127 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
127 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
# OpenCode Session Runtime
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OpenCode sessions preserve durable conversational history while assembling the runtime context an agent needs to act correctly in its current environment.
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## Language
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**System Context**:
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The structured collection of contextual facts presented to the model as initial instructions and chronological updates.
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_Avoid_: System prompt
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**Session History**:
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The projected chronological conversation selected for a provider turn after applying the active compaction and **Context Epoch** cutoffs.
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_Avoid_: Session Context
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**Context Source**:
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One independently observed typed value within the **System Context**, represented by a stable key, JSON codec, infallible loader, pure baseline/update renderers, and an optional removal renderer for dynamic sources.
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_Avoid_: Prompt fragment
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**System Context Registry**:
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The Location-scoped registry of ordered, scoped producers that contribute to the current **System Context**.
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**Mid-Conversation System Message**:
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A durable chronological instruction that tells the model the newly effective state of a changed **Context Source**.
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_Avoid_: System update, system notification, raw text diff
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**Context Epoch**:
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The span during which one initially rendered **System Context** remains the immutable provider-cache baseline, ending at completed compaction, Session movement, or an incompatible context transition that requires a fresh baseline.
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**Baseline System Context**:
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The full **System Context** rendered at the start of a **Context Epoch**.
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_Avoid_: Live system prompt
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**Context Snapshot**:
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The overwriteable model-hidden JSON state used to compare each **Context Source** with the value last admitted to a provider turn.
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**Unavailable Context**:
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An expected temporary inability to observe a **Context Source** value; the runtime retains its prior effective state and emits no update, or omits it until first successfully loaded.
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**Safe Provider-Turn Boundary**:
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The point immediately before a provider call, after durable input promotion and any required tool settlement, where context changes may be admitted chronologically.
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**Model Tool Output**:
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The bounded projection of a Core-executed tool result persisted in Session history and replayed to the model. A tool may shape this projection semantically, but the Tool Registry enforces the final size limit.
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**Managed Tool Output File**:
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A temporary file created under OpenCode's shared tool-output directory to retain complete output that was too large for Session history.
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**Model Request Options**:
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Provider-semantic model settings selected from the Catalog and active Session variant before the LLM protocol adapter encodes them for a provider request.
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_Avoid_: Request body, wire options
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**Generation Controls**:
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Provider-neutral sampling and output controls, partitioned from provider semantics and compatibility wire fields when model metadata enters the Catalog.
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**PTY Environment**:
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The host-supplied environment overlay applied by the server when creating a PTY, observed for the request Location and resolved PTY working directory.
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## Relationships
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- A **System Context** is an opaque carrier composed from zero or more **Context Sources**.
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- **Session History** contains projected conversational messages and admitted **Mid-Conversation System Messages**; the active **Baseline System Context** remains separate provider-request state.
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- The **System Context Registry** uses stable-keyed scoped contributions to assemble the current **System Context**; contributor removal naturally removes its sources at the next **Safe Provider-Turn Boundary**.
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- A changed **Context Source** may produce one **Mid-Conversation System Message** containing its newly effective state.
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- A **Mid-Conversation System Message** persists the exact combined rendered text sent to the model.
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- The current **Context Snapshot** advances atomically with the corresponding durable **Mid-Conversation System Message**.
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- A **Context Snapshot** stores one codec-encoded JSON value and, for removable dynamic sources, a pre-rendered removal message per stable **Context Source** key.
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- Changes from multiple **Context Sources** admitted at one safe boundary combine into one **Mid-Conversation System Message**.
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- Context changes are sampled and admitted lazily at a **Safe Provider-Turn Boundary**, never pushed asynchronously when their source changes.
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- At a **Safe Provider-Turn Boundary**, newly promoted user input or settled tool results precede any combined **Mid-Conversation System Message**.
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- The first provider turn renders the latest complete **Baseline System Context** and initializes its **Context Snapshot** without emitting a redundant **Mid-Conversation System Message**; unavailable initial context blocks the turn instead of persisting an incomplete baseline.
