Dropstone Docs

Models

Choosing between Dropstone Fast 1.6, Pro 1.6, and Heavy 1.6, the three model tiers Dropstone ships, plus how to set defaults and tune reasoning depth.

Dropstone ships three model tiers that cover the full range of coding work, from cheap throwaway questions to long-horizon agentic refactors. You pick a tier; Dropstone runs the inference. There is no concept of an external "provider" to configure.

The three tiers

TierModel IDBest for
Fast 1.6dropstone/dropstone-fastDefault daily-driver. Chat, single-file edits, quick answers, code review, simple tool use. Cheapest, fastest.
Pro 1.6dropstone/dropstone-proFrontier coding capability with a balanced speed/cost tradeoff. Multi-file edits, bugs that need real reasoning, design discussions.
Heavy 1.6dropstone/dropstone-heavyLong-horizon work: architecture, large refactors, multi-agent orchestration. Deepest reasoning ceiling.

To switch between them during a session:

/models

or press Ctrl+X M.

How to set a default

Add the model ID to your dropstone.json. Project config overrides global config, so you can pick a different default per-project.

Set Fast 1.6 as your default

{
  "$schema": "https://dropstone.io/schema/config.json",
  "model": "dropstone/dropstone-fast"
}

Set Pro 1.6 as your default

{
  "$schema": "https://dropstone.io/schema/config.json",
  "model": "dropstone/dropstone-pro"
}

Set Heavy 1.6 as your default

{
  "$schema": "https://dropstone.io/schema/config.json",
  "model": "dropstone/dropstone-heavy"
}

You can also pick a model for a single run with --model:

dropstone --model dropstone/dropstone-heavy

Reasoning depth

Each tier supports four reasoning depths via /effort:

  • low: fast answers, minimal credits
  • medium: everyday balance (default)
  • high: deeper reasoning for tricky problems
  • xhigh: maximum reasoning depth, biggest credit spend

Switch during a session:

/effort

To lock in a depth as your default, add variant:

{
  "$schema": "https://dropstone.io/schema/config.json",
  "model": "dropstone/dropstone-pro",
  "variant": "high"
}

Trivial questions on low cost a fraction of high-effort answers. Pick the level that matches the task.

The 1.6 version naming

Fast, Pro, and Heavy are branded names, not specific model checkpoints. Each carries a calendar-aligned version suffix:

  • 1.6 means Year 1, Month 6 (June 2026)
  • 1.7 will mean Year 1, Month 7 (July 2026)
  • And so on

Every month, the best frontier coding model for each tier is re-evaluated and the top performer becomes the new month's pick. The brand stays stable; the underlying model improves over time.

This is documented openly on the Dropstone Trust page: each release's branded tier and its underlying model are public. You always know what's powering your prompts.

Legacy (previous-generation) models

Each month a new lineup ships (for example 1.6), and the previous month's tiers (for example 1.5) stay available for anyone who needs to pin to or roll back to them. To keep the picker focused on the current lineup, these older tiers are marked experimental and are hidden by default.

To reveal them, set the DROPSTONE_ENABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_MODELS environment variable to true (or 1) before launching Dropstone. There is no slash command or config-file key for this; it is read from the environment of the CLI process.

$env:DROPSTONE_ENABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_MODELS = "true"
dropstone

DROPSTONE_ENABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_MODELS=true dropstone

# or persist it in your shell profile (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc):
export DROPSTONE_ENABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_MODELS=true

With the flag set, the previous-generation tiers appear in /models and in dropstone models, and become selectable exactly like the current ones:

TierModel ID
Fast 1.5dropstone/dropstone-fast-1.5
Pro 1.5dropstone/dropstone-pro-1.5
Heavy 1.5dropstone/dropstone-heavy-1.5

You can pin one as your default like any other model (the --model flag works for a single run too):

{
  "$schema": "https://dropstone.io/schema/config.json",
  "model": "dropstone/dropstone-pro-1.5"
}

Note:

Only the immediately previous lineup is kept available; older generations are retired. Unsetting the variable (or setting it to anything other than true / 1) hides the legacy tiers again. Retired models that are not in the current or previous lineup cannot be re-enabled this way.

Switching tiers mid-session

Use the command palette or a keyboard shortcut to switch without restarting. The conversation history persists across tier changes.

ActionSlash commandShortcut
Switch tier (Fast / Pro / Heavy)/modelsCtrl+X M
Quick-switch to a recently-used tierF2
Adjust reasoning depth/effort

Picking the right tier

WorkloadTierWhy
"What does this function do?"FastSingle-file context, fast answer needed
"Fix this bug in auth.ts"Fast or ProPro if the bug needs deeper reasoning
"Refactor the entire routes/ directory"Pro or HeavyMulti-file changes benefit from longer-context reasoning
"Design a new caching layer for our API"HeavyArchitecture-level reasoning needs the deepest model
Daily quick-fix flowFast5× more turns per dollar than the top frontier CLIs

When in doubt: start on Fast and step up if the answer isn't deep enough.

Loading order

When Dropstone starts, it picks a model in this priority:

  1. The --model / -m command-line flag (e.g. dropstone --model dropstone/dropstone-pro)
  2. The model value in your dropstone.json config
  3. The last-used model from the previous session
  4. Fast 1.6 as the safe default
Ctrl+I