### New Features
- **`max` thinking level** - New opt-in thinking level above `xhigh`, natively supported on GPT-5.6 and adaptive Claude models, available across CLI (`--thinking max`), SDK, RPC, and model selection. Custom themes can define `thinkingMax`. See [CLI Reference](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/blob/v0.80.6/packages/coding-agent/docs/usage.md#cli-reference).
- **Input-based pricing tiers** - Request-wide input-token pricing tiers for accurate long-context cost accounting (e.g. GPT-5.4/5.5/5.6 long-context rates), also configurable for custom models in `models.json` and `modelOverrides`. See [Model Configuration](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/blob/v0.80.6/packages/coding-agent/docs/models.md#model-configuration).
### Added
- Added the opt-in `max` thinking level across CLI, SDK, RPC, model selection, and themes. Custom themes can define `thinkingMax`; existing themes fall back to `thinkingXhigh`.
- Added request-wide input-token pricing tiers to custom model costs in `models.json`, `modelOverrides`, and extension-registered providers.
- Added `~` (home directory) expansion for the `shellPath` setting ([#6470](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/pull/6470) by [@aaronkyriesenbach](https://github.com/aaronkyriesenbach)).
### Fixed
- Fixed inherited post-compaction output-token budgeting to ignore stale assistant usage from before the compaction boundary ([#6464](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/issues/6464)).
- Fixed inherited GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.5 long-context cost accounting while retaining the intentional 272K default context limit for models that require an explicit override.
- Fixed inherited GPT-5.6 metadata to keep direct OpenAI requests in the 272K short-context tier while exposing the Codex backend's 372K context window with long-context pricing, and removed the nonexistent bare `gpt-5.6` alias.
- Fixed inherited Anthropic message conversion to preserve thinking blocks with empty thinking text but a valid signature instead of dropping them, avoiding thinking-block errors on newer Claude models ([#6457](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/pull/6457) by [@davidbrai](https://github.com/davidbrai)).