fix(thinking): default Claude 4.6 to adaptive

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Cron/Delivery mode none: send explicit `delivery: { mode: "none" }` from cron editor for both add and update flows so previous announce delivery is actually cleared. Landed from contributor PR #31145 by @byungsker. Thanks @byungsker.
 - Cron editor viewport: make the sticky cron edit form independently scrollable with viewport-bounded height so lower fields/actions are reachable on shorter screens. Landed from contributor PR #31133 by @Sid-Qin. Thanks @Sid-Qin.
 - Agents/Thinking fallback: when providers reject unsupported thinking levels without enumerating alternatives, retry with `think=off` to avoid hard failure during model/provider fallback chains. Landed from contributor PR #31002 by @yfge. Thanks @yfge.
+- Agents/Thinking defaults: set `adaptive` as the default thinking level for Anthropic Claude 4.6 models (including Bedrock Claude 4.6 refs) while keeping other reasoning-capable models at `low` unless explicitly configured.
 - Ollama/Embedded runner base URL precedence: prioritize configured provider `baseUrl` over model defaults for embedded Ollama runs so Docker and remote-host setups avoid localhost fetch failures. (#30964) Thanks @stakeswky.
 - Agents/Failover reason classification: avoid false rate-limit classification from incidental `tpm` substrings by matching TPM as a standalone token/phrase and keeping auth-context errors on the auth path. Landed from contributor PR #31007 by @HOYALIM. Thanks @HOYALIM.
 - CLI/Cron: clarify `cron list` output by renaming `Agent` to `Agent ID` and adding a `Model` column for isolated agent-turn jobs. (#26259) Thanks @openperf.

src/agents/model-selection.test.ts

@@ -503,6 +503,72 @@ describe("model-selection", () => {
         }),
       ).toBe("high");
     });
+
+    it("accepts per-model params.thinking=adaptive", () => {
+      const cfg = {
+        agents: {
+          defaults: {
+            models: {
+              "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6": {
+                params: { thinking: "adaptive" },
+              },
+            },
+          },
+        },
+      } as OpenClawConfig;
+
+      expect(
+        resolveThinkingDefault({
+          cfg,
+          provider: "anthropic",
+          model: "claude-opus-4-6",
+          catalog: [
+            {
+              provider: "anthropic",
+              id: "claude-opus-4-6",
+              name: "Claude Opus 4.6",
+              reasoning: true,
+            },
+          ],
+        }),
+      ).toBe("adaptive");
+    });
+
+    it("defaults Anthropic Claude 4.6 models to adaptive", () => {
+      const cfg = {} as OpenClawConfig;
+
+      expect(
+        resolveThinkingDefault({
+          cfg,
+          provider: "anthropic",
+          model: "claude-opus-4-6",
+          catalog: [
+            {
+              provider: "anthropic",
+              id: "claude-opus-4-6",
+              name: "Claude Opus 4.6",
+              reasoning: true,
+            },
+          ],
+        }),
+      ).toBe("adaptive");
+
+      expect(
+        resolveThinkingDefault({
+          cfg,
+          provider: "amazon-bedrock",
+          model: "us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6-v1:0",
+          catalog: [
+            {
+              provider: "amazon-bedrock",
+              id: "us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6-v1:0",
+              name: "Claude Sonnet 4.6",
+              reasoning: true,
+            },
+          ],
+        }),
+      ).toBe("adaptive");
+    });
   });
 });
 

src/agents/model-selection.ts

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ const ANTHROPIC_MODEL_ALIASES: Record<string, string> = {
   "sonnet-4.6": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
   "sonnet-4.5": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
 };
+const CLAUDE_46_MODEL_RE = /claude-(?:opus|sonnet)-4(?:\.|-)6(?:$|[-.])/i;
 
 function normalizeAliasKey(value: string): string {
   return value.trim().toLowerCase();
@@ -525,6 +526,8 @@ export function resolveThinkingDefault(params: {
   model: string;
   catalog?: ModelCatalogEntry[];
 }): ThinkLevel {
+  const normalizedProvider = normalizeProviderId(params.provider);
+  const modelLower = params.model.toLowerCase();
   const perModelThinking =
     params.cfg.agents?.defaults?.models?.[modelKey(params.provider, params.model)]?.params
       ?.thinking;
@@ -534,7 +537,8 @@ export function resolveThinkingDefault(params: {
     perModelThinking === "low" ||
     perModelThinking === "medium" ||
     perModelThinking === "high" ||
-    perModelThinking === "xhigh"
+    perModelThinking === "xhigh" ||
+    perModelThinking === "adaptive"
   ) {
     return perModelThinking;
   }
@@ -542,6 +546,14 @@ export function resolveThinkingDefault(params: {
   if (configured) {
     return configured;
   }
+  const isAnthropicFamilyModel =
+    normalizedProvider === "anthropic" ||
+    normalizedProvider === "amazon-bedrock" ||
+    modelLower.includes("anthropic/") ||
+    modelLower.includes(".anthropic.");
+  if (isAnthropicFamilyModel && CLAUDE_46_MODEL_RE.test(modelLower)) {
+    return "adaptive";
+  }
   const candidate = params.catalog?.find(
     (entry) => entry.provider === params.provider && entry.id === params.model,
   );

src/commands/agent.test.ts

@@ -734,6 +734,29 @@ describe("agentCommand", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it("defaults thinking to adaptive for Anthropic Claude 4.6 models", async () => {
+    await withTempHome(async (home) => {
+      const store = path.join(home, "sessions.json");
+      mockConfig(home, store, {
+        model: { primary: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6" },
+        models: { "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6": {} },
+      });
+      vi.mocked(loadModelCatalog).mockResolvedValueOnce([
+        {
+          id: "claude-opus-4-6",
+          name: "Opus 4.6",
+          provider: "anthropic",
+          reasoning: true,
+        },
+      ]);
+
+      await agentCommand({ message: "hi", to: "+1555" }, runtime);
+
+      const callArgs = vi.mocked(runEmbeddedPiAgent).mock.calls.at(-1)?.[0];
+      expect(callArgs?.thinkLevel).toBe("adaptive");
+    });
+  });
+
   it("prefers per-model thinking over global thinkingDefault", async () => {
     await withTempHome(async (home) => {
       const store = path.join(home, "sessions.json");