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Fixed manual budget_tokens thinking budget on every request
Setting a static thinking.budget_tokens value on every API request to control how much a model reasons before answering -- the original mechanism for extended thinking on Claude 4-era models.
Superseded by
adaptive-thinking-effort-controlWhy this verdict?
Anthropic has deprecated this on Claude 4.6 models and removed it entirely on Claude 4.7+, where requests using type: 'enabled' now return a 400 error, in favor of adaptive thinking plus the effort parameter. Still required on models that only support extended-thinking mode (Opus 4.5, Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 4.5 and earlier), so not dead everywhere, but no longer the recommended path for new work.
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One giant CLAUDE.md read every turn
Putting all project context, conventions, and instructions into a single large CLAUDE.md (or system prompt) that is read in full on every turn.
Superseded by
progressive-scoped-skillsWhy this verdict?
A single sprawling context file crowds out the model's working context, goes stale as the project changes, and can't be selectively loaded -- Anthropic's own engineering guidance now recommends small, scoped files/skills loaded progressively instead.