Run OpenCode on Your Phone (iPhone + Android)

You can run OpenCode on your phone today. Fastest path: install Cosyra for iOS or Cosyra for Android, sign in, and type opencode in the terminal. We pre-install OpenCode in an Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64 container alongside Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI, so none of the Termux misdetection failures apply. Sign up gets you 1 hour of free compute, no credit card; opt into a 10-hour, 7-day trial when you want more.

This guide was written by the Cosyra team. We tested OpenCode on iPhone and Android via Cosyra in April 2026, and re-ran the install and Termux setup against OpenCode 1.15.13 on 2026-06-04 to confirm what is still broken. Those hands-on behavior notes stay dated 2026-06-04. We re-verified the volatile facts (version, star count, and the Termux issue states) on 2026-07-16 against the anomalyco/opencode repo and the official docs: the container tracks releases and now ships OpenCode 1.18.2, and the misdetection is still unfixed. Issue #21043 was auto-closed as not-planned on 2026-07-03 by GitHub's 60-day staleness bot, not by a fix, so the Termux behavior is unchanged.

What is OpenCode?

OpenCode is the open-source AI coding agent maintained by Anomaly (the project moved from sst/opencode to anomalyco/opencode; GitHub still redirects the old URL). It ships under MIT, with about 186,000 stars on GitHub as of 2026-07-16. The codebase is mostly TypeScript with a small Rust component, distributed as prebuilt binaries via npm optionalDependencies, one binary per platform and arch combination.

The pitch versus the closed agents is the license, the lack of vendor lock-in, and the headless server mode. OpenCode brokers Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and local models behind a single TUI; opencode serve starts a headless HTTP server you can drive from an IDE plugin, a script, or (relevant here) a phone. The README explicitly notes you can run the server "on your computer while you drive it remotely."

How can you run OpenCode on a phone?

You can run OpenCode on a phone three ways: a cloud Ubuntu container with OpenCode pre-installed reached from a native mobile app (Cosyra), Termux on Android via the proot-distro workaround, or Blink Shell on iOS into a VPS where you install opencode yourself. OpenCode needs a real Linux or macOS shell with the right binary for the right arch, so every approach puts the actual opencode process somewhere else and gives your phone a way to drive it. All three are current as of 2026-07-16.

1. Cosyra: cloud Ubuntu container, OpenCode pre-installed

This is what we built. A native iOS and Android terminal that connects to a persistent Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64 container in the cloud. OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI are already on the image against a current Node 20+. You sign in, run opencode auth to connect your provider once, and type opencode.

• Works when: you want zero setup, both iOS and Android from the same container, and you do not want to debug npm optionalDependencies resolution on your phone.
• Breaks when: you have no internet (the container lives in the cloud), or you need to reach a private network we do not route through. Honest trade-off list in Cosyra vs Termux.
• Cost: 1 hour free on signup, no credit card. Extend with a 10-hour, 7-day trial when you want more, then $29.99/month. You pay your provider for OpenCode tokens; OpenCode itself is free. See pricing.

2. Termux on Android, via proot-distro

Install Termux from F-Droid (the Play Store build returned in June 2024 as a separately-versioned Android 11+ build, but most install guides target F-Droid), then install proot-distro and run a Debian or Ubuntu chroot inside Termux. If you want the full rundown of this chroot path versus UserLAnd versus a cloud x86_64 container, see Linux Container on Android: 3 Real Options in 2026. Inside that chroot, install Node 20+ and npm i -g opencode-ai. Why the chroot? Issue #21043 (auto-closed as not-planned 2026-07-03, not fixed) says the launcher misdetects the Termux environment as plain Linux and pulls the wrong arch binary; PR #21106, which would have removed the hard-exit, was closed without merging. Feature request #22805 asking for native Termux support was closed without a maintainer commitment. We walk through this Android-specific path, including the exact proot-distro commands and why the misdetection happens, in our guide to running OpenCode on Android.

• Works when: you are on Android, you accept the proot-distro overhead, and you want a fully local setup with no cloud bill.
• Breaks when: a new OpenCode release ships changes that break the chroot path, or Android 12+'s phantom process killer terminates a long agent run. The misdetection bug is the headline; the PR that would have fixed it (#21106) was closed without merging, so it never landed.
• Cost: free OpenCode binary, free Termux, free proot-distro. The cost is your time when the install path breaks between releases.

