OpenCode CLI

OpenCode CLI offers a single CLI with multiple provider backends.

Requirements

• opencode installed.

• Provider credentials (Anthropic/OpenAI/Google/etc).

• Default model configured or explicit --model in command.

Setup

1. Install OpenCode CLI.

2. Set provider API keys.

3. Verify local command works.

4. Configure in AI Backend settings tab.

Example environment setup:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export GOOGLE_API_KEY="..."

Configuration

Setting	Value
Preferred Backend	OpenCode CLI
OpenCode CLI Command	opencode --model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5

Other model examples:

opencode --model openai/gpt-4o
opencode --model google/gemini-1.5-pro

Notes

Model Configuration

If no default model is configured and no --model is provided, embedded runs can fail with process has not exited.

Output Parsing

The extension filters OpenCode CLI output to extract the actual AI response:

• Status/metadata lines: All lines starting with > (under 120 characters) are treated as OpenCode status output and filtered. This includes > thinking, > loading, > building, and similar status messages.

• Prompt echo removal: Only long prompt lines (40+ characters) are used for dedup filtering, preventing false positives where short common terms (e.g., "SQL Injection", "Analyze") would incorrectly match real response content.

• Version banners: Lines starting with opencode v or session: are filtered.

Idle Timeout

OpenCode has two timeouts that can end a run:

• Idle timeout (OPENCODE_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS = 30_000, 30 seconds): the process is force-killed if it produces no new stdout after initial status lines. Runs that take longer than 30 s to start producing output will look blank.

• Hard CLI timeout (120 seconds, shared with other CLI backends): an overall ceiling that terminates the process regardless of output activity.

Both are intentionally short to prevent runaway processes in the chat UI. For very large prompts, prefer a faster model or split the request.

Windows

npm-installed CLI shims are resolved automatically on Windows. The extension detects .cmd siblings and uses them instead of shell script shims that cannot be executed directly by Java.

Troubleshooting

• command not found: use full binary/shim path.

• Windows: npm shim paths are resolved automatically. If auto-resolution fails, use the full .cmd path: C:\\Users\\<you>\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\opencode.cmd.

• Provider errors: verify the API key for selected provider.

• process has not exited: configure a default model or add --model.

• Blank responses: check that the model is producing output by running the same command in a terminal. If the model takes longer than 30 seconds to start producing output, the process may time out.

• Unrendered responses: ensure the response is not being filtered by the output parser. Check the extension output tab for raw process output.

Related Pages

• Backends Overview

• Troubleshooting