diff --git a/nix/templates/harness-base.nix b/nix/templates/harness-base.nix
index 6f563dd9..e58829d8 100644
--- a/nix/templates/harness-base.nix
+++ b/nix/templates/harness-base.nix
@@ -134,29 +134,6 @@ in
     '';
   };
 
-  options.hyperhive.effortLevel = lib.mkOption {
-    type = lib.types.enum [
-      "medium"
-      "high"
-      "xhigh"
-    ];
-    default = "medium";
-    example = "high";
-    description = ''
-      Baseline claude effort level for this agent. Rendered into the
-      `HIVE_DEFAULT_EFFORT` environment variable; the harness resolves
-      effort as operator-override-file → this env → built-in `"medium"`,
-      and passes the result to `claude --effort` at turn launch.
-
-      `"medium"` (the default) keeps token spend low and works well with
-      the harness across families. `"high"` matches the current platform
-      default; `"xhigh"` is recommended for coding / high-autonomy work on
-      capable models (Opus 4.8+) at higher token cost. The operator can
-      override at runtime per-agent via the web UI (applied on the next
-      session); any rebuild that changes this option resets that override.
-    '';
-  };
-
   options.hyperhive.allowedBashPatterns = lib.mkOption {
     type = lib.types.listOf lib.types.str;
     default = [ ];
@@ -935,10 +912,6 @@ in
       # surfaces it to the frontend; an empty value falls back to the
       # built-in default list.
       HIVE_AVAILABLE_MODELS = lib.concatStringsSep "," config.hyperhive.availableModels;
-      # HIVE_DEFAULT_EFFORT is the per-agent baseline effort (see
-      # hyperhive.effortLevel). The harness resolves operator-override-file
-      # → this env → "medium" and passes it to claude --effort at turn launch.
-      HIVE_DEFAULT_EFFORT = config.hyperhive.effortLevel;
       HIVE_ASSETS_DIR = "${pkgs.hyperhive-assets}/share/hyperhive";
       SHELL = "${pkgs.bashInteractive}/bin/bash";
     }