reasoning: opencode zen (big-pickle) inline </think> leaks into text content instead of a reasoning part

Summary

On OpenCode 2.0.25, using opencode/big-pickle via OpenCode Zen, the model's
chain-of-thought intermittently arrives inline in the assistant content
(sometimes terminated with a literal </think>). OpenCode stores the whole
string as a single text part, so the TUI renders the reasoning as ordinary
assistant output with no collapsible thinking block.

This is the V2 report of #43770 (closed as not planned because it was filed
against OpenCode 1). A comment there on Oct 11, 2026 reports the same symptom
with "opencode zen (big pickle)".

Environment

opencode version: 2.0.25
OS: Darwin 27.0.0 (darwin arm64)
Terminal: ghostty (TERM=xterm-256color, COLORTERM=truecolor)
Shell: /bin/zsh
Install/channel: release (standalone binary)
Active plugins: local plugins usage and fallback (both trivial; unrelated — the behavior predates them)

Reproduction

In OpenCode 2.0.25, select opencode/big-pickle (OpenCode Zen) as the model.
Run a multi-step agentic task that makes tool calls.
Inspect assistant messages over the session. Intermittently, a message's
content contains the model's reasoning monologue as a plain text part —
often ending with a literal </think> immediately followed by the actual
answer.

Expected Behavior

Inline reasoning (including ... delimiters) should be extracted into a
separate reasoning part and rendered as a collapsible thinking block, the same
way reasoning_content is handled.

Actual Behavior

The raw reasoning text (sometimes with a literal </think>) is stored verbatim
as a single text part in session_message and displayed as normal text.
Example of one such text part:

... need to do (3 steps: get keys, connect, use).
- The honest caveat about no auto-failover.

Let me include the verification evidence.

Done.</think>Done — Groq, Cerebras, and OpenRouter are wired in. Here's the state.

## What changed
...

So a single text part contains [reasoning] </think> [final answer], and the
message reports no reasoning part at all.

Additional Context

Measured across all assistant messages in ~/.local/share/opencode/opencode.db
(parsing session_message.data, counting text parts that contain a real
</think> not wrapped in backticks):

Notes:

Only the Zen big-pickle model shows this; the other models populate
reasoning_content correctly and produce proper reasoning parts.
big-pickle also produces proper reasoning parts on other turns
(62 of them), so the leak is intermittent per turn.
session.thinking: "hide" does not hide the leaked text, because it is a
text part, not a reasoning part.
interleaved: { field: "reasoning_content" } is already set for big-pickle
in the catalog, so this looks like an unhandled inline-<think> case rather
than a missing mapping.
Also reproduced on a second machine running Windows with the same model/provider.
Claude models on the same setup are unaffected (their reasoning uses the proper
thinking channel), which points at inline reasoning in content specifically.

Related issues: #43770, #34126, #36387.

Suggested fix: run the AI SDK extractReasoningMiddleware({ tagName: "think" })
for the Zen big-pickle model (as is done for DeepSeek R1), or expose a
per-model option such as reasoning.extract: "think-tags".

Thanks for the detailed report and the database numbers. I was able to reproduce this.

There are no real Zen credentials here, so I used a simulated OpenAI-compatible model in the TUI:

Turn 1: reasoning sent on the proper reasoning channel shows up as a collapsible Thought block, as expected.
Turn 2: reasoning sent inline in content, ending with a literal </think> and no opening tag, followed by the answer. OpenCode shows all of it, </think> included, as normal answer text, with no thinking block.

It happens on 2.0.25 and still happens on the latest dev (38454c6). As far as I can tell, v2 only treats separate reasoning fields like reasoning_content as reasoning. Inline <think>/</think> tags in content are never split out, so this fits with big-pickle only sometimes sending its thinking inline.

The recording and screenshots below show it, and the script below reproduces it.

