fix: pass claude cli thinking effort (#77410)

Summary:
- Adds a plugin-owned CLI backend argument rewrite hook and wires Anthropic `claude-cli` to translate non-off `/think` levels into Claude Code `--effort`, with docs, changelog, API baseline, and tests.
- Reproducibility: yes. Current main has a high-confidence source reproduction: choose `claude-cli`, set a non ... builds argv from backend args that contain no `--effort` even though `thinkLevel` exists on the run params.

Automerge notes:
- No ClawSweeper repair was needed after automerge opt-in.

Validation:
- ClawSweeper review passed for head be17754009.
- Required merge gates passed before the squash merge.

Prepared head SHA: be17754009
Review: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/77410#issuecomment-4372812685

Co-authored-by: stainlu <stainlu@newtype-ai.org>

docs/.generated/plugin-sdk-api-baseline.sha256

@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-f8495c07213012748f099b12ddb02847ffd4eaa1b46f2ae9dfa574fa0ef3299a  plugin-sdk-api-baseline.json
-815ac868dda35d0af88b9c522233d6065c3eeb70775e19c111162b80390733fa  plugin-sdk-api-baseline.jsonl
+a7116e6c0cae4c7b9ee7cd6dc48f2978812f4b5be647f3e36eee91ec9a81d85e  plugin-sdk-api-baseline.json
+2b6c9883d701379761724e21946d417399c1247e6a244d6b00c4a982c8ef5968  plugin-sdk-api-baseline.jsonl

docs/gateway/cli-backends.md

@@ -178,6 +178,12 @@ that agent. To force a different Claude mode, set explicit raw backend args
 such as `--permission-mode default` or `--permission-mode acceptEdits` under
 `agents.defaults.cliBackends.claude-cli.args` and matching `resumeArgs`.
 
+The bundled Anthropic `claude-cli` backend also maps OpenClaw `/think` levels
+to Claude Code's native `--effort` flag for non-off levels. `minimal` and
+`low` map to `low`, `adaptive` and `medium` map to `medium`, and `high`,
+`xhigh`, and `max` map directly. Other CLI backends need their owning plugin to
+declare an equivalent argv mapper before `/think` can affect the spawned CLI.
+
 Before OpenClaw can use the bundled `claude-cli` backend, Claude Code itself
 must already be logged in on the same host:
 

docs/plugins/sdk-overview.md

@@ -257,6 +257,9 @@ AI CLI backend such as `codex-cli`.
   plugin default before running the CLI.
 - Use `normalizeConfig` when a backend needs compatibility rewrites after merge
   (for example normalizing old flag shapes).
+- Use `resolveExecutionArgs` for request-scoped argv rewrites that belong to
+  the CLI dialect, such as mapping OpenClaw thinking levels to a native effort
+  flag.
 
 ### Exclusive slots
 

docs/tools/thinking.md

@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ title: "Thinking levels"
 ## Application by agent
 
 - **Embedded Pi**: the resolved level is passed to the in-process Pi agent runtime.
+- **Claude CLI backend**: non-off levels are passed to Claude Code as `--effort` when using `claude-cli`; see [CLI backends](/gateway/cli-backends).
 
 ## Fast mode (/fast)