OpenCode Crash Course: Automate Workflow with Free AI Models

Stop paying for AI coding subscriptions. Start running autonomous agents for free.

OpenCode is the open-source AI coding agent built for the terminal — provider-agnostic, MIT-licensed, and able to run entirely on free AI models. This crash course takes you from installation to a packaged, shareable agent toolkit in under four hours.

This is not a course about typing prompts and hoping for the best. You will build a complete, reproducible automation system: custom slash commands, a project-aware AGENTS md file, MCP connections to GitHub and your database, two production Skills, a custom sub-agent, and your own distributable OpenCode plugin.

What you will build

Every hands-on lesson runs against one real case study — a messy retail sales dataset with duplicate orders, inconsistent date formats, currency-formatted text, and missing regions. You will clean it, analyse it, and dashboard it using agents you build yourself.

• A Data Cleaning Skill that handles real-world data defects through rules you write

• A Dashboard Creation Skill that turns clean data into visual reporting

• A Code Reviewer sub-agent that audits your work automatically

• A shareable plugin bundling your skill, agent, and command into one installable package

What you will learn

• How the OpenCode agentic loop works internally: read, reason, act, verify

• Free setup using Zen models, plus paid configuration in three minutes if you want it

• Plan mode vs Build mode, and why separating reasoning from execution reduces errors

• Context windows, auto-compaction, and how to keep agents on track in long sessions

• Writing and testing an AGENTS md file so your agent understands your project

• MCP from first principles: GitHub, database servers, Context7, and the allow/ask/deny trust model

• Skills architecture: YAML front-matter and Markdown body, plus installing from the marketplace

• Sub-agents vs Skills, and exactly when to reach for each

• Packaging and distributing your work as an OpenCode plugin

Who this course is for

Developers, data analysts, and engineers who want agentic coding without a paid subscription. Anyone curious about terminal-based AI agents who wants a practical workflow rather than a feature tour. Students, freelancers, and indie builders automating repetitive coding and data work.