OpenCode Primer

Everything you need to know about OpenCode — from your first prompt to custom agents, skills, plugins, and MCP integrations. Clear mental models, real examples, every fact verified against the current release.

curl -fsSL https://opencode.ai/install | bash

Who this is for: Developers using (or about to use) OpenCode. Beginners get a guided path; power users get depth on Custom Commands, Skills, Plugins, MCP, and Agents.

⚖️ Not affiliated with the OpenCode team. This is a community-maintained guide. For canonical sources, check opencode.ai/docs and github.com/anomalyco/opencode.

💡 Pro Tip: If this guide saves you an afternoon, a ⭐ helps other developers find it.

---

🧭 Choose your path

You are…	Start with	Time
🚀 New to OpenCode	What is it → Setup → Prompt Engineering	~15 min
⚡ Already using it	Custom Commands · Skills · Plugins · MCP	~20 min each
🧠 Configuring or headless	Agents · Headless & CI · Models & Providers	varies

---

Getting started

What is OpenCode?

OpenCode is an open-source AI coding agent — a terminal app (TUI), desktop app, and IDE extension that reads your repo, runs commands, edits files, and talks to any LLM you point it at. Maintained by Anomaly, MIT-licensed — and as of July 2026 the most-starred coding agent on GitHub (182K+ stars), with 8M monthly users by the founder's count.

Three things it does that a chat UI can't:

• Reads your actual repo — not pasted snippets. Greps your files, follows imports, grounds answers in real context using built-in read/grep/glob tools.
• Edits in place and runs your stack — diff-aware edit/write/apply_patch, then bash to run your tests, linter, or build on the spot.
• Composes with the rest of your toolchain — multi-provider models, custom slash commands, agent skills, JS/TS plugins, MCP servers, LSP, formatters, and an HTTP server for CI use.

Three interfaces:

Surface	Command	When
TUI (default)	opencode	Interactive day-to-day work in your terminal
CLI / headless	opencode run ""	Scripts, CI jobs, one-shot prompts
Server	opencode serve or opencode web	Headless API, web UI, or remote attach

opencode                                       # start TUI in the current repo
opencode run "fix the failing test in src/api.test.ts"
opencode serve --port 4096                     # headless server

OpenCode sits in the same space as Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Cursor — same problem, different trade-offs. None is universally better; pick the one whose model, surface, and ecosystem fit your workflow. (The field consolidated hard in 2026: Gemini CLI was retired in June in favor of the closed-source Antigravity CLI, and Roo Code shut down in May.)