Related: #54298 (same model, reasoning saved as normal text in long sessions, likely the same cause), #54586 and #43770 (the same symptom on v1).

recording.mp4

Reproduction script (drive.ts)

// Reproduces #54599: reasoning streamed inline in the assistant `content`
// (ending with a literal </think>, as opencode/big-pickle sometimes does)
// is stored and rendered as plain answer text instead of a reasoning block.
import { Effect } from "effect"
import { Llm, OpenCodeDriver } from "opencode-drive"

export default OpenCodeDriver.use(
  {
    ...(process.env.OC_DEV ? { opencode: { dev: process.env.OC_DEV } } : {}),
    tui: { recording: true },
    project: { git: true, files: { "README.md": "# demo\n" } },
  },
  ({ ui, llm }) =>
    Effect.gen(function* () {
      // Turn 1: reasoning on the proper reasoning channel -> collapsible "Thought" block
      yield* llm.queue(
        Llm.reasoning("The user wants a status update. I should summarise briefly."),
        Llm.text("PROPER-ANSWER: reasoning above came via the reasoning channel."),
        Llm.finish(),
      )
      yield* ui.submit("Give me a status update")
      yield* ui.waitFor("PROPER-ANSWER")
      yield* ui.screenshot("turn1-proper-reasoning")

      // Turn 2: reasoning inline in content, terminated by </think> (no opening tag)
      yield* llm.queue(
        Llm.text(
          "INLINE-REASONING: I need to list the 3 steps: get keys, connect, use.\n" +
            "Let me include the verification evidence.\n\nDone.</think>Done — Groq, Cerebras, and OpenRouter are wired in.",
        ),
        Llm.finish(),
      )
      yield* ui.submit("Wire in the providers")
      yield* ui.waitFor("OpenRouter are wired in")
      yield* Effect.sleep("1 second")
      yield* ui.screenshot("turn2-inline-think-leak")
    }),
)

Run it with opencode-drive: opencode-drive run ./drive.ts. It drives opencode from your PATH; set OC_DEV to the path of an OpenCode checkout to run that from source instead.

Hope this gets fixed soon because its annoying and its hard to ser an real output and a reasoning output because they are close

Proposed fix ready: #54612

It splits the inline chain-of-thought (everything before the trailing response marker) out of the leaked text part into a proper reasoning part at the projection boundary (session.text.ended in message-updater.ts), so it renders as a collapsible thinking block with the answer ordered after it. Text with no marker — or a marker with nothing before it — is left untouched.

Added a focused unit test (packages/core/test/session-message-updater.test.ts). Happy to iterate on approach/location if maintainers prefer a stream-time reroute instead.

Confirmed against 2.0.26 (CLI/TUI, Windows 11, Windows Terminal), same model opencode/big-pickle#default via the opencode provider.

In a single long session the behavior flips partway through:

Assistant messages 2-119: chain-of-thought stored as a proper reasoning part (state.reasoningField: "reasoning_content"), rendered as a collapsible Thought block.
From message 120 onward: no reasoning part is created. The CoT arrives inline in a text part, terminated by a literal response, followed by the real answer.

Concrete example from opencode session export: an assistant text part of 17,737 characters containing only CoT, ending with ...Let me apply the edit. responseI found the actual cause.

Session-wide counts: response appears 105 times in assistant text parts; real opening thinking tags: 0.

The flip happens without any service restart or model change (same model/route throughout, continuous stream). The same pattern was also observed in a second session on the same model.

As noted in the report, session.thinking: "hide" / mini.thinking: "hide" have no effect here because the content sits in text, not a reasoning part, so there is no client-side workaround.

Adding root-cause detail from a fresh repro (#55414, macOS, v2.0.20) that may help whoever reviews #54612.

Across all assistant messages in an active opencode/big-pickle session:

opening thinking marker: 0 occurrences
closing </think> marker: 39 occurrences (every message)

So the closing tag is the only delimiter present — the opening tag is never emitted at all.

