In this course we’ll be using OpenCode Desktop — a native app with a GUI (graphical user interface) you interact with using your mouse and keyboard. If you’ve used apps like ChatGPT or Claude, this chat-based interface should feel pretty familiar to you.
OpenCode also has a TUI (terminal user interface) for terminal-based workflows, a CLI (command-line interface) for one-off commands, and IDE extensions for VS Code, Cursor, Zed, and Windsurf. The skills you learn here apply to any of these interfaces. But for this course, Desktop is all you need.
Before we install anything, let’s run a quick system check. Your browser can detect most of this automatically:
System Check
Your system is ready!
Install OpenCode Desktop
Download the .dmg for your Mac. Most Macs from 2021 or later use Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4). Not sure? Click > About This Mac — your chip is listed at the top.
Or install with Homebrew:
brew install —cask opencode-desktop
Run the installer and follow the on-screen prompts.
Recommended: install WSL
Windows Subsystem for Linux lets you run a full Linux environment inside Windows. It’s free, built into Windows 10 and 11, and takes one command to install. OpenCode works best with WSL. See the WSL setup guide.
Choose the package for your distribution:
.deb for Ubuntu/Debian, .rpm for Fedora/RHEL.
Or install with your package manager:
sudo dpkg -i opencode-desktop_*.debDownload OpenCode Desktop for your platform:
Launch the app
Double-click OpenCode Desktop from your applications menu or dock, or use Spotlight to open it.
Watch this short video for a quick overview of OpenCode Desktop’s user interface, which covers projects, sessions, prompts, agents, and models.
Open a project
You’ll be prompted to open a project — click Open Project and select any folder on your computer. You should then see a chat interface with a text input at the bottom.
Enter a prompt
Try this prompt to confirm everything is working:
Hello, are you there?
Press Return to send. If you get a response, you’re connected to a language model and ready to go.