, @medium, @large, or @xlarge. See Implicit role aliases for the current shipped defaults. xsmall, small, and medium phases implement directly; only large and xlarge phases receive #plan. An explicit per-bead model is accepted at every size and always wins without changing the size-based planning policy.
• Standalone task-bead workers use the task's explicit model when set. Otherwise, a stored task size selects the matching size alias above, while a task without size metadata uses @small. Like epic phases, large and xlarge tasks receive an automatic #plan; xsmall, small, and medium tasks implement directly. New tasks require an explicit size, and agents use /sase_new_task before creation to rule out duplicates and active epic work; the fallback applies to records without a stored size.
• Epic land agents without an explicit land model use llm_provider.epic_lander_model, or llm_provider.big_epic_lander_model when their authored phase count meets bead.big_epic_phase_threshold (default 5). Both settings resolve independently of llm_provider.default_model and of the size aliases, and each ships with its own default (@large and @xlarge respectively) — see Implicit role aliases.

Validated Epic approvals create beads and launch sase bead work directly; there is no epic-creator model lane.

Planning agents stay on llm_provider.default_model (shipped @large) unless their prompt explicitly asks for a different model. To send delegated work to a second provider, configure the matching size alias under llm_provider.model_aliases.builtin, or point one of the three scalar launch-model settings at a different target:

llm_provider:
  provider: claude
  default_model: "@large"
  epic_lander_model: "@large"
  big_epic_lander_model: codex/gpt-6.1-sol # threshold-selected epic landers run on Codex
  model_aliases:
    builtin:
      xsmall: claude/haiku@minimal | codex/gpt-4.1-mini@low
      small: claude/haiku | codex/gpt-4.1-mini
      medium: codex/gpt-5.5@xhigh | claude/sonnet@xhigh
      large: codex/gpt-6.1-sol@xhigh | claude/opus@xhigh
      xlarge: claude/sonnet@max # xlarge phase/epic maximum-effort target

Xsmall phases/tasks/tale-follow-ups use the @xsmall pool, small ones the @small pool, medium ones @medium, large ones @large, and xlarge ones the @xlarge ordered fallback. Sizeless standalone tasks fall back to @small; sizeless tale follow-ups fall back to @medium. Normal epic landers use llm_provider.epic_lander_model, and threshold-selected epic landers use llm_provider.big_epic_lander_model, independent of the size aliases and of llm_provider.default_model. See Implicit role aliases for the current shipped defaults. Explicit %model directives, approval-picker model choices, direct alias overrides, and per-bead/land model metadata always win over role defaults.

For retired worker and capability aliases, see the provider migration notes.

Related

• Providers and models — the provider integration overview.
• Provider routing — temporary selection controls.

_[project]: A sase project is a named unit of work registered with SASE. _[workspace]: A sase workspace is a numbered clone of a project's primary repo, managed by the workspace store and tracked in that project's registry.json. _[agent]: A sase agent is an agent session or a single agent that does not belong to a session. _[prompt]: A prompt is the text SASE hands to a provider to start an agent turn. _[macro]: A macro is a reusable prompt triggered with #name in agent prompts. _[Patch]: A Patch is SASE's local unit of change. _[bead]: A bead is one tracked work item in SASE's git-native issue tracker. _[plan]: A plan is a persisted, approved artifact recording the intent behind agent work. _[TUI]: The TUI is SASE's terminal interface for running agents and reviewing results. _[epic]: An epic is an executable multi-phase plan run with sase bead work. _[gate]: A sase gate is a durable, command-backed request for one user decision, created when work must pause for the user. _[monitor]: A sase monitor is a monitor turn that runs one long command under a detached supervisor, so the command outlives the agent that started it. *[stitch]: A stitch is the lightweight ordered change record inside a Patch's STITCHES: section.