The existing tag extraction can't catch this for two independent reasons:

It requires the opening marker. The streamed extractor only triggers on content.startsWith(" thinking"), and the batch splitter searches indexOf(" thinking"). With no opening marker, everything stays text.
It's gated to one hardcoded model id. Tag-based splitting only runs when function UVo(e){return ["qwen3-4b"].includes(e)} is true — i.e. only for qwen3-4b, not for other models that emit the same inline format.

A fix probably needs to (a) treat a lone closing </think> as "everything before it is reasoning", and/or (b) drop the model-id hardcoding. Happy to test once #54612 lands.

Can confirm this happens with Big Pickle model on latest opencode version v2.0.29

Running on macOS

Adding the per-version numbers for the residual v2 shape here, as the triage on #56104 suggested.

Environment: opencode CLI 2.0.29 → 2.0.31 (npm install), Windows, model opencode/big-pickle, the same machine and the same opencode.db for all rows. Counted on assistant messages in session_message (V2 schema), grouped by the version recorded in session_v2.version:

opencode	assistant msgs	text part contains the closing marker	msgs that have a `reasoning` part
2.0.29	720	437 (60.7%)	92
2.0.30	291	74 (25.4%)	241
2.0.31	117	24 (20.5%)	50

The 2.0.31 numbers are not only the "marker at the start of the reply" shape: for the affected messages there is no reasoning part at all — the whole thinking trace is persisted as an ordinary text part and simply ends with the literal marker.

Real example from a session created after the 2.0.31 upgrade (20 assistant messages, 17 affected). Message content:

[
  { "type": "text", "text": "Let me find where ai-transcribe skill lives. Probably in a skill dir ... Let's search.</think>" },
  { "type": "tool", ... },
  { "type": "tool", ... }
]

No reasoning part, and the text part is pure chain-of-thought — that turn had no visible answer at all (the model called tools right after thinking). Since it is a normal text part, it is also replayed as assistant content in the next request, so the model sees its own thinking as a regular answer.

So the residual 2.0.31 behaviour looks like the same root cause as in the issue: the inline reasoning boundary is only handled when the marker is at the start of the visible text, and not when the trace occupies the whole text part. If PR #54612 splits inline reasoning in the stream parser, it would be worth checking the split is applied to the entire text part (and not only to a leading marker).

Numbers per version and shapes above are reproducible by reading the local session DB (session_v2, session_message) — happy to provide the exact queries if useful.

Comentário para colar no #54599

Confirmo o mesmo padrão que vocês descrevem no #54599, com medições extraídas do banco local do OpenCode.

Ambiente

OpenCode v2.0.32
Windows 11 Pro
Modelo: opencode/big-pickle (variants: [], custo 0 in/out)
cli.json com session.thinking: "hide" já definido

O que observo

Em sessões longas, a resposta chega do servidor já com o raciocínio embutido na parte text. Não existe parte type: "reasoning" separada para essas mensagens. O reasoning_content vem null e frequentemente não há tag ````think` de abertura.

Medições (banco local `opencode.db`, 238 sessões do big-pickle)

Schema: message, part (data JSON com type), session_message (type=assistant, data.content[]), session_v2 (model).

Part types (todas as sessões): tool 28106 · step-start 26728 · step-finish 26078 · text 18894 · reasoning 14335 · patch 735 · compaction 248.

measure	value
assistant messages (big-pickle)	21,181
start with planning text	2,549 (12%)
reasoning parts present	10,137

Correlação que isola o sintoma

day	msgs with reasoning part	msgs without	hard leak without
2026-10-10	208	108	6
2026-10-11	280	170	3
2026-10-12	165	63	6
2026-10-15	8	634	21
2026-10-16	77	85	4
2026-10-17	3	31	2

hard leak with reasoning = 0 em todos os dias: quando a parte reasoning existe, o text está limpo; quando não existe, o planejamento aparece dentro do text. Em 2026-10-15 a relação inverte (8 com vs 634 sem).

