OpenCode School

Tips and Tricks

Practical ways to get better results with OpenCode.

Remember that OpenCode and OpenCode School are flexible systems

You can choose your own adventure. Paint outside the lines. Be silly. Be bossy.

  • Want to cut to the chase? Say so: "Let's skip the long-winded descriptions and just get these changes made."
  • Want to review your progress? Easy: "Let's revisit what we've covered so far in school."
  • Want to do your lessons in another language? No problem: "Let's do everything in Spanish!"

Describe the goal

Talk about the what, not the how. The agent may come up with approaches that are simpler or more effective than the first idea you had in mind.

Keeping the conversation open to alternatives often leads to better outcomes. Describe what you are trying to accomplish, not only the exact tools or steps you expect.

Know when to give up and start over

Sometimes you end up in a rabbit hole: the agent makes a mistake, you try to correct it, and things get worse. This happens to everyone.

The important skill is knowing when to reset. Do not be afraid to stop a session, reflect on what you learned, and start a fresh one with clearer instructions.

Open a higher-level directory for broader access

OpenCode is scoped to the directory where you start it. If you have been working in ~/projects/foo, OpenCode can only see files in that folder.

If you want to make changes across multiple projects at once, open a higher-level directory like ~/projects instead. OpenCode will have access to every project inside it — useful for research, refactoring, or making sweeping changes across repos.

You can even open your entire home directory (~) to give OpenCode the broadest possible access.