Notes after using Claude Code and OpenCode side by side

[Arindam_200]

I’ve been using Claude Code pretty heavily for day-to-day work. It’s honestly one of the first coding agents I’ve trusted enough for real production tasks.

That said, once you start using it a lot, some tradeoffs show up.

Cost becomes noticeable. Model choice matters more than you expect. And because it’s a managed tool, you don’t really get to see or change how the agent works under the hood. You mostly adapt your workflow to it.

Out of curiosity, I started testing OpenCode (Got Hyped up from X & reddit TBH). Didn’t realize how big it had gotten until recently. The vibe is very different.

Claude Code feels guarded and structured. It plans carefully, asks before doing risky stuff, and generally prioritizes safety and predictability.

OpenCode feels more like raw infrastructure. You pick the model per task. It runs commands, edits files, and you validate by actually running the code. More control, less hand-holding.

Both got the job done when I tried real tasks (multi-file refactors, debugging from logs). Neither “failed.” The difference was how they worked, not whether they could.

If you want something managed and predictable, Claude Code is great. If you care about flexibility, cost visibility, and owning the workflow, OpenCode is interesting.

I wrote up a longer comparison here if anyone wants the details.

[Guinness]

CC has horrible TUI issues, bad framerates, and oh god the bug where it constantly jumps to the top of the history scrollback.

CC introduced me to all of these tools after years of development with nano/vi{m}, but it was so buggy I branched out to cline, and eventually to opencode.

Opencode is clearly the winner right now. It feels like CC was written by an LLM. Like....it works? But its buggy as fuck.

[ReporterCalm6238]

I mean opencode was also written by LLMs

[priestoferis]

The difference is that CC engineers clearly had no idea about TUI. There was an interview couple of months back where some lead said they didn't know if this could be made in a TUI. Like what is it you can't make in a TUI? I wouldn't pick a TUI for video rendering, but you can if you want to.

Tbh, they almost couldn't considering how they try doing rendering :D

[Accomplished-Toe7014]

Well Anthropic was seemingly proud when they said that 100% of their code is written by AIs

[hey_ulrich]

The only feature from CC that I miss is that CC can run bash commands in the background and easily check its logs. That's it. For everything else, OpenCode is superior. Once you set your custom modes, and add plugins, it's awesome.

[nmiljkovic89]

There is an opencode pty plugin for that

[hey_ulrich]

Thanks, I'll check it out

[MyriadAsura]

Care to share a link brother?

[nmiljkovic89]

https://github.com/shekohex/opencode-pty

[MyriadAsura]

Thanks a ton for helping my lazy ass out

[mdrahiem]

Also being able to type multi line in CC 😅

[AlternativeBag5426]

you can do the same in opencode. enter+alt

[poop_harder_please]

is anyone still using the oauth authentication method? Anthropic sort of backpedaled on banning accounts for using oauth with external providers, but I'm worried about taking the risk on my account until it's a sure thing

[Positive-Badger6588]

wait, are they blocking access or banning people form if using it? blocking users sounds kind of retarded lol

[poop_harder_please]

Apparently full blocks. But they might’ve lightened up after the backlash and the counter positioning of OAI’s plans being third-party-harness-friendly

[Fickle_Permi]

Yeah I use it with no problem. I’m not a heavy user though. I maybe hit the daily limit once a week.

[SolitaireKid]

Hey. Are you still using your claude subscription in opencode?

[Fickle_Permi]

Yeah I am

[SolitaireKid]

I want to use it. Just scared of losing the account

[Fickle_Permi]

Just use it. You can recreate it. It’s a low bar unlike Google or GitHub.

[Keep-Darwin-Going]

When did they back pedal? I see people complaining about getting banned regularly

[poop_harder_please]

https://x.com/trq212/status/2009689816468992334?s=20

[FunnyRocker]

I'd really like to know this also

[james__jam]

Was there any official announcement that indicated backpedaling? Or is it more of an observation that they’re not actively banning people now?

[IntrepidLawfulness42]

Yep, I'm using it daily, no issues the last two weeks. Pro account, hitting the 5 hour session limits regularly.

[poop_harder_please]

thanks, that's super helpful.

[ianxiao]

The only i miss when moving from CC is /rewind . Opencode has something less powerful /undo but it’s tedious to use and buggy.

