Session management

OpenCode manages conversations through sessions, which track messages, token usage, costs, and provide powerful features like automatic context compression and conversation summarization.

What are sessions?

A session represents a single conversation with the AI, including:

All messages exchanged with the AI
Token usage tracking (prompt and completion)
Cost calculation based on model pricing
File changes made during the session
Tool calls and their results
Metadata like title, timestamps, and parent sessions

Sessions are the primary unit of organization in OpenCode. Each session has a unique ID and can spawn child sessions.

Session lifecycle

Creation

New session created when:

Starting OpenCode (Ctrl+N or startup)
Creating new conversation
Auto-compacting existing session
Spawning task session

Active conversation

During a session:

Messages are appended to history
Token counts are tracked
Costs are calculated in real-time
File changes are recorded
Title is generated after first exchange

Auto-compact (optional)

When approaching context limit:

Session is automatically summarized
New session created with summary
Original session preserved
Context extended for longer work

Persistence

Session state is continuously saved:

Messages written to SQLite
Token counts updated
File history tracked
Metadata synchronized

Session structure

Each session contains:

string

Unique identifier (UUID)

string

ID of parent session (for compact/task sessions)

string

Auto-generated conversation title

integer

Number of messages in session

integer

Total input tokens consumed

integer

Total output tokens generated

string

ID of summary message (for compacted sessions)

float

Total cost in USD based on model pricing

timestamp

Session creation time (Unix milliseconds)

timestamp

Last update time (Unix milliseconds)

Auto-compact feature

Auto-compact automatically manages context window limits by summarizing conversations when they approach the model’s maximum context length.

How it works

Monitor token usage

OpenCode tracks token consumption throughout the conversation:

Counts prompt tokens (input)
Counts completion tokens (output)
Calculates total context usage

Detect threshold

When usage reaches 95% of model’s context window:

Trigger auto-compact process
Prevent “out of context” errors
Maintain conversation continuity

Generate summary

AI creates a comprehensive summary:

Key decisions and outcomes
Important context to preserve
File changes made
Current state of work

Create new session

New session spawned with summary:

Parent session ID recorded
Summary as initial context
Token counter resets
Continue seamlessly

Configuration

{
  "autoCompact": true  // Default: true
}

Enabled (default)
Disabled

Benefits:

Never hit context limits
Conversations can continue indefinitely
Important context preserved
Seamless user experience

Behavior:

Automatic at 95% usage
Summary generation transparent
New session created automatically
Original session preserved

Manual compact

You can manually trigger compaction:

Open command palette

Press Ctrl+K

Select Compact Session

Choose the “Compact Session” command

Confirm

AI generates summary and creates new session

Use manual compact when:

Switching to a new task
Conversation has diverged
Want a clean slate with context
Proactively managing tokens

Compact summary format

Summaries preserve:

Decisions and outcomes

Agreements reached
Solutions implemented
Approaches decided
Trade-offs made

Technical context

File changes made
Functions modified
Dependencies added
Configuration changes

Current state

What works now
Known issues
Next steps planned
Blockers identified

Important background

Project structure
Key constraints
Requirements
Architecture decisions

Session switching

Quickly switch between recent conversations:

Open session dialog

Press Ctrl+A

Browse sessions

Most recent first
Shows title and timestamp
Navigate with arrows or j/k

Select session

Press Enter to switch

Session list shows:

┌─ Sessions (Ctrl+A) ──────────────────────┐
│ > Fix authentication bug                      │
│   2 minutes ago                              │
│                                              │
│   Add user profile API                       │
│   1 hour ago                                 │
│                                              │
│   Refactor database layer                    │
│   Yesterday at 3:24 PM                       │
│                                              │
│   Setup Docker environment                   │
│   2 days ago                                 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘

SQLite storage

OpenCode uses SQLite for persistent storage, providing:

Fast queries: Efficient message retrieval
Reliability: ACID transactions
Portability: Single file database
No dependencies: Built into OpenCode
Version control: Schema migrations

Database location

$HOME/.opencode/
├── opencode.db          # Main database
├── logs/                 # Debug logs
└── commands/             # Custom commands

Or configured location:

{
  "data": {
    "directory": ".opencode"  // Relative to working directory
  }
}

Database schema

Sessions table
Messages table
Files table
File versions table

CREATE TABLE sessions (
  id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
  parent_session_id TEXT,
  title TEXT NOT NULL,
  message_count INTEGER DEFAULT 0,
  prompt_tokens INTEGER DEFAULT 0,
  completion_tokens INTEGER DEFAULT 0,
  summary_message_id TEXT,
  cost REAL DEFAULT 0,
  created_at INTEGER NOT NULL,
  updated_at INTEGER NOT NULL
);

Stores session metadata and aggregates.

