Skip to main content
OpenCode’s interactive mode provides a full-featured terminal user interface (TUI) for conversing with AI, managing sessions, and editing code directly in your terminal.

​
Starting interactive mode

Launch OpenCode in interactive mode by running the command without any flags: 
opencode
You can customize the startup with additional flags: 
# Start with debug logging
opencode -d

# Start in a specific directory
opencode -c /path/to/project
The TUI launches in an alternate screen buffer, preserving your terminal history when you exit.

​
Chat interface

The main chat interface consists of three key areas:

​
Message area

The message area displays the conversation history between you and the AI assistant. Messages are rendered with:
  • Markdown formatting for rich text display
  • Syntax highlighting for code blocks
  • Tool call visualization showing AI actions (file edits, command execution)
  • Timing information for assistant responses
  • Session summaries when auto-compact is enabled
Use Ctrl+U and Ctrl+D to scroll up and down by half-page increments through long conversations.

​
Editor area

The editor at the bottom of the screen is where you compose messages:
  • Type your message directly in the editor
  • Press Enter or Ctrl+S to send
  • Use \ followed by Enter to add a newline without sending
  • Press Ctrl+E to open your external editor (set via $EDITOR environment variable)
  • Attach files using Ctrl+F to open the file picker

​
Managing attachments

When you attach files, they appear above the editor with document icons:
  • Press Ctrl+R followed by a number (0-9) to delete a specific attachment
  • Press Ctrl+R followed by R to delete all attachments
  • Press Esc to cancel delete mode
You can attach up to 5 files per message. Attachments are sent with your message to provide context to the AI.
When a session is active, the right sidebar displays:
  • Current session title
  • File change history for the session
  • List of files modified during the conversation

​
Session management

OpenCode organizes conversations into sessions that are persisted to a SQLite database.

​
Creating sessions

Press Ctrl+N to create a new session. This clears the current conversation and starts fresh.
The first message you send automatically creates a new session if one isn’t active.

​
Switching sessions

Press Ctrl+S to open the session switcher dialog:
  • Use ↑/↓ or j/k to navigate sessions
  • Press Enter to select a session
  • Press Esc to close without switching
The dialog shows all your previous sessions with their titles, allowing you to resume any conversation.

​
Auto-compact feature

When a conversation approaches the model’s context window limit (95% of tokens), OpenCode can automatically summarize the session:
  • The AI creates a summary of the conversation
  • A new session is created with the summary
  • You can continue working without losing context
This feature is enabled by default. Configure it in your .opencode.json: 
{
  "autoCompact": true
}
You can also manually trigger session compaction using the “Compact Session” command via Ctrl+K.

​
Model selection

Press Ctrl+O to open the model selection dialog:
  • Use ↑/↓ or j/k to navigate models
  • Use ←/→ or h/l to switch between providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)
  • Press Enter to select a model
  • Press Esc to close without changing
The currently selected model is highlighted, and the dialog shows all available models from configured providers.

​
Commands

Press Ctrl+K to open the command palette, which provides quick access to:

​
Built-in commands

Initialize Project

Creates or updates an OpenCode.md file with project-specific context including build commands, style guidelines, and coding conventions.

Compact Session

Manually triggers session summarization, creating a new session with a summary of the current conversation.

​
Custom commands

You can create custom commands by adding Markdown files to:
  • ~/.config/opencode/commands/ for user commands (prefixed with user:)
  • .opencode/commands/ in your project for project-specific commands (prefixed with project:)
Custom commands support named arguments using the $NAME placeholder format: 
# Fetch Context for Issue $ISSUE_NUMBER

RUN gh issue view $ISSUE_NUMBER --json title,body,comments
RUN git grep --author="$AUTHOR_NAME" -n .
When executed, OpenCode prompts you to enter values for each placeholder.
Organize commands in subdirectories like commands/git/commit.md to create hierarchical command IDs like user:git:commit.

​
File picker

Press Ctrl+F to open the file picker dialog:
  • Navigate directories using arrow keys
  • Select files to attach to your message
  • Press Enter to confirm selection
  • Press Esc to close without attaching
Attached files provide context to the AI about specific code or documentation.

​
Theme customization

Press Ctrl+T to open the theme switcher:
  • Browse available themes (OpenCode, Catppuccin, Dracula, Gruvbox, etc.)
  • Press Enter to apply a theme
  • Press Esc to close without changing
You can also set a default theme in your configuration: 
{
  "tui": {
    "theme": "catppuccin"
  }
}

​
Canceling operations

When the AI is processing (indicated by a spinner):
  • Press Ctrl+X to cancel the current operation
  • The agent stops generating and waits for your next input
Canceling interrupts the AI mid-stream. Use this when the assistant is heading in the wrong direction or taking too long.

​
Viewing logs

Press Ctrl+L to view application logs:
  • See debug information, errors, and warnings
  • Navigate using standard viewport controls
  • Press Esc, Backspace, or q to return to chat
Enable debug logging with the -d flag when starting OpenCode to see more detailed log messages.

​
Permission system

When the AI attempts to perform actions (run commands, edit files, fetch URLs), OpenCode displays a permission dialog:
  • Allow (a): Grant permission for this single action
  • Allow for session (s): Grant permission for all similar actions in this session
  • Deny (d): Reject the action
Use ←/→ or Tab to switch between options, then press Enter to confirm.
The permission dialog shows a preview of the action (command to run, diff to apply, etc.) so you can review before approving.

​
Help dialog

Press Ctrl+? or ? (when not editing) to view all available keyboard shortcuts organized by context.

​
Exiting OpenCode

Press Ctrl+C to show the quit confirmation dialog:
  • Press Ctrl+C again to confirm and exit
  • Press any other key to cancel and continue
Your session is automatically saved when you exit.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us