Set per session, remembered as your default

Effort is set per session and remembered as your default going forward, so there is no need to set it again every single time you start a new tCode session.

/effort changed mid-session only affects turns from that point on; it does not retroactively change how any turn that already ran was actually approached.

This persistence is the same pattern used for the code theme and auto-approve settings, all saved locally so a preference set once stays set. See Configuration for the complete list of what persists this way.

Because it is stored per machine rather than per account, a second machine you use starts at whatever default effort level tCode ships with, not whatever you had most recently set on your first one, described further in Stored per machine, not per account.

There is no time-based expiration on a saved effort level either; it stays exactly as set until you explicitly change it again with /effort, regardless of how much time passes between sessions.