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- Initial **System Context** preparation precedes the first durable input promotion so an unavailable baseline leaves that input pending and retryable; ordinary reconciliation remains after promotion.
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- Compaction starts a new **Context Epoch** with a freshly rendered **Baseline System Context** and **Context Snapshot**; prior **Mid-Conversation System Messages** remain durable audit history but leave projected model history.
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- A newly registered core or plugin-defined **Context Source** absent from the current snapshot emits its baseline rendering once at the next **Safe Provider-Turn Boundary**.
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- **Context Source** keys are stable and namespaced; duplicate keys fail composition. `SystemContext.combine(...)` preserves caller order; the **System Context Registry** evaluates producers concurrently and combines them in stable contribution-key order so rendered context remains deterministic.
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- Each **Context Source** loader returns one coherent typed value. `SystemContext.make(...)` hides that value type so differently typed sources compose uniformly. Its codec compares and stores that value; its pure renderers produce model-visible baseline, update, and removal text only when needed.
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- `SystemContext.initialize(...)` observes a composed **System Context** once and produces a fresh **Baseline System Context** with its **Context Snapshot**.
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- `SystemContext.reconcile(...)` observes a composed **System Context** once and returns exactly one next action: unchanged, updated, replacement ready, or replacement blocked.
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- `SystemContext.replace(...)` renders a fresh generation after completed compaction or another baseline-replacing transition; it reports replacement blocked while previously admitted context is unavailable.
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- **Unavailable Context** uses stale-while-revalidate semantics and is distinct from a successfully loaded absence, which may emit removal text.
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- Ordinary **Context Source** loaders return values directly; loaders that intentionally use stale-while-revalidate may explicitly return **Unavailable Context**.
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- Nested project instruction discovery after successful reads remains a follow-up; when implemented, discovered instructions must be admitted durably at the next **Safe Provider-Turn Boundary**.
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- Location-scoped services naturally re-resolve effective context when a moved session next runs in its destination location.
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- Moving a Session clears its active **Context Epoch**, so the destination must initialize a complete baseline before another prompt can promote.
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- Instruction discovery, source identity, persistence, and file loading belong to the instruction service; the **System Context** abstraction only composes effectful producers and renders loaded values.
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- The first instruction-service slice observes global and upward project `AGENTS.md` files as one ordered aggregate **Context Source** at each **Safe Provider-Turn Boundary**.
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- Built-in and instruction context producers register through the **System Context Registry** with stable contribution keys. Plugin-defined context registration and hot-reload lifecycle remain a follow-up built on the same scoped registry seam.
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- Selected-agent available-skill guidance is a **Context Source** composed with Location-wide registry sources immediately before Context Epoch admission. It lists only names and descriptions permitted for that agent; skill bodies and locations are exposed only through the permission-checked `skill` tool.
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- The selected agent and model are sampled when a provider turn starts. Changes admitted after that boundary apply to the next provider turn and do not restart the current turn.
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- Selected-agent available-skill guidance remains a **Context Source**. An agent switch that changes that guidance produces a **Mid-Conversation System Message** while preserving the current baseline.
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- Local tool authorization and pending permission requests retain the effective agent of the provider turn that issued the call; a later agent switch cannot change that call's policy.
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- Context source changes never wake idle sessions; the next naturally scheduled **Safe Provider-Turn Boundary** loads and compares current values lazily.
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- Once admitted, a **Mid-Conversation System Message** remains durable even if the following provider attempt fails and is replayed unchanged on retry.
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- **Mid-Conversation System Messages** remain durable Session-message history; normal user-facing transcript surfaces may hide them.
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- The date **Context Source** initially preserves host-local calendar-date behavior; a configured user timezone may replace that default later.
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- A **Context Epoch** begins with one immutable **Baseline System Context**.
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- A **Baseline System Context** is stored durably and reused verbatim across process restarts within its **Context Epoch**.
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- A **Baseline System Context** durably preserves the exact joined text used for the active provider-cache prefix.
