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Use opencode as your Atmos AI provider

· 2 min read
Andriy Knysh
Andriy Knysh
Principal Architect @ Cloud Posse

If you already drive your infrastructure work through a terminal coding agent, paying for a separate AI API key just to ask Atmos a question is redundant. You've authenticated the agent once, picked your model provider there, and you'd rather Atmos reuse that setup than make you manage a second set of credentials.

The Problem​

Atmos AI could reuse a locally installed coding-agent CLI - Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot - instead of an API key, but the popular open-source opencode agent wasn't one of them. opencode users had to fall back to configuring a raw API provider, which meant a second credential to manage and gave up opencode's own model selection and MCP setup.

The Fix​

Atmos AI adds opencode as a CLI provider. Point Atmos at it and every atmos ai command runs through your existing opencode installation and whichever model provider you've authenticated there - no API key in atmos.yaml:

  • Reuses your opencode auth and model configuration (opencode auth login).
  • Full MCP pass-through: MCP servers you declare in atmos.yaml are handed to opencode automatically, with auth-requiring servers wrapped in atmos auth exec and the Atmos toolchain on PATH. Atmos writes a temporary config and points opencode at it via OPENCODE_CONFIG, so your own opencode.json is never touched.
  • Participates in auto-detection: with ai.enabled: true and no default_provider, Atmos finds the opencode binary on your PATH and uses it.

How to Use It​

Select it as the default provider (or let auto-detection find it):

ai:
  enabled: true
  default_provider: opencode
  providers:
    opencode:
      # optional - opencode's provider/model slug; defaults to opencode's own default
      model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5"

Then ask away - opencode handles the model call and any MCP tools:

atmos ai ask "Which components changed in the dev stack?"

See the AI providers configuration page for the full CLI-provider reference, including the MCP pass-through behavior.

Get Involved​

opencode joins Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and GitHub Copilot as bring-your-own-subscription CLI providers. If there's another local coding agent you'd like Atmos to drive, open an issue or a pull request on cloudposse/atmos.