OpenCode Guide
Navigate: What is OpenCode?

Introduction

Getting Started

Guides & Integrations

Comparisons

What is OpenCode?

OpenCode is an open-source, offline-first coding agent framework designed to live in your terminal. Unlike cloud-hosted assistants that require sending your code to third-party servers, OpenCode is architected to run entirely on your local machine—giving you full privacy, zero latency, and deep integration with your OS.

The Problem: Cloud Dependency & Privacy

Most modern AI coding tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot Workspace) rely heavily on cloud runtimes. This introduces three friction points:

  1. Privacy Risks: Sensitive IP leaves your machine.
  2. Latency: Every command goes round-trip to a server.
  3. Vendor Lock-in: You are tied to their model choices.

OpenCode solves this by acting as a local OS for agents. It allows you to swap models (via Ollama or APIs), write custom plugins in TypeScript, and execute complex workflows without a subscription.

Core Architecture

OpenCode is built on three pillars:

1. The Kernel (CLI)

At its heart, OpenCode is a CLI tool built with Node.js. It spawns a sandboxed environment where agents can run shell commands, edit files, and read git state.

# Basic usage
opencode start --task "Analyze my package.json dependencies"

2. The Plugin System

OpenCode is extensible. The community has built over 50+ plugins for everything from database access to browser automation.

Tip: Check out the MCP Explained guide to see how OpenCode implements standard protocols.

3. Model Agnostic

You are not forced to use GPT-4. OpenCode integrates seamlessly with local models.

  • Dev Machine: Run deepseek-coder-v2 locally.
  • Laptop: Connect to Claude 3.5 Sonnet via API.

See our guide on Running Local Models to set this up.

Key Features

| Feature | Description | | :--- | :--- | | Swarm Mode | Orchestrate multiple sub-agents to handle complex refactors. | | SuperMemory | A vector database that lives in .opencode/ to remember your project context. | | Neovim First | Designed to work inside Neovim buffers, not just VS Code sidebar. |

Who is OpenCode For?

  • Privacy-conscious teams: Banks, healthcare, and enterprise devs who cannot paste code into ChatGPT.
  • Power users: Developers who live in tmux and neovim.
  • AI Engineers: People who want to build custom agents, not just use them.

Next Steps

Ready to take back control of your coding assistant?

  1. Install the CLI: Proceed to the Installation Guide.
  2. Compare: See how it stacks up in OpenCode vs Claude Code.