opencode-desktop-notes

A notes, side-question and todo panel for OpenCode Desktop.

Jot things down while the agent works, ask the model side questions without touching the main chat, quote parts of the conversation, keep a todo list, and send any of it back to the agent when you're ready.

Note

OpenCode's GUI plugin API is experimental. This plugin is built against OpenCode 2.2.x and may need an update when that API changes.

Install

One line:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wannabemrrobot/opencode-desktop-notes/main/install.sh | sh

The script finds the OpenCode CLI, including the copy that ships inside OpenCode Desktop, and runs:

opencode plugin add github:wannabemrrobot/opencode-desktop-notes

You can run that yourself if opencode is on your PATH.

Manual install

Add the plugin to your global config, ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json or opencode.jsonc. OpenCode Desktop only loads GUI plugins from the global config.

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "plugins": ["github:wannabemrrobot/opencode-desktop-notes"]
}

Config changes load without a restart. If the panel doesn't appear, run /reload.

Install from a local checkout

git clone https://github.com/wannabemrrobot/opencode-desktop-notes.git
cd opencode-desktop-notes
bun install && bun run bundle

Then point your global config at the folder:

{ "plugins": ["/absolute/path/to/opencode-desktop-notes"] }

Open the panel

In a session, press + in the side panel and choose Session notes or Project notes. You can also search the command palette for "Notes".

Update or remove

opencode plugin update github:wannabemrrobot/opencode-desktop-notes
opencode plugin remove github:wannabemrrobot/opencode-desktop-notes

Settings > Extensions > Plugins shows whether the plugin loaded and has a switch to turn its UI off.

Features

Notes and side questions (/btw)

Every row has a small badge in its top-right corner:

Badge	Row
Pen	A note
Quote	A note attached to a passage from the chat
/btw	A side question and its answer
Quote + /btw	A side question about a chat passage

• Add a note: type in the box at the bottom and press Enter. Shift+Enter starts a new line. The box grows with your text up to a third of the window, then scrolls.
• Edit a note: hover it and click Edit to edit it right where it is, with the same formatting toolbar. Enter or Save saves it, Esc or Cancel leaves it as it was.
• Collapse a note: click the chevron at its top right to fold it to one line. Click the line to open it again.
• Archive a note: hover it and click the archive icon. It folds to one line marked Archived and stays where it is in the list. Clicking it doesn't open it; only Unarchive does.
• Formatting: the box is a small rich-text editor. Use the toolbar, ⌘B / I / E / K, or type Markdown (**bold**, _italic_, `code`, ~~strike~~, - for a list) and it turns into formatting as you type. Notes are saved and shown as Markdown.
• Ask /btw: type a question and press /btw. The answer comes from the session's context, but nothing is written to the chat history and the running turn isn't interrupted.
• Threads: each /btw includes your notes and the earlier side Q&A, so the thread builds on itself. Use Follow-up /btw on an answer to keep going.
• Model picker: the picker inside the prompt box chooses the model for /btw. Session model uses the session's own context. Any other model gets the chat's text (not tool calls or reasoning) plus your notes.
• Times: every row shows when it was added, such as "Today, 10:04".

Hover a row to show its action buttons:

Button	What it does
Ask /btw (notes) or Follow-up /btw (answers)	Asks a side question about that row. Uses the text box as the question, or asks in a dialog if it's empty.
Send to chat	Posts the row to the agent as a queued message, with anything in the text box added as your comment.
Delete	Removes the row.

Annotate the chat

Select text in the conversation, then press Annotate (or ⌘⌥N). The quote attaches to the next note or /btw you write. Click a quote to scroll back to that spot in the chat.

Todos

Open Todo under the search bar. Add items, tick them off, clear finished ones. The Todo 2/4 count stays on the button while it's closed.

You can also add a todo without opening the list: type /todo Write retry tests in the notes box, or run it in the chat prompt. A todo from the chat prompt goes to that session's list. The count updates right away.

Hover a todo and press Agent to hand it to the agent with optional instructions. It goes in as a queued message, so a running turn finishes first.

Session context

Note session context shows the session's model, context usage, tokens in and out, cost, and how many notes and /btw questions the tab holds. Only one of Todo and Note session context is open at a time.

Search, sort and export

• Search filters notes, questions, answers and quotes, and highlights the matches.
• Notes only hides /btw rows.
• Delete all (the trash icon beside Notes only) clears every note and /btw in the tab, after asking. Todos are kept.
• Sort switches between oldest and newest first.
• Export saves what's on screen as a Markdown file.
• Rename gives the tab its own title.

Session and project tabs

Session notes belong to one session. Project notes are shared by every session in the same project folder. Notes, todos and titles are kept separately for each, and survive restarts.

Costs and limits

• /btw costs tokens. With Session model, each question re-sends the session context and counts toward the session's totals. Other models are billed to that model.
• Jump-to-quote searches the visible chat, so it can miss text from messages the app hasn't loaded yet in a very long session.
• Highlights don't mark a match that's split across formatting, such as half a word in bold.
• Experimental API: see the note at the top.

Development

bun install
bun run bundle     # build dist/gui-experimental.cjs
bun run dev        # rebuild on every change; OpenCode reloads the panel by itself
bun run typecheck
bun run demo       # build a browser preview with a mock host, in demo/dist

• src/gui.tsx is the whole plugin. It builds to dist/gui-experimental.cjs, the file OpenCode loads.
• dist/ is committed so installing from GitHub needs no build step. Rebuild before you commit.
• demo/ runs the real panel against a small mock of the OpenCode host, for quick UI work without the desktop app. Build it with bun run demo, serve demo/dist, and open index.html (add ?theme=dark for the dark theme, or ?record for the full-window layout used to record docs/demo.gif).

License

MIT