Worth knowing why this is an OpenCode problem specifically rather than a Termux one: OpenCode compiles to a per-platform binary, so the launcher has to pick the right arch and sometimes picks wrong. Agents that stay pure TypeScript never face that choice. Pi is the clearest example. Its npm package declares no os and no cpu constraint (verified against the registry 2026-07-20), so Termux's aarch64 Node runs it without a chroot. If the proot-distro overhead above is what is putting you off, a Node-only agent is the shorter path.

3. SSH from Blink Shell into your own VPS (iOS only)

On iPhone or iPad, Blink Shell is the gold-standard SSH client. Spin up a VPS (Hetzner, Scaleway, DigitalOcean), npm i -g opencode-ai on it, SSH in from Blink inside a tmux session, and run opencode. Authenticate with opencode auth or by exporting your provider key. You can also point Blink at opencode serve over a tunnel if you prefer the HTTP API to the TUI.

• Works when: you want a box that is yours and an iOS-native keyboard. Polished terminal UX on iPhone.
• Breaks when: you do not want to be a sysadmin. Patching, hardening, firewall rules, and backups are not optional on a box that holds your source code and your provider keys.
• Cost: Blink Shell is $19.99/year, the VPS is $5 to $40/month. No Android equivalent; Blink is iOS-only. Trade-off detail in Blink Shell alternative: Cosyra for iPhone terminals.

How do you set up OpenCode on iPhone or Android?

You set up OpenCode on iPhone or Android in about three minutes with Cosyra: install the app, sign in, confirm opencode is on the PATH, run opencode auth to connect a provider, clone a repo, run opencode. No Node install, no npm, no Termux misdetection.

Step 1: Install Cosyra and sign in

Download from the App Store or Google Play. Sign in with Apple, Google, or email. On first launch we provision a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64 container, about 15 seconds in our testing.

Install Cosyra to follow along. OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI are already in the image, so the rest of this walkthrough is configuration, not installation.

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Scan to install on your phone iPhone or Android

1 hour free. No credit card. No trial signup. Pricing details.

Step 2: Confirm OpenCode is there

No install step. OpenCode is baked into the image. Verify in one command.

Step 3: Connect a provider

Run opencode auth and pick the provider you want. Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and local backends are all in the list. The flow opens a URL; sign in on your phone browser, paste the verification code back into the terminal. Keys persist with your container's home volume, so you do this once per provider per container.

Step 4 (optional): Use an env-var key instead

If you would rather not run the auth flow, export a provider key directly. OpenCode reads ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, and similar.

Step 5: Run your first OpenCode session

OpenCode reads the repo, proposes diffs, and waits for your approval before writing. The default build agent has edit access; the plan agent is read-only if you want to think before touching code. Both ship in the box.

What does an OpenCode session on a phone look like?

OpenCode's specific phone unlock is the multi-provider switch on a flag (--model anthropic/claude-3.7 vs --model openai/gpt-5) plus the headless server mode. It also loads MCP servers from config (opencode.ai/docs/mcp-servers), and the persistence problem there is the same one we hit with any agent on mobile: a phone OS kills background processes, so a local stdio server dies the moment you switch apps. The container keeps it running server-side. See running MCP servers from your phone. Three real sessions we run from a phone.

Compare two providers on the same task, on the train

You have a tricky bug. Open Cosyra, cd in, opencode --model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6, paste the failing test plus the suspect file, ask for a root-cause. New session: opencode --model openai/gpt-5, same prompt. Cross- check the answers. The unification under one CLI is what makes that fast.

Drive `opencode serve` from Blink on a VPS

On iOS, the Blink-plus-VPS path lets you run opencode serve headless and hit it from a separate Blink pane via the HTTP API. Useful when you want a long-running session that survives SSH reconnects. We do not host the serve mode for you on Cosyra; that is squarely a Blink+VPS workflow.

Read-only repo audit from the couch

Saturday, you are curious about a repo a coworker shipped Friday. opencode --agent plan launches the read-only plan agent. Ask it to summarize the repo, list the riskiest files, and propose what you would change. No write access, no accidental edits.

What are the real limits of running OpenCode on a phone?

The real limits are no offline mode, the Termux path is rough, opencode serve is on you to host, and your provider's rate limits still apply. Knowing where OpenCode stops helps you match it to the right job.