CREATE TABLE messages (
  id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
  session_id TEXT NOT NULL,
  role TEXT NOT NULL,
  content TEXT NOT NULL,
  model TEXT,
  prompt_tokens INTEGER,
  completion_tokens INTEGER,
  created_at INTEGER NOT NULL,
  FOREIGN KEY (session_id) REFERENCES sessions(id)
);

Stores all messages in conversations.

CREATE TABLE files (
  id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
  session_id TEXT NOT NULL,
  path TEXT NOT NULL,
  content TEXT NOT NULL,
  created_at INTEGER NOT NULL,
  FOREIGN KEY (session_id) REFERENCES sessions(id)
);

Tracks file changes per session.

CREATE TABLE file_versions (
  id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
  file_id TEXT NOT NULL,
  session_id TEXT NOT NULL,
  content TEXT NOT NULL,
  created_at INTEGER NOT NULL,
  FOREIGN KEY (file_id) REFERENCES files(id),
  FOREIGN KEY (session_id) REFERENCES sessions(id)
);

Maintains version history for files.

Database operations

OpenCode performs these operations:

Create session

session, err := sessions.Create(ctx, "New conversation")

Inserts new session record

Save message

message, err := messages.Create(ctx, sessionID, role, content)

Appends message to session

Update session

session, err := sessions.Save(ctx, session)

Updates token counts, cost, title

List sessions

sessions, err := sessions.List(ctx)

Retrieves all sessions, sorted by updated_at

Track file change

file, err := files.Create(ctx, sessionID, path, content)
version, err := files.CreateVersion(ctx, sessionID, path, newContent)

Records file modifications

Delete session

err := sessions.Delete(ctx, sessionID)

Removes session and associated data

File history tracking

OpenCode tracks all file changes within sessions:

How it works

Initial state

When file is first modified:

Original content stored in files table
Baseline for future comparisons

Version creation

On each modification:

New version in file_versions table
Links to file and session
Timestamps for ordering

Intermediate changes

If file modified outside OpenCode:

Intermediate version created
Preserves manual changes
Maintains complete history

Version tracking example

Session starts:
  files:
    - id: file-1
      path: src/auth.ts
      content: (original)
      
AI modifies file:
  file_versions:
    - version 1: (AI changes)
    
User edits manually:
  file_versions:
    - version 2: (intermediate - user changes)
    
AI modifies again:
  file_versions:
    - version 3: (AI changes on top of user changes)

Token tracking and costs

OpenCode tracks token usage and calculates costs in real-time:

Token counting

Prompt tokens
Completion tokens

Input tokens include:

User messages
System prompts
Tool descriptions
Previous conversation context
File contents in context

Counted per API request and aggregated per session.

Cost calculation

Costs calculated using model-specific pricing:

// Example pricing (varies by model)
promptCost := (promptTokens / 1_000_000) * model.PromptPrice
completionCost := (completionTokens / 1_000_000) * model.CompletionPrice
totalCost := promptCost + completionCost

Displayed in UI:

Per-session totals
Real-time updates
Multiple currency support (future)

Example costs

Costs are estimates based on published pricing and may not reflect actual billing.

