Claude Code vs OpenCode
Two terminal agents with the same loop. Claude Code comes from Anthropic and runs its models; OpenCode is open source and runs whichever provider you connect. The choice is whether you want the model decided for you.
Published
Claude Code
An agent in your shell that can run your tests and read the failure.
Pick it if
- You want the agent where git, tests and deploys already live
- You would rather read a diff than watch a file change under your cursor
- You want the loop closed: it edits, it runs the suite, it sees what broke
What will annoy you
The CLI is a text interface with no file tree. If the terminal is new to you, that is a second thing to learn at the same time as the agent. The same agent also ships as a VS Code extension and a desktop app, and can run a task as a cloud session that ends in a pull request — but the terminal is where it is most at home.
OpenCode
An open-source agent that is not tied to one vendor: you connect a model provider, and can change it without changing tools.
Pick it if
- You want to choose the model yourself, and change it later without relearning the tool
- You already have an account with a model provider you like
- You want an agent whose source you can read and change
What will annoy you
The agent is half of what you get; the model you connect is the other half. Setting up a provider, its keys and its limits is your job, and when an answer is poor, working out whether the agent or the model is at fault is yours too. It reads AGENTS.md first and falls back to CLAUDE.md only when there is none — the opposite of Claude Code — so a repository with both files gives the two agents different instructions.
What is the same
- Both run in your terminal, pointed at a project folder, and also come as a desktop app and an editor extension
- Both have a planning mode that reads and proposes before anything is edited
- A project whose only instruction file is AGENTS.md gives both of them the same instructions
- The workflow transfers completely — learn one and you can drive the other the same day
Do you want one vendor's agent, or one agent for any model?
Claude Code is made by the company whose models it runs, so there is one account, one set of docs and one place to look when something is off. OpenCode works with any provider you configure, so the tool stays put when you change the model. If you already know you want Anthropic's models, the vendor's own agent is the simpler setup. If you want to compare models, use a provider you already pay for, or keep the option to switch, an agent that is not tied to a vendor is the whole point. One thing to settle early: in a repository with both CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md, Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md and OpenCode reads AGENTS.md, so either keep one file or import one into the other.
Still undecided?
Then the honest answer is that either will do, and the two weeks you spend using one will teach you more than another comparison. Both of these are the same shape underneath — give context, read the diff, iterate — so the one you learn transfers to the other in an afternoon.
Go deeper
More comparisons
No model versions, prices or benchmark scores on this page — they are wrong within weeks and decide nothing durable. For what each vendor shipped most recently, we keep agents-compared, where a weekly job maintains the dated part.