• No offline mode. The container and your provider both live in the cloud. No internet, no OpenCode. If you code on planes with no wifi, this is not the right tool for that slot.
• Termux is rough today. The launcher misdetects Termux as Linux (issue #21043, auto-closed as not-planned on 2026-07-03 for inactivity, still unfixed). The native-Termux feature request (#22805) was closed without a commitment. PR #21106 to remove the hard-exit was closed without merging. proot-distro works but is not pleasant.
• You host `opencode serve` yourself. The headless server mode is great, but Cosyra runs the TUI in your container, not the HTTP API on a public address. If you want the API, run it inside your container and reach it via the same Cosyra session.
• Provider rate limits are yours. OpenCode is just the agent; the rate-limit and billing relationship is between you and Anthropic / OpenAI / Google. We do not proxy or meter that.
• No Docker-in-Docker guarantee. If your project's tests need docker on the host, verify before committing to phone-only.

How does Cosyra compare to Termux+proot and Blink+VPS for OpenCode?

Cosyra wins for zero-setup, dual-platform, and skipping the Termux misdetection bug; Termux-plus-proot wins if you want a fully local setup and accept the chroot overhead; Blink-plus-VPS wins on iOS if you want a box you own and you want to run opencode serve. None is strictly best; each maps to a trade-off. Comparison as of 2026-07-16.

On an iPhone specifically, where iOS has no Termux and the on-device terminals cannot run modern Node, our OpenCode on iPhone guide breaks down the three host paths in detail. On a bigger screen with a Magic Keyboard, the iPad-specific version of this walkthrough is OpenCode on iPad, which covers Split View, Stage Manager, and the opencode web browser path. For the broader picture across all four AI agents on mobile, see our pillar guide on AI coding agents on mobile. Same walkthrough with Anthropic's tool: Claude Code on phone (and for a direct OpenCode vs Claude Code decision, MIT vs custom license, multi-provider vs Anthropic-tuned surface, see Claude Code vs OpenCode on phone); OpenAI's: Codex CLI on phone; Google's: Gemini CLI on phone. For another open-source option, Alibaba's agent, forked from Gemini CLI, see Qwen Code on your phone. And if you want the tool that defined the open-source pair-programming workflow before the agent wave, see Aider on your phone, or weigh it against a cloud terminal head-to-head in Cosyra vs Aider. Every option above is BYOK or open source; for the opposite end of that spectrum, a proprietary, credit-billed agent where you buy credits and it routes the model rather than bringing your own key, see running Amp's CLI from your phone. For an open-source terminal agent whose story just changed, see Continue's cn CLI on phone. Continue was acquired by Cursor in mid-June 2026 and its main branch stopped (last commit 2026-06-19), but the Apache-2.0 cn binary still installs and runs on the keys you bring, which is exactly the kind of BYOK CLI a cloud container keeps alive. If Continue's freeze is what sent you shopping, we lined up the Continue.dev alternatives that still work and OpenCode is one of the three we would actually reach for. Two newer agents you install yourself trip people up on mobile in opposite ways: see Cline on phone, the 62.9k-star agent with no mobile app at all, and goose on phone, whose free iOS app is a remote control rather than an on-device agent. For Charm's terminal agent specifically, which ships no app and installs in one command, see Crush on your phone. Anysphere's terminal agent breaks the npm pattern the rest of this list shares: it lands as a native binary from a curl installer and bills through a Cursor subscription rather than a provider key you bring, which is why we gave it its own walkthrough in Cursor CLI on your phone. Forge takes that same native-binary path in Rust: its npm wrapper just downloads the right prebuilt binary for your architecture, including an aarch64-linux-android build that runs under Termux, so it installs without the glibc misdetection that trips OpenCode; see Forge CLI on your phone. The closest cousin to OpenCode here is Kilo CLI. It is built on OpenCode itself, so the runtime shape is the same one we run in production; see Kilo CLI on your phone, or the head-to-head in Cosyra vs Kilo Code. Two more agents sit at the edges of this list. Codebuff is open source (Apache-2.0 per the repo LICENSE file) and installs the same way OpenCode does, npm install -g codebuff, but it bills in credits at 1¢ each while still letting you bring an OpenRouter key, a hybrid none of the agents above use; see Codebuff on your phone. Plandex breaks the pattern harder: it is the one client-server agent here, so the plandex binary is useless without a server you self-host with Docker Compose and PostgreSQL, and as of 2026-07-18 its plandex.ai domain no longer resolves, which kills the documented install command. The pinned GitHub release still works, and we walk through both halves in Plandex on your phone.

Frequently asked questions

Run OpenCode from your phone in three minutes. Install Cosyra, sign in, run opencode auth, type opencode.

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