[FEATURE]: Add an ephemeral mode that does not persist sessions locally #53921

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   jlongster

   on Oct 8, 2026
2. opencode-agent commented on Oct 8, 2026

   

   opencode-agentBot

   on Oct 8, 2026 – with OpenCode Agent

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   Thanks for the detailed request, @xabipalmer!

   To restate it: you'd like an opt-in ephemeral mode (a config option such as session.persist: false or a CLI flag) where a session exists only in memory while OpenCode runs. Nothing would be written to the local database, it wouldn't show up in the session list, snapshots and related metadata would be skipped or cleaned up, and the UI would show that the mode is on.

   I couldn't find an open request for exactly this, but these are related:

   • [FEATURE]: Ephemeral one‑off sessions for opencode run (happy to implement) #4489: an earlier request for ephemeral one-off sessions, limited to opencode run (closed)
   • [FEATURE]:Add a deterministic bare mode for isolated opencode run executions #43227: a proposed opencode run --bare mode that isolates configuration (not storage)
   • Add session retention pruning #53573: a proposed command to prune old sessions and reclaim disk space
   • v2: define snapshot retention and disk GC policy #36093: how long snapshots are kept and when they are cleaned up

   A plugin can't fully do this today, because sessions are written to disk before any plugin hook runs. Maintainers will consider it as a feature request.
3. marksteward commented on Oct 12, 2026

   

   marksteward

   on Oct 12, 2026

   Last edited by marksteward

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   Genuinely amazed that ephemeral/incognito sessions aren't a feature yet. If nothing else, I regularly want to ask a quick question that has a simple answer and don't want the hassle of copying the session ID into opencode session delete. Along with the lack of a /delete command, it kind of feels like there's some high level desire to leave old session data on disk for a while. See also #12766.

   Given #459 and #10416 and #46115, this all feels pretty sus from a privacy perspective.
4. BrandoB commented on Oct 25, 2026

   

   BrandoB

   on Oct 25, 2026

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   Same need here, so I put together a workaround that gets most of the way there on 2.1.4 (Linux). It's a bash function that intercepts --incognito and runs a private server with nothing on disk:

   opencode() {
     local bin a incog=0 args=()
     bin=$(type -P opencode)
     for a in "$@"; do
       if [ "$a" = "--incognito" ]; then incog=1; else args+=("$a"); fi
     done
     [ "$incog" = 1 ] || { "$bin" "$@"; return; }
     local first="${args[0]:-}" cmd d p root rc
     if [ "$first" = run ]; then
       cmd=("$bin" run --standalone "${args[@]:1}")
     elif [ -z "$first" ] || [ "${first#-}" != "$first" ] || [ -d "$first" ]; then
       cmd=("$bin" --standalone "${args[@]}")
     else
       echo "opencode --incognito: only the TUI and 'run'" >&2; return 2
     fi
     for d in /dev/shm/oc-incognito.*; do   # leftovers from a crashed session
       [ -d "$d" ] && [ -O "$d" ] || continue
       p=$(cat "$d/.pid" 2>/dev/null)
       if [ -z "$p" ] || ! kill -0 "$p" 2>/dev/null; then rm -rf -- "$d"; fi
     done
     root=$(mktemp -d /dev/shm/oc-incognito.XXXXXXXX) || return 1
     chmod 700 "$root"
     mkdir -p "$root/data/opencode" "$root/state"
     [ -f "$HOME/.local/share/opencode/auth.json" ] && \
       install -m 600 "$HOME/.local/share/opencode/auth.json" "$root/data/opencode/auth.json"
     (
       ulimit -c 0
       echo "$BASHPID" > "$root/.pid"
       export XDG_DATA_HOME="$root/data" XDG_STATE_HOME="$root/state" \
         OPENCODE_DB=":memory:" OPENCODE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1 \
         OPENCODE_DISABLE_FREE_MODELS=1 OPENCODE_DISABLE_MODELS_FETCH=1
       exec "${cmd[@]}"
     )
     rc=$?
     rm -rf -- "$root"
     return $rc
   }

   Some things I ran into:

   • --standalone matters. In 2.x the TUI talks to the background service by default, so a session started without it still lands in the service's database even if you redirect the data dir.
   • --standalone has to come after the subcommand. opencode --standalone run ... fails with "Unrecognized flag: --standalone in command opencode run"; opencode run --standalone ... works.
   • Normal sessions also write the prompt text to ~/.local/share/opencode/log/opencode.log, not just the DB. Worth covering if this becomes a real feature, since session delete won't remove it.
   • Session titles come from a separate model call. With no small_model set, mine went to the session's own (local) model. OPENCODE_DISABLE_FREE_MODELS=1 is there so it can't fall back to a hosted free model.
   • Even with --standalone and a local model, opencode fetches https://models.opencode.ai/api.json every 5 minutes while a server runs (packages/core/src/models-dev.ts). It's a plain GET with a User-Agent and ETag, no prompt data, but it does tell the outside world when you're using it. OPENCODE_DISABLE_MODELS_FETCH=1 stops it (or OPENCODE_MODELS_PATH for a local catalog); disabling the built-in opencode provider doesn't.
   • I set "share": "disabled" globally so a stray /share can't upload anything.

   To check it, I ran a session with a canary string and then searched the data, state, cache and config dirs, /tmp and /dev/shm for it. Nothing turned up and no file in those dirs changed. As a control, a normal session with a different canary showed up in opencode.db-wal and log/opencode.log. Watching ss during a run, the incognito process only talks to the local model server and localhost.

   I also added a small TUI plugin that shows an "INCOGNITO · RAM ONLY" marker in prompt.footer.status when the session is ephemeral, loaded only for these sessions through OPENCODE_CLI_CONFIG_CONTENT. Happy to share it.

   What it doesn't cover: files that tools deliberately write into the project, tmpfs pages that get swapped out (fine if your swap is encrypted), and anything your model provider logs on its side.

   A built-in flag would still be better. This is just what works today.

   👍React with 👍1Reacted by Matthew Walther