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- Completed compaction starts a new **Context Epoch** on the next provider attempt, folding the current complete **System Context** into a fresh baseline and removing earlier **Mid-Conversation System Messages** from active model history.
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- A model/provider switch preserves the current **Context Epoch** and chronological conversation history; the new selection applies to the next provider turn.
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- **Model Request Options** remain provider-semantic through Catalog resolution. The Session runner maps them into the LLM package's provider-option namespace; the selected protocol adapter alone owns provider wire encoding.
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- **Generation Controls**, protocol-semantic **Model Request Options**, and compatibility request body fields are separate Catalog domains. A shared ingestion adapter partitions legacy and models.dev AI-SDK-shaped options before routing.
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- The **PTY Environment** is a server concern rather than a Core PTY concern. PTY creation merges caller values, then the host overlay, then Core-forced terminal invariants such as `TERM` and `OPENCODE_TERMINAL`.
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- A **PTY Environment** adapter observes plugins in the request Location while passing the resolved PTY working directory to the hook; standalone servers use an empty adapter.
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- A **Mid-Conversation System Message** lowers to the provider's native chronological instruction role when supported and to a wrapped chronological fallback otherwise.
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- When the effective aggregate instruction set changes, its **Mid-Conversation System Message** includes the complete current ordered set and supersedes the prior aggregate value; when no ambient instructions remain, the message states that previously loaded instructions no longer apply.
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- Ambient project instruction discovery honors `OPENCODE_DISABLE_PROJECT_CONFIG`; global instructions remain eligible.
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- Oversized textual **Model Tool Output** retains a bounded preview in Session history while its complete text moves to managed tool-output storage. Arbitrary structured-result size is a separate concern.
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- One tool settlement receives one aggregate textual limit, using the configured maximum lines or UTF-8 bytes, whichever is reached first. The limit is provider-independent; token pressure belongs to context assembly and compaction.
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- Generic truncation preserves the beginning and end of textual output. Tools may apply a more meaningful strategy before the Tool Registry enforces the final limit.
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- A truncated **Model Tool Output** identifies its complete text both in the bounded model-visible preview and as a typed managed output path. Managed output paths do not modify the tool's validated structured result.
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- A **Managed Tool Output File** is temporary and may expire after its retention period. The bounded **Model Tool Output**, not the file, is the durable replayable record.
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- Failure to retain a **Managed Tool Output File** does not change a successful tool operation into a failed one. The Session records an explicitly lossy bounded output without a path, while operators receive diagnostics for the storage failure.
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- Once a tool operation succeeds, bounding its **Model Tool Output** and publishing its one durable settlement form an interruption-safe completion region. Raw oversized success is never published before a later correction.
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- When a structured-only result would exceed the **Model Tool Output** limit, its validated structured value remains unchanged for Session consumers while model replay uses a bounded textual JSON preview and optional managed output path.
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- Existing tool-managed output paths survive generic bounding. A fallback file retains exactly the complete projected text received by the Tool Registry and never claims to reconstruct output already discarded by tool-specific shaping.
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- **Managed Tool Output Files** use globally unique names in one shared flat directory. Their absolute paths are readable and searchable by ordinary tools; other absolute paths remain outside Location-scoped filesystem authority.
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- Provider-executed tool results remain provider-native transcript facts outside generic Tool Registry bounding. Their context control requires provider-aware pruning or compaction because some providers require exact structured round-trip payloads.
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## Example dialogue
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> **Dev:** "The date changed while the session was active. Should the **Mid-Conversation System Message** say what the old date was?"
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> **Domain expert:** "No. Emit the newly effective date so the agent can act on the current **System Context**."
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## Flagged ambiguities
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- Legacy `experimental.chat.system.transform` can mutate the assembled baseline system prompt arbitrarily, but V2 plugins do not yet expose an equivalent hook. Decide separately whether to port it, replace dynamic uses with plugin-defined **Context Sources**, or narrow its semantics.
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