Using Claude Code: Spending your effort
Overall, increasing effort tends to reduce failures due to missing edgecases (purple blocks), but does not fix when the model has the wrong approach (blue blocks).
Low: for when I want quick responses that are in the loop, e.g. brainstorming, sketching, easy changes
Medium: for most of my regular software engineering work, e.g. new feature implementation.
High: for work where verification is important or there are edge cases, e.g. fixing a bug in a brownfield codebase.
Max: When I want Claude to operate fully autonomously to solve difficult problems, e.g. end to end building and verification of an app, finding security vulnerabilities in critical software.
I find medium to be best for most of my build tasks with review/verify workflows running at higher efforts.