Workarounds testados localmente

Regra de prompt rígida ("nunca emita raciocínio no corpo visível") — reduz, não elimina.
Plugin local que detecta marcadores de planejamento na parte text e injeta aviso no system prompt — funciona como guarda pós-hoc, mas o v2 não tem hook para reescrever o texto visível (experimental.text.complete não existe mais), então o turno ofensivo já é enviado.

Conclusão

O raciocínio já chega do servidor embutido no content; não há configuração ou opção de provedor que se altere do lado do cliente. A correção proposta no #54612 (dividir o chain-of-thought embutido em uma parte reasoning no lado do cliente) é o caminho.

Disponível para capturar fluxo bruto do provedor de uma rodada afetada, se for útil.

--
Autor: Ramon Azevedo

Still noticing this in 2.0.32 (also saw it on 1.18.35 before I upgraded) - here are my Big Pickle findings (Big Pickle analyzing itself... this is starting to sound bad 😅)

opencode/big-pickle, agent build. Byte-confirmed marker 3c 2f 74 68 69 6e 6b 3e (</think>); one turn's content[0] is exactly the 8-char marker, another is [CoT] + marker + [answer] with no reasoning part. Also observe the mid-session flip (seq 5/16/29 parse as reasoning, then seq 42+ leak into text). Extends the residual-shape table past 2.0.31. No new root cause.

Hope that's helpful. Love this tool!

Adding the per-session counts from my (now-closed-as-duplicate) report #56428, as requested, with the raw sqlite3 output below.

Environment: opencode v2.0.31 (Arch Linux), model opencode/big-pickle (provider opencode, variant default, agent build).
Session: ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK. Measured on session_message.data.content[] (V2 schema).

Counts

metric	value
assistant messages	63
... containing the close marker	61
... containing the open marker	12 (all quotations inside CoT text, not structural)
content parts total	134
parts typed `reasoning`	8
parts typed `text` containing the close marker	61
parts that are only the close marker (<=10 bytes: marker + `\n`)	3
parts whose first bytes are the open marker	0

Short turns correct, long turns leak

In this session the split works only for the very smallest CoT blocks; everything larger leaks. Stored shape of a leaked turn is a single text part: <CoT></think><answer> — the close marker sits exactly on the CoT→answer boundary, but the CoT before it is typed text, and there is no opening marker () anywhere.

So the mid-session flip others described shows up here as a size threshold: seq 7 and 20 (CoT 41 / 219 chars) parse as reasoning; from seq 35 onward (CoT >= ~891 chars) nothing does, and the close marker leaks into text.

Inconsistent split within a single turn

seq 459 has text:7838 immediately followed by reasoning:574 — two consecutive chunks of the same CoT stream typed differently. Small reasoning fragments also appear on otherwise-leaked turns (seq 279:5, seq 430:9, seq 591:52), which look like parser artifacts rather than real reasoning parts.

Global

Across all sessions in the same DB: 364 parts typed reasoning vs 118 parts typed text containing the close marker.

Raw `sqlite3` output

Queries (session ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK, read-only copy of ~/.local/share/opencode/opencode.db):

.mode column
.headers on
SELECT
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message WHERE session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK' AND type='assistant') AS assistant_msgs,
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message WHERE session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK' AND type='assistant' AND instr(data, x'3c2f7468696e6b3e')>0) AS msgs_with_close,
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message WHERE session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK' AND type='assistant' AND instr(data, x'3c7468696e6b3e')>0) AS msgs_with_open,
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message sm, json_each(sm.data,'$.content') j WHERE json_valid(sm.data) AND sm.session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK') AS parts_total,
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message sm, json_each(sm.data,'$.content') j WHERE json_valid(sm.data) AND sm.session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK' AND j.value->>'type'='reasoning') AS parts_reasoning,
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message sm, json_each(sm.data,'$.content') j WHERE json_valid(sm.data) AND sm.session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK' AND j.value->>'type'='text' AND instr(j.value->>'text', x'3c2f7468696e6b3e')>0) AS text_parts_with_close,
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message sm, json_each(sm.data,'$.content') j WHERE json_valid(sm.data) AND sm.session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK' AND j.value->>'type'='text' AND length(j.value->>'text')<=10 AND instr(j.value->>'text', x'3c2f7468696e6b3e')>0) AS close_only_parts,
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message sm, json_each(sm.data,'$.content') j WHERE json_valid(sm.data) AND sm.session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK' AND substr(coalesce(j.value->>'text',''),1,7)=x'3c7468696e6b3e') AS parts_starting_with_open;

