PAI-OpenCode: PAI v4.0 Community Port to OpenCode — 🎉 RELEASE v3.0

[Steffen025]

We're back — and it took longer than expected

First, an honest acknowledgment: it's been a while since our last update. Client work pulled us deep for months, and what started as incremental improvements turned into something much bigger. The scope of truly integrating PAI into OpenCode — rather than just mirroring it — was larger than we anticipated. Worth every week of it.

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The v3.0 Philosophy: PAI for OpenCode, not PAI on OpenCode

Previous versions took a translation approach: bring PAI's patterns to OpenCode, keep them compatible, ship it. That worked. But v3.0 is the first release where PAI-OpenCode genuinely leans into what OpenCode is instead of working around it.

Before (v2.x)	After (v3.0)
Bootstrap file + skill system → 233KB static context loaded every session	Bootstrap removed — native tier: always skill handles everything, context loads on demand
Required custom Steffen025/opencode fork (feature/model-tiers branch)	Vanilla OpenCode from opencode.ai — no fork, no custom build
API key required from day one	Zen free out-of-box (opencode/big-pickle) — start immediately, no key needed
PAI Unified plugin, no event bus coordination	Unified event bus with 7 new event types + 5 new plugin handlers
39 skills, flat structure	52 skills in 11 hierarchical categories (PAI v4.0.3 port)

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What's in v3.0

Core Architecture

• Algorithm v3.7.0 (from upstream PAI v4.0.3) — Constraint Fidelity System, Verification Rehearsal, ISC Adherence Check, Build Drift Prevention
• Native skill loading — PAI/SKILL.md with tier: always; bootstrap file gone, 233KB static context eliminated
• Zen free out-of-box — opencode/big-pickle as default for all agents; no API key required to get started

OpenCode-Native Improvements

• OpenCode System Self-Awareness skill — OpenCodeSystem/SKILL.md documents OpenCode's own architecture, tool reference, configuration, and troubleshooting patterns; PAI now knows how its own environment works
• CodeReview skill + Biome CI — automated code quality checks integrated into the workflow
• Claude Max subscription — guidance for connecting your Claude Max subscription documented in INSTALL.md; community plugin path available

Plugins & Security

• Event bus — session.compacted, session.error, permission.asked, command.executed, session.updated, session.created, installation.update.available
• 5 new plugin handlers: PRD sync, session cleanup, response cache, relationship memory, question tracking
• Prompt injection detection — 200+ patterns, configurable sensitivity (low/medium/high)
• DB health tooling — db-utils.ts with session archiving, size monitoring, vacuum support

Developer Experience

• Terminal installer — bash PAI-Install/install.sh with headless mode
• Session intelligence — registry and compaction context recovery
• switch-provider.ts — switch all agent models with one command (zen, zen-free, zen-paid, anthropic, openai, local)
• Migration tooling — migrate-legacy-config.ts auto-converts v2.x configs

Community Contributions

Special thanks to contributors in this release:

• @eddovandenboom — PAI wrapper script, --fix-symlink flag
• @ktneely — model profile updates for provider-agnostic routing

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Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/Steffen025/pai-opencode.git
cd pai-opencode
bash PAI-Install/install.sh
opencode

Coming from v2.x? See UPGRADE.md — the main breaking change is model_tiers replaced by per-agent model config. Run migrate-legacy-config.ts to auto-convert.

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Links

• Repository: github.com/Steffen025/pai-opencode
• Release: v3.0.0
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
• Upgrade Guide: UPGRADE.md

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All credit for PAI's architecture, Algorithm, and philosophy goes to Daniel Miessler. PAI-OpenCode is a community port — our goal is to make PAI accessible on any provider.

Questions, feedback, and issues always welcome. ⬇️

[ktneely]

Given the increasing challenges with Claude token limits, as well as PAI's original intent to be model-agnostic, I'd love to see the community adopt OpenCode as the path forward for 5.0 (or whenever). I've been using the OpenCode port, and it's nice to have a mix of local or cheaper cloud models for light & medium tasks, along with powerful ones for the complex ones in order to reduce subscription usage and dependence upon one platform.

[keithce]

I'm absolutely looking forward to taking some time and setting this up instead of in CC.

Please do keep this in step and hopefully that process can get easier!

[andykalyakin]

Guys, thank you for doing this incredible project!
Does it make sense for me to use parallel CC and OpenCode? both with PAI
am still learning the best practices, so would be grateful for advice! thx

[Steffen025]

Hey @andykalyakin, thanks for the question. I recommend sticking to one runtime - especially to learn how the system works.

Only if you really need the options and freedom, like platform agnosticity or local LLM support that OpenCode provides for you, then you can absolutely also use PAI-OpenCode.

To get used to the system and how it works, I would recommend sticking to the original vanilla PAI from Daniel.

[ktneely]

I think it would be difficult to try to run both side-by-side, at least if you're new to the projects. Once you are really familiar with the "engine" files, vs. the "info" files, you could probably set up some symlinks for a lot of the core data in the USER/ directory, especially, adding more symlinks as you edit different files, e.g. agent context and such.

To get started, I would pick one and really learn how it works. It took me about a month with lots of fiddling to get to a point where I'm pretty comfortable about the purpose and effect of most of the directories.

[acq23]

Given the Mr. Miessler declaration of intent about v5+, is this implementation building also on that way or is "just a port" of v4.0.3?

[Steffen025]

@acq23 - could you explain somewhat more what you mean about the "intent" about v5+

At the moment the Scope of PAI-Opencode is to bring the most natural PAI Experience to opencode - using the out of the Box capabilities of Opencode, while at the same time trying staying as vanilla as possible in terms of PAI Experience.