Regain Access To Claude Opus 4.6 And Opus 4.5 In Claude Code CLI

Stuck with Opus 4.7 in Claude Code? Get back Opus 4.6 or Opus 4.5 access via /model section

Since the Claude Opus 4.7 release, some Claude Code users have reported degraded performance and want to revert to Opus 4.6 or Opus 4.5. I've benchmarked the differences across models if you want the numbers: Claude Opus 4.5 vs Opus 4.6 vs Opus 4.7 vs Sonnet 4.6 and Claude Opus 4.6 vs Opus 4.7 Effort Levels And Prompt Steering Benchmarks.

Here’s how you can go back to Claude Opus 4.6 in your Claude Code CLI /model selection. You can still do it via command line method, pass —-model flag with claude-opus-4-6 or claude-opus-4-6[1m]. However, being able to do it via /model selection might be preferred.

The following three config file environmental variables need to be set in ~/.claude/settings.json config file as per official documentation. You can only set the variables once, so you can only readd one custom model back.

Claude Opus 4.6 1m model selection via Claude Code CLI /model

Claude Opus 4.6 1m model /context display

~/.claude/settings.json config file

For Claude Opus 4.6 1m token model

 "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION": "claude-opus-4-6[1m]",
    "ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION_NAME": "Opus 4.6 1M",
    "ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION_DESCRIPTION": "Opus 4.6 with 1M context",
}

For Claude Opus 4.6 200k token model

 “env”: {
    “ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION”: “claude-opus-4-6”,
    “ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION_NAME”: “Opus 4.6 200k”,
    “ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION_DESCRIPTION”: “Opus 4.6 with 200k context”,
}

For Claude Opus 4.5 1m token model

 “env”: {
    “ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION”: “claude-opus-4-5[1m]”,
    “ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION_NAME”: “Opus 4.5 1M”,
    “ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION_DESCRIPTION”: “Opus 4.5 with 1M context”,
}

For Claude Opus 4.5 200k token model

 “env”: {
    “ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION”: “claude-opus-4-5”,
    “ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION_NAME”: “Opus 4.5 200k”,
    “ANTHROPIC_CUSTOM_MODEL_OPTION_DESCRIPTION”: “Opus 4.5 with 200k context”,
}

Claude Opus 4.5 200k model selection via Claude Code CLI /model

Claude Opus 4.5 200k model /context display

Other ways to select previous Claude models is via —model flag.

claude --model 'claude-opus-4-6[1m]'
claude --model 'claude-opus-4-6'
claude --model 'claude-opus-4-5[1m]'
claude --model 'claude-opus-4-5'

Fundamentally, Claude Opus 4.7 behaviour changed and partially that is related to adapting thinking and it being more sensitive to user prompt instructions. Folks may need to adjust their prompt instructions to get the best out of Opus 4.7. If that isn’t an option, then revert back to Claude Opus 4.6 or Opus 4.5.