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Official OpenCode Desktop incorrectly rejects free-tier models with "can only be used from within OpenCode" #49590

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Official OpenCode Desktop incorrectly rejects free-tier models with "can only be used from within OpenCode"#49590
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MrMushrooooom

Description

@onelpawarai-X
onelpawarai-X
opened on Sep 17, 2026

Description

Image

Image ## Summary

I'm using the official OpenCode Desktop application, but every request to OpenCode free-tier models fails with the following error:

Error from provider (Console): OpenCode's free tier can only be used from within OpenCode

The confusing part is that I am already inside OpenCode Desktop. This happens while working inside my own project (myra agents), not from an external website, clone, or custom client.

Expected behavior

Free-tier models should work normally when used from the official OpenCode Desktop application.

Actual behavior

Every request returns:

Error from provider (Console): OpenCode's free tier can only be used from within OpenCode

Environment

  • OpenCode Desktop (official app)
  • Working inside a local project (myra agents)
  • Using the built-in OpenCode provider and free-tier models (e.g. Big Pickle)

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open the official OpenCode Desktop app.
  2. Open a local project (e.g. myra agents).
  3. Select an OpenCode free-tier model.
  4. Send any prompt.
  5. The provider immediately returns the error above.

Evidence

I've attached screenshots showing:

  • The error occurring inside the official OpenCode Desktop app.
  • The project context where the issue happens.

Plugins

No response

OpenCode version

No response

Steps to reproduce

No response

Screenshot and/or share link

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Operating System

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Terminal

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Activity

  1. github-actions
    assigned
    MrMushrooooom
    on Sep 17, 2026

  2. github-actions commented on Sep 17, 2026

    @github-actions
    github-actionsBot
    on Sep 17, 2026 – with GitHub Actions
    Contributor

    This issue might be a duplicate of existing issues. Please check:

    There appears to be a widespread issue affecting free-tier model access right now. You may want to track one of the above issues instead.

  3. yanhenrique-dev commented on Sep 17, 2026

    @yanhenrique-dev
    yanhenrique-dev
    on Sep 17, 2026

    Real

  4. soulinker commented on Sep 17, 2026

    @soulinker
    soulinker
    on Sep 17, 2026

    happens only during compaction

  5. onelpawarai-X commented on Sep 17, 2026

    @onelpawarai-X
    onelpawarai-X
    on Sep 17, 2026
    Author

    I noticed another pattern. Starting a new session sometimes works for a short while, but after some usage (often when compaction happens) the same error comes back.

    This makes me wonder if some requests sent by OpenCode (especially compaction-related requests) are missing the expected validation headers or session information, causing the backend to treat them as if they weren't coming from the official OpenCode Desktop app.

  6. zenviko commented on Sep 17, 2026

    @zenviko
    zenviko
    on Sep 17, 2026

    Guys, I found a solution that fixes the issue. I know it’s not the best solution, but it works correctly for me.

    Just downgrade OpenCode to version 1.18.28:

    npm uninstall -g opencode-ai

    npm install -g opencode-ai@1.18.28

    After that, restart OpenCode and the free tier should work again.

    Hope this helps someone!)

  7. leostacowskicompasso commented on Sep 17, 2026

    @leostacowskicompasso
    leostacowskicompasso
    on Sep 17, 2026

    Guys, I found a solution that fixes the issue. I know it’s not the best solution, but it works correctly for me.

    Just downgrade OpenCode to version 1.18.28:

    npm uninstall -g opencode-ai

    npm install -g opencode-ai@1.18.28

    After that, restart OpenCode and the free tier should work again.

    Hope this helps someone!)

    For people who still can't make OpenCode work with Zen's free tier models, please take a look into @haithambrana's comment on #49433.
    The issue is related to tool permissions (Maybe?).
    Tried downgrading to @1.18.28 with no success.
    Was able to make it come back after changing my permission opencode.jsonc config to this:

    "permission": {
    "*": "allow",
    "glob": "ask",
    "grep": "ask",
}

    glob and grep were set to deny beforehand.

    • Now it is running fine on @1.18.31.

  8. rekram1-node commented on Sep 18, 2026

    @rekram1-node
    rekram1-node
    on Sep 18, 2026
    Contributor

    We've been tightening our logic to fight abuse, we did temporarily have an issue where compaction was impacted and marked as not from OpenCode it has been resolved. You cannot use the free tier in other harnesses (this is only a limitation for the free tier nothing else). The logic in place may not work properly if you have a very custom setup. If that is the case can you tell us more about your setup?

    Also we just pushed a change to make it looser so ur issue shouldnt require permission changes @leostacowskicompasso it is deploying rn.

  9. rekram1-node
    closed this as a duplicateof [BUG]: Free tier (Muse Spark 1.3 Free) fails with 'can only be used from within OpenCode' when using MonoCode frontend with OpenCode backend #49580 on Sep 18, 2026
  10. mvalentsev
    added a commit that references this issue on Sep 18, 2026

    fix: opencode's free models are for OpenCode alone, in its maintainer…

    4186a07

  11. leostacowskicompasso commented on Sep 18, 2026

    @leostacowskicompasso
    leostacowskicompasso
    on Sep 18, 2026

    We've been tightening our logic to fight abuse, we did temporarily have an issue where compaction was impacted and marked as not from OpenCode it has been resolved. You cannot use the free tier in other harnesses (this is only a limitation for the free tier nothing else). The logic in place may not work properly if you have a very custom setup. If that is the case can you tell us more about your setup?

    Also we just pushed a change to make it looser so ur issue shouldnt require permission changes @leostacowskicompasso it is deploying rn.

    Thanks for the feedback @rekram1-node!

    I'm using a pretty basic setup for OpenCode Zen free-tier models. All on the official CLI/TUI too.

    • Only customization in regards to what I mentioned before are the custom tools that I'm using in place of grep and glob, that's why I had the deny setup for these two.

    Just tried again, the autoupdate flag is set to true, grep and glob back to deny, same version as of yesterday: 1.18.31.

    It seems to be back to normal!

  12. alfaindomart commented on Oct 5, 2026

    @alfaindomart
    alfaindomart
    on Oct 5, 2026

    We've been tightening our logic to fight abuse, we did temporarily have an issue where compaction was impacted and marked as not from OpenCode it has been resolved. You cannot use the free tier in other harnesses (this is only a limitation for the free tier nothing else). The logic in place may not work properly if you have a very custom setup. If that is the case can you tell us more about your setup?

    Also we just pushed a change to make it looser so ur issue shouldnt require permission changes @leostacowskicompasso it is deploying rn.

    Hey, i'm using Opencode CLI 2.0.22 (WSL) and the permission issue seems to be fixed in that version, but not in Opencode Desktop (Windows) 2.0.22 - 2.0.23. Currently my custom agent with denied shell permission failed on desktop with the usual free-tier restriction error, but worked when i switched to CLI.

    Also, if i start a session in CLI, then continue that session in desktop, i won't get the error.

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