SELECT '--- per assistant message: seq | part_type:length joined ---' AS note;
SELECT sm.seq AS seq,
       group_concat(json_extract(j.value,'$.type') || ':' || coalesce(length(json_extract(j.value,'$.text')),0), ' | ') AS parts
FROM session_message sm, json_each(sm.data,'$.content') j
WHERE json_valid(sm.data) AND sm.session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK' AND sm.type='assistant'
GROUP BY sm.seq ORDER BY sm.seq;

SELECT '--- leaked text parts: seq | len | close_marker_byte_offset ---' AS note;
SELECT sm.seq AS seq,
       length(json_extract(j.value,'$.text')) AS len,
       instr(j.value->>'text', x'3c2f7468696e6b3e') AS close_at
FROM session_message sm, json_each(sm.data,'$.content') j
WHERE json_valid(sm.data) AND sm.session_id='ses_eb6044450ffeMO126Z5pJ5rhhK' AND sm.type='assistant'
  AND json_extract(j.value,'$.type')='text' AND instr(j.value->>'text', x'3c2f7468696e6b3e')>0
ORDER BY sm.seq;

SELECT '--- global across all sessions ---' AS note;
SELECT
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message sm, json_each(sm.data,'$.content') j WHERE json_valid(sm.data) AND j.value->>'type'='reasoning') AS reasoning_parts,
  (SELECT count(*) FROM session_message sm, json_each(sm.data,'$.content') j WHERE json_valid(sm.data) AND j.value->>'type'='text' AND instr(j.value->>'text', x'3c2f7468696e6b3e')>0) AS text_parts_with_close;

Output:

