Amp Replaces Named Modes With 'The Dial' — a low/medium/high/ultra Effort Knob Backed by Cross-Model Oracle Review

jls42.org·high signal

On July 9 Sourcegraph's Amp deprecated its smart/deep/rush/large modes for a single four-position dial (low → ultra) that binds reasoning effort to a difficulty setting. The low tier defaults to Z.ai's open GLM-5.2 (billed as 'the strongest open model in agentic coding') with expensive models acting as advisors, while high/ultra put frontier models in the primary writing seat. Every level now ships an 'oracle' second opinion — at high, one frontier model writes and another reviews; at ultra the roles reverse — baking cross-model peer review into the default loop.