Agents and Models

Every task runs one coding agent. Aether ships four selectable agent providers — Codex (the default), Claude Code, OpenCode, and Cursor — each with its own curated model catalog and reasoning options. You pick the agent, model, interaction mode, and reasoning effort per task, and you can save those choices as project or account defaults.

The Four Agents

Agent	`agent_type`	Default model	Reasoning effort
Codex	`codex`	`gpt-5.6-sol`	`low`…`ultra` (model-dependent)
Claude Code	`claude-code`	`claude-opus-5`	`low`…`ultracode` (model-dependent)
OpenCode	`opencode`	`opencode-claude-sonnet-4-6`	`low`, `medium`, `high` (default), `max`
Cursor	`cursor`	`claude-sonnet`	none

The platform default agent is codex with interaction_mode: default. Every agent — including Codex — runs under your own provider account, so you must connect that provider before running a task with it — see Connect agent providers.

Codex

OpenAI Codex. Seven models:

Model slug	Name
`gpt-5.6-sol`	GPT-5.6 Sol (default)
`gpt-5.6-terra`	GPT-5.6 Terra
`gpt-5.6-luna`	GPT-5.6 Luna
`gpt-5.5`	GPT-5.5
`gpt-5.4`	GPT-5.4
`gpt-5.4-mini`	GPT-5.4 Mini
`gpt-5.3-codex-spark`	GPT-5.3 Codex Spark

Claude Code

Anthropic Claude Code. Five models:

Model slug	Name
`claude-opus-5`	Claude Opus 5 (default)
`claude-fable-5`	Claude Fable 5
`claude-sonnet-5`	Claude Sonnet 5
`claude-sonnet-4-6`	Claude Sonnet 4.6
`claude-haiku-4-5`	Claude Haiku 4.5

Reasoning-effort options depend on the model. Fable 5, Opus 5, and Sonnet 5 accept the full range — low, medium, high, xhigh, max, ultrathink, ultracode. Sonnet 4.6 accepts the adaptive set — low, medium, high, ultrathink. The default effort is xhigh.

OpenCode

OpenCode routes to a curated catalog of models across providers (OpenRouter, OpenCode Zen, Anthropic). The catalog includes Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mimo, Kimi, Qwen, and GLM model variants; the default is opencode-claude-sonnet-4-6. Which models you can actually run depends on the credentials in your uploaded auth file and the provider’s entitlements — selecting a model your bridge can’t reach fails loudly. OpenRouter-routed OpenCode models can use a bring-your-own OpenRouter key.

Cursor

The Cursor agent (the cursor-agent CLI). Six models:

Model slug	Name
`auto`	Auto (Cursor’s selection)
`claude-sonnet`	Claude Sonnet 4.6 (default)
`claude-haiku`	Claude Haiku 4.5
`gpt-5`	GPT-5.5
`gemini-3-pro`	Gemini 3.1 Pro
`grok-4`	Grok 4.3

Cursor encodes thinking and context settings into the model itself, so it does not expose a separate reasoning-effort setting.

Interaction Mode

Interaction mode controls how the agent starts work:

Mode	Behavior
`default`	The agent starts editing and running code immediately.
`plan`	The agent proposes a plan and waits for your approval before making changes.

Selecting Per Task

Pass the agent, model, interaction mode, and reasoning effort when you create a task. Unset fields fall back to the project defaults.

Open the task composer and use its settings menu to pick the agent, model, interaction mode, and reasoning effort before sending the prompt.

aether run "Add a health-check endpoint" \
  --agent-type claude-code \
  --model claude-opus-5 \
  --interaction-mode plan \
  --reasoning-effort high

aether task create --prompt "..." accepts the same option flags. Pass --reasoning-effort none to clear the thinking level.

Changing a Task’s Settings

aether task update changes the agent, model, interaction mode, and reasoning effort on an existing task. Only the flags you pass are changed.

aether task update <task-id> --model gpt-5.4 --reasoning-effort medium

When you send a follow-up, you can override the interaction mode and reasoning effort for that turn:

aether task respond <task-id> --message "Now add tests" --interaction-mode plan

Setting Defaults

A new task inherits the agent, model, interaction mode, and reasoning effort from its project’s task defaults. Update them once and every new task in that project starts from those settings.

Set defaults in Settings → Projects → Task defaults, or save the current composer settings as the project default from the composer’s settings menu.

aether project update <project-id> \
  --agent-type codex \
  --model gpt-5.5 \
  --interaction-mode default \
  --reasoning-effort xhigh

OpenRouter BYOK for OpenCode

OpenCode models routed through OpenRouter can use your own OpenRouter API key. Add it once and OpenCode’s OpenRouter-routed models use it.

aether apikey add --provider openrouter

This OpenRouter key is only used for OpenCode’s OpenRouter-routed models. Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor authenticate through their own provider connections — see Connect agent providers.

Getting Started

Using Aether

Agents and Models

The Four Agents

Codex

Claude Code

OpenCode

Cursor

Interaction Mode

Selecting Per Task

Changing a Task’s Settings

Setting Defaults

OpenRouter BYOK for OpenCode

Next Steps

Connect Agent Providers

Tasks

​The Four Agents

​Codex

​Claude Code

​OpenCode

​Cursor

​Interaction Mode

​Selecting Per Task

​Changing a Task’s Settings

​Setting Defaults

​OpenRouter BYOK for OpenCode

​Next Steps

Connect Agent Providers

Tasks

The Four Agents

Codex

Claude Code

OpenCode

Cursor

Interaction Mode

Selecting Per Task

Changing a Task’s Settings

Setting Defaults

OpenRouter BYOK for OpenCode

Next Steps