---
title: opencode
slug: opencode
url: "https://toolweight.com/options/opencode"
homepage: "https://opencode.ai"
categories: coding-agents
last_verified: 2026-01-15
license: CC-BY-4.0
---

# opencode

> Provider-agnostic open-source TUI with a client/server split and LSP awareness.

opencode is the most credible fully provider-agnostic terminal harness: it resolves models through a shared registry, so anything with an endpoint is a config line rather than a fork. The client/server architecture means the agent can run on one machine and be driven from another, and sessions are shareable by link. It has subagents, per-tool permission rules and LSP integration, but no OS sandbox and no first-class pull-request path.

## Identity

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Name | opencode |
| Company | SST |
| One-liner | Provider-agnostic open-source TUI with a client/server split and LSP awareness. |
| Site | https://opencode.ai |
| Docs | https://opencode.ai/docs/ |
| Repo | https://github.com/sst/opencode |
| Founded | 2025 |
| Open source | Yes |
| Licence | MIT |
| Compared in | 1 |

## Where it is compared

### [Coding agents](https://toolweight.com/compare/coding-agents)
Ranked **#1 of 17** on default weights.
| Field | Value | Confidence | Verified | Source | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Surface | CLI, web | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://opencode.ai/docs/ | Terminal TUI plus a shareable web view of sessions. |
| Default model | None, you choose a provider at first run | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Model breadth | any provider / router | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://opencode.ai/docs/providers/ | Resolves models through a shared registry; dozens of providers work as config rather than code. |
| Repo indexing | AST / LSP repo map | Community-reported | - | - | LSP servers give it symbol-level awareness on top of agentic search. |
| Plan mode | ● | Community-reported | - | - | - |
| Checkpoint & undo | ◐ | Community-reported | - | - | Session-level revert rather than a full working-tree snapshot system. |
| Headless / CI | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Local models | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Where it stops | 4 | Vendor-claimed | - | https://opencode.ai/docs/github/ | Corrected upward: opencode github install sets up the published opencode-agent GitHub App, which answers a /opencode mention on an issue or PR by working in a new branch and submitting the pull request. That is the same class of first-class path Claude Code is credited for, and grading it lower because the project is open source would be a different rule for the same fact. |
| MCP | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Subagents | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Hooks | ◐ | Community-reported | - | - | The plugin API covers some lifecycle events. |
| Skills / commands | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Background agents | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | The client/server split lets the agent run on a remote box, but there is no hosted runner. |
| Opens PRs | ● | Vendor-claimed | - | https://opencode.ai/docs/github/ | github.com/apps/opencode-agent, installed by opencode github install. The run itself executes in your GitHub Actions runners, so there is no hosted runner here, but the App identity is what this column grades. |
| Permissions | granular allowlist | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://opencode.ai/docs/permissions/ | Per-tool allow/ask/deny rules, but no OS-level sandbox. |
| BYOK | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Licence | MIT | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://github.com/sst/opencode | - |
| Pricing model | BYOK tokens only | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Entry price | $0 /seat/mo | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Token markup | ○ | Inferred | - | - | BYOK at provider list is the default path. The project also sells an optional first-party gateway, but so do Cline, Zed and Kilo Code, and all four are graded the same here, penalising only opencode for it was the inconsistency this column existed to avoid. |
| GitHub stars | 25,000 | Community-reported | - | - | Rounded and growing fast, treat as order-of-magnitude. |
| Terminal-Bench | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| Bench model | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| Positioning | The open-source AI coding agent built for the terminal. | Vendor-claimed | - | https://opencode.ai | - |
| First release | 2025-06-01 | Inferred | - | - | Approximate; the project moved fast through several rewrites. |

**Verdict.** The strongest answer for teams who refuse to couple their tooling to one model vendor: provider support is a config line, and the client/server split is genuinely useful for running agents on a remote box. It is also the only MIT-licensed harness here that reaches a pull request, through its own GitHub App. What it still lacks is an OS sandbox, the permission model is per-tool allow/ask/deny rules, which is control rather than containment.

## Alternatives

- [Aider](https://toolweight.com/options/aider), Minimal terminal pair-programmer with a tree-sitter repo map and automatic git commits.
- [Amp](https://toolweight.com/options/amp), Sourcegraph's opinionated agent with no model picker and an ad-supported free tier.
- [Claude Code](https://toolweight.com/options/claude-code), Anthropic's terminal-first agent, with IDE, web and GitHub Action surfaces.
- [Cline](https://toolweight.com/options/cline), Open-source VS Code and JetBrains agent built around an explicit plan/act split.
- [Codex CLI](https://toolweight.com/options/codex-cli), OpenAI's open-source Rust agent, with the strongest local sandboxing on this page.
- [Cursor](https://toolweight.com/options/cursor), VS Code fork with a real codebase index, background cloud agents and a CLI.
- [Devin](https://toolweight.com/options/devin), Fully delegated cloud engineer: file a task in Slack or the web app, get a PR back.
- [DIY harness](https://toolweight.com/options/diy-harness), Your own loop over a model API with an agent SDK, the build-it-yourself reference point.
- [Gemini CLI](https://toolweight.com/options/gemini-cli), Apache-2.0 terminal agent from Google with an unusually generous free tier.
- [GitHub Copilot (Agent HQ)](https://toolweight.com/options/github-copilot), Copilot's coding agent plus a control plane for running third-party agents on your repos.
- [Goose](https://toolweight.com/options/goose), Block's Apache-2.0 agent, MCP-native from the start, as both a CLI and a desktop app.
- [Grok Build](https://toolweight.com/options/grok-build), xAI's coding harness, launched July 2026, on this page but not yet verified.

## Licence and attribution

Data from toolweight (https://toolweight.com), licensed CC-BY-4.0.

- Licence: [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- Canonical HTML: https://toolweight.com/options/opencode
- Machine-readable: https://toolweight.com/options/opencode.md · https://toolweight.com/api/v1 · https://toolweight.com/mcp
- toolweight takes no affiliate revenue and sells no placements. Corrections: https://toolweight.com/suggest