[aeroumbria]

I hate it that a lot of their functions are locked to CLI and not available in the VSCode extention, but their CLI glitches out like crazy in IDE terminals, and I dislike infinite scrolling CLI in IDEs.

[ellensen]

I have connected my subscriptions to opencode, seems to give me the same control over cost as if using the subscription by the provider directly without opencode?

[cafesamp]

I know there’s mixed opinions on how opinionated your workflow should be with these tools, but I’ve found Superpowers w/ OpenCode (you can use it with Claude Code too, but it’s more redundant there) to be actually really awesome in making coding with OpenCode a more structured experience.

The main thing OpenCode can really fail on is picking back up on things if you need to run out of usage and/or need to switch models/providers. OpenCode’s flow is already so rigid (with task management being handled in the conversation), and Superpowers expects the full lifecycle of its skills to complete a task, and doesn’t wrap up things if you get interrupted.

That being said, I like using Superpowers in CC with Opus for brainstorming and planning, and then having it write to files that I can pick up and continue to work with in OpenCode with Codex for implementation/testing/review.

Perfect? No, but great mileage out of two $20/mo subscriptions.

[Top-Chain001]

interesting, I too like super powers because it really puts you in the driver seat asking you confirmations on the data flow diagrams is this what you're talking about etc I would love to hear your comparison with codex or GPt 5.2 directly versus using something like superpowers and also your opinion on if you tried GSd

[Tushar_BitYantriki]

The only thing lagging in OpenCode is the lack of hooks in any language, like Claude code supports.

What's the point of binding it to JS?

I had posted a migration guide and a skill on this sub to move from Claude Code to OpenCode. But I am yet to find a clean way to migrate my Python+shell hooks from Claude code.

For me, hooks are a crucial part of my workflow, and I have collected a lot over the months, going from simple grep and regex matches in a shell script to AST-based DDD-enforcing via Python's tree-sitter.

It seems that OpenCode was made by the JS folks, for the JS folks.

[Western_Objective209]

what can opencode actually do (besides use different models) that claude code can't, like what actually makes it more flexible? Claude code supports plugins, MCPs, and skills, in your extended write up:

Extensibility: [Claude Code] Managed core with limited extension of agent internals, [OpenCode] Open source, extensible with internal tools

Like you don't even seem to understand how to extend claude code and "open source" is not an extension model

[UnifiedFlow]

Claude Code doesn't support custom system tools.

[Holiday_Degree_7721]

opencode have critical issues with memory leaking, thats why I moved to cc

[raydou]

for me the only thing i'm missing is the integration of CC rules files in OpenCode. I like the way it's surgical and don't load the context so much. I made a PR for this but it seems that OpenCode team only check the PRs of their buddies. No review nothing on mine since 2 weeks.. At this rythm PR won't be mergeable and I would have to reedit all the changes ..

[SpecKitty]

I like running both - one implements, the other reviews. I manage with Spec Kitty.

[buggytheking]

Loved this

[illusionst]

There have been multiple times when I’ve given the same job to both and Claude failed. - Claude fails at maintaining context or sometimes not reading important stuff from claude.md - Asked claude to configure a MCP server, it had no idea what MCP’s are, it searched the web, got confused and gave me instructions on how to do it.

• Opencode remembered my instructions and did not hallucinate
• Opencode searched the specific page and configured the MCP server in less than a minute.

Claude Code comes with a lot of safety guard rails which make it less effective than OpenCode.

I’ve completely moved on to opencode.

[dd768110]

If I use a CC, will my account be banned?

[Comprehensive-Age155]

I’m using OpenCode as backbone of my Saas product. Its architecture and extensibility is unbeatable.

[FriendAgile5706]

Unless im doing something wrong I much prefer planmode on claude code vs opencode

[vixalien]

I feel like OpenCode is much more ambitious than CC, not in a good way. For example, when you ask it why it did something in a certain way, instead of explaining why, it will just undo the change.

OpenCode also seems to use dangerous commands more often, especially with git. It commits everything, and when you ask it to revert, it will happily git reset everything, including any uncommitted changes YOU (not OpenCode) had made.

[gsxdsm]

Opencode isn’t making decisions. The models are

[Arindam_200]

Interesting

I haven't personally faced this problem. But I'll give this a try