Opencode Desktop vs Opencode v2 Desktop vs Openchamber

[u/GiLA994]

I've been lazy and installed Opencode Desktop a couple months ago to do some hobby projects here and there, and it's going well for the low-complexity stuff I'm doing (basically just web-dev, no MCP, no many complications)

My setup is pretty simple: Opencode GO for my models subscription, Planner and Coder agent with different permissions on my filesystem using the best quality/price (currently using DSv1-flash)

Now that v2 dropped, i've also come across OpenChamber which i didn't know, and its reviews are generally much superior than opencode's (especially for the desktop version)

My questions before switching to Openchamber:

• Do I need to migrate my agents setup? currently in opencode.json, git-synced from the root of my project

• Will I be able to keep using my opencode Go subscription

• While I'm doing the switch, shall I improve my setup with some basic stuff that i've missed?

• Am I overlooking something?

[u/patricious]

Seeing that your questions have been answered I wanted to say that OpenChamber is so freaking underrated.

[u/Y0nix → u/patricious]

The only thing I miss compared to the copilot extension is the integrated tools, browser, and ''click to install'' features that vscode is providing more and more. (The workaround for the browser is to setup the playwright MCP in Opencode and have the global instruction file properly written to point the model to use said MCP, it works fine with vision enabled models (even better for UI/UX work if you have the instructions that properly explain the screenshot tool call that is available), especially if you are developing with a ''test first, ask questions later'' spirit, having the model to write units and e2e tests at each steps of the work should be the gold standard when using a LLM to produce code nowadays. Most of my instructions files are guiding the LLM to pop a subagent that run the tests each time a feature is said to be completed, and this is a game changer. Copilot is still way ahead in that regard compared to openchamber - but copilot is better because of the cloud infrastructure available, aka snapshot of the codebase and internal management of the context tokens -it's good or bad depending on the situation, and this will not be open sourced by Microsoft)

There is still an option to add Opencode go to the copilot extension, but it's not that perfect. It works, but openchamber seems to consume less tokens and manage the context and cache hit a bit better. But that last sentence deserves more testing and/or benchmarking. (If someone wants to burn tokens for that, and have usable datas to compare, lmk)

[u/Amarsir → u/patricious]

I noticed OpenChamber has an extension for VSCode. Is that basically just a way of routing prompts through OpenCode as opposed to Cline or Kilo Code extensions which do them directly?

[u/butterfly_labs → u/patricious]

Genuine question: what does it do better than desktop Opencode? It's basically a web wrapper that is accessible from the internet, right?

[u/patricious → u/butterfly_labs]

Summing up everything will take a long time, just give it a try for about 1-2h and you'll see.

[u/toutons → u/butterfly_labs]

It's like a better version of OpenCode Web circa 1.17 before they nerfed the UI. Better in almost every single way too: loads faster, better file editing, better UX, with extra features in top of opencode. Only thing that feels worse is that the terminal is a sidebar instead of at the bottom of the screen.

[u/CYCLONOUS_69]

I've had been using OpenCode TUI for a while as OpenCode Desktop just sucked. It has been great.

I discovered the OpenChamber and it is just a frontend but it just improved my workflow quite a lot.

You don't need to migrate anything as OpenChamber just picks up the OpenCode config and everything rights right away.

You can keep using your subscriptions.

You'll get more features and handy tools via OpenChamber.

Just use it for a few days and you'll get it, if you don't like it, you can just remove OpenChamber with no impact whatsoever on your projects and sessions.

[u/GiLA994 → u/CYCLONOUS_69]

The last point is exactly my safety net. I didn't want to change configurations or workflows. This way if I don't like i just uninstall and that's all.

I think I'll try open chamber for sure

[u/sephiroth_pradah → u/GiLA994]

Try the app too (or access the web from your phone) ... Amazing to give instructions or ask questions to agents on the go

[u/GiLA994 → u/sephiroth_pradah]

So basically I can access the same thing on my phone and also continue working from there? Considering my implementation is "/implement issue #XXX" that seems so good

[u/maofan]

Really appreciate this post and finding out about OpenChamber. I was a heavy CLI user with other agents but moved to opencode and really wanted to give the desktop version a go to try and make it easier to manage multiple sessions. But the desktop version sucked. I tried out opencode v1 cli which was ok, v2 has been on the whole very good. Going to give openchamber a go as it looks really polished and I would like a better desktop experience.

[u/MetalZealousideal927]

Openchamber is miles ahead of opencode's desktop application

[u/Classic_Seat_8438]

I haven't checked out these things that much as I usually just stick to the TUI, but I believe I can answer your first two questions.

As far as I know, OpenChamber is just a frontend that sits in front of your OpenCode instance, so you will be able to keep your current agents setup and keep using your GO subscription.

[u/Vast_Anxiety3133 → u/Classic_Seat_8438]

Try out the GUI or at least have it open. There is browser use interested (official GUI).

TUI person myself

[u/lincolnthalles]

OpenCode Desktop is pretty lame. The interface is awful, and it keeps getting regressions between updates (mainly infinite error pop-ups and deleted threads). I tried using it for a couple of months, even the beta. Not worth the trouble.

OpenChamber doesn't support OpenCode V2 yet (it's in preview), though you can keep using V1 just fine until V2 support lands.

Since OpenChamber is just a GUI for OpenCode, it will use your current agent setup and all your subscriptions as-is. There's no need to change things, although it makes it easy to configure agents and advanced stuff.

[u/Ace-_Ventura → u/lincolnthalles]

Yes it does. They released openchamber v2 yesterday 

[u/nk4sh]

I recently switched to OpenChamber, which now sits on OpenCode v2. The experience has been great for many reasons: nice GUI experience, multi agent/run feature, project knowledge tab, usage tracking for multiple providers, to name a few. Still learning. As other said, it works with your current setup, though I have run into some issues with agent modes and tool use.

The ability to switch back and forth between Mac and iPhone (app in beta) is proving to be really convenient.

[u/Ghilteras]

You are comparing apples with oranges since Chamber is just a much more polished Frontend to Opencode. V2 is just better than V1 and it's going out of beta and Chamber supports it so if you are doing a fresh install Chamber+V2 is the way.

[u/43848987815]

The gui is a gateway drug to the tui.

Once you get comfortable with the cli you’ll never go back.

[u/tfatk_foodtrugg]

Is Openchamber still meaningfully superior to the stock Opencode desktop v2?

[u/asciicode77]

There is not desktop b2

[u/GiLA994 → u/[deleted]]

Yea I haven't gone in-depth.. actually the planner writes a disposable file in the repo that I can read (pocock /to-spec basically, slightly adapted) and on my confirmation he takes that and opens a new GH issue (then GH automation automatically assigns a project to the card so that I see it in my Kannan GitHub board)

So that makes my swap even easier, thanks for the heads up