Model	Prompt (per 1M tokens)	Completion (per 1M tokens)
GPT-4o	$5.00	$15.00
GPT-4o Mini	$0.15	$0.60
Claude 3.5 Sonnet	$3.00	$15.00
Claude 3.5 Haiku	$0.80	$4.00
Gemini 2.5 Pro	$1.25	$5.00

Task sessions

OpenCode can spawn child sessions for sub-tasks:

Agent tool

The AI can create task sessions using the agent tool:

{
  "tool": "agent",
  "parameters": {
    "prompt": "Search for all TODO comments in the codebase and create a list"
  }
}

Task session characteristics:

Has parent_session_id set
Separate token tracking
Independent context
Can access same tools
Results returned to parent

Use cases

Parallel research

Investigate multiple approaches simultaneously

Code exploration

Deep dive into specific subsystems without cluttering main conversation

Batch operations

Process multiple files or items independently

Specialized analysis

Focused analysis with different context or model

Session hierarchy

Sessions form a parent-child tree:

Main Session (UUID-1)
├── Task: Search TODOs (UUID-2)
├── Task: Analyze dependencies (UUID-3)
└── Compacted Session (UUID-4)
    └── Task: Generate tests (UUID-5)

Navigation:

View parent via parent_session_id
Find children by querying parent_session_id = current_id
Breadcrumb in UI (future feature)

Best practices

Let auto-compact work

Keep autoCompact: true for seamless long conversations

Name sessions meaningfully

First message sets context for auto-generated title

Use manual compact strategically

When switching focus or starting new sub-task

Monitor token usage

Watch token counts to understand costs

Review session history

Use session list to return to previous work

Backup database

Periodically backup ~/.opencode/opencode.db

Database maintenance

Backup

# Backup database
cp ~/.opencode/opencode.db ~/.opencode/opencode.db.backup

# Or with timestamp
cp ~/.opencode/opencode.db \
   ~/.opencode/opencode.db.$(date +%Y%m%d)

Inspection

# Open with sqlite3
sqlite3 ~/.opencode/opencode.db

# Useful queries
SQLite> SELECT id, title, message_count, cost FROM sessions ORDER BY updated_at DESC LIMIT 10;
SQLite> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM messages;
SQLite> SELECT SUM(cost) FROM sessions;

Cleanup

# Delete old sessions (SQL)
DELETE FROM sessions WHERE updated_at < strftime('%s', 'now', '-30 days') * 1000;

# Vacuum to reclaim space
VACUUM;

Always backup before manual database operations

Troubleshooting

Session not saving

Check:

Database file permissions
Disk space available
SQLite not corrupted: sqlite3 opencode.db "PRAGMA integrity_check;"
No concurrent access issues

Auto-compact not triggering

Verify:

autoCompact: true in config
Token usage actually reaching threshold
Model context window correctly detected
Check logs for errors

Missing session history

Possible causes:

Database corruption
Incorrect data directory
Session deleted
Wrong working directory

Check: ls -la ~/.opencode/

High token counts

Token usage accumulates from:

Large file contents in context
Long conversation history
Many tool calls
Repeated context

Solutions:

Use manual compact
Start fresh session for new task
Avoid reading large files unnecessarily

Next steps

Commands

Learn about Initialize Project and Compact Session commands

Configuration

Configure data directory and auto-compact

AI tools

Explore agent tool for task sessions

Keyboard shortcuts

Session management shortcuts

​What are sessions?

​Session lifecycle

​Session structure

​Auto-compact feature

​How it works

​Configuration

​Manual compact

​Compact summary format

​Session switching

​SQLite storage

​Database location

​Database schema

​Database operations

Create session

Save message

Update session

List sessions

Track file change

Delete session

​File history tracking

​How it works

​Version tracking example

​Token tracking and costs

​Token counting

​Cost calculation

​Example costs

​Task sessions

​Agent tool

​Use cases

Parallel research

Code exploration

Batch operations

Specialized analysis

​Session hierarchy

​Best practices

Let auto-compact work

Name sessions meaningfully

Use manual compact strategically

Monitor token usage

Review session history

Backup database

​Database maintenance

​Backup

​Inspection

​Cleanup

​Troubleshooting

​Next steps

Commands

Configuration

AI tools

Keyboard shortcuts

What are sessions?

Session lifecycle

Session structure

Auto-compact feature

How it works

Configuration

Manual compact

Compact summary format

Session switching

SQLite storage

Database location

Database schema

Database operations

File history tracking

How it works

Version tracking example

Token tracking and costs

Token counting

Cost calculation

Example costs

Task sessions

Agent tool

Use cases

Session hierarchy

Best practices

Database maintenance

Backup

Inspection

Cleanup

Troubleshooting

Next steps