assistant_msgs  msgs_with_close  msgs_with_open  parts_total  parts_reasoning  text_parts_with_close  close_only_parts  parts_starting_with_open
--------------  ---------------  --------------  -----------  ---------------  ---------------------  ----------------  ------------------------
            63               61              12          134                8                     61                 3                         0
                            note
------------------------------------------------------------
--- per assistant message: seq | part_type:length joined ---
seq                     parts
---  --------------------------------------------
  7  reasoning:41 | tool:0 | tool:0
 20  reasoning:219 | text:217 | tool:0 | tool:0
 35  text:1095 | tool:0 | tool:0
 48  text:194 | tool:0
 57  text:2223 | tool:0 | tool:0
 70  text:948 | tool:0 | tool:0
 83  text:2627 | tool:0
 92  text:8 | tool:0
101  text:4318
111  text:1114 | tool:0
120  text:2050 | tool:0
129  text:791 | tool:0
138  text:1267 | tool:0
147  text:818 | tool:0
156  text:551 | tool:0
165  text:3799 | tool:0
174  text:8 | tool:0
183  text:203 | tool:0
192  text:147 | tool:0
201  text:67 | tool:0
210  text:1234 | tool:0
219  text:284 | tool:0
228  text:3577
238  text:2277
248  text:872 | tool:0
257  text:1281 | tool:0 | tool:0
270  text:462 | tool:0
279  text:1616 | reasoning:5 | tool:0 | tool:0
294  text:2326 | tool:0
303  text:2833 | tool:0
312  text:625 | tool:0
321  text:11430 | tool:0
330  text:743 | tool:0
339  text:8 | tool:0
348  text:205 | tool:0
357  text:304 | tool:0
366  text:858 | tool:0
375  text:2011 | tool:0
384  text:693 | tool:0
393  text:3991 | tool:0
402  text:2959 | tool:0
411  text:9311 | tool:0
420  text:8742
430  text:2896 | reasoning:9 | tool:0
441  text:1561 | tool:0
450  text:3703 | tool:0
459  text:7838 | reasoning:574
471  text:4582 | tool:0
480  text:611 | tool:0
489  text:10165 | reasoning:327 | tool:0
500  text:11367 | tool:0
509  text:2257 | tool:0
518  text:9512 | tool:0
527  text:19832 | reasoning:559 | tool:0 | tool:0
545  text:19384 | tool:0
554  text:3751 | tool:0
563  text:21590
573  text:318 | tool:0
582  text:968 | tool:0
591  text:19765 | reasoning:52 | tool:0
602  text:10683 | tool:0
611  text:12192
621  text:4933 | tool:0
                             note
---------------------------------------------------------------
--- leaked text parts: seq | len | close_marker_byte_offset ---
seq   len   close_at
---  -----  --------
 35   1095       888
 48    194        79
 57   2223      1506
 70    948       776
 83   2627      2198
 92      8         1
101   4318      2171
111   1114       362
120   2050      2043
129    791       784
138   1267      1260
147    818       653
156    551       459
165   3799      3544
174      8         1
183    203       196
192    147         1
201     67         1
210   1234      1133
219    284       185
228   3577      1282
238   2277       248
248    872       865
257   1281      1274
270    462       294
279   1616      1497
294   2326      2231
303   2833      2695
312    625       618
321  11430      1371
330    743       736
339      8         1
348    205       198
357    304       297
366    858       851
375   2011      1858
384    693       375
393   3991       128
402   2959      2794
411   9311      9120
420   8742      6148
430   2896      1353
441   1561       608
450   3703      2753
459   7838      5693
471   4582       239
480    611       604
489  10165       102
500  11367      1075
509   2257       139
518   9512       163
527  19832      1865
545  19384        91
554   3751      3744
563  21590       100
573    318       311
582    968        43
591  19765        56
602  10683        94
611  12192        43
621   4933      1082
               note
----------------------------------
--- global across all sessions ---
reasoning_parts  text_parts_with_close
---------------  ---------------------
            364                    118

model	text parts	containing `</think>`	ending with `</think>`
`opencode/big-pickle` (Zen)	152	104	23
`opencode/space-bunny-free` (Zen)	24	0	0
`lmstudio/qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mlx` (openai-compatible)	84	0	0

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reasoning: opencode zen (big-pickle) inline </think> leaks into text content instead of a reasoning part #54599

Summary

Environment

Reproduction

Expected Behavior

Actual Behavior

Additional Context

Comentário para colar no #54599

Ambiente

O que observo

Medições (banco local `opencode.db`, 238 sessões do big-pickle)

Correlação que isola o sintoma

Workarounds testados localmente

Conclusão

Counts

Short turns correct, long turns leak

Inconsistent split within a single turn

Global

Raw `sqlite3` output

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Assignees

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seq	content parts	close-marker byte offset	result
7	`reasoning:41`	—	correct (collapsible reasoning part)
20	`reasoning:219`, `text:217`	—	correct
48	`text:195`	80	leaked
35	`text:1095`	891	leaked
57	`text:2230`	1509	leaked

Sunbelt Computer Software

PL/B Language Development and Support

reasoning: opencode zen (big-pickle) inline </think> leaks into text content instead of a reasoning part #54599

Description

Summary

Environment

Reproduction

Expected Behavior

Actual Behavior

Additional Context

Activity

opencode-agent commented on Oct 11, 2026

00kino547 commented on Oct 11, 2026

ashaker20 commented on Oct 11, 2026

leosper commented on Oct 13, 2026

nick-o commented on Oct 14, 2026

jjdubski commented on Oct 14, 2026

glucmastersten-cpu commented on Oct 16, 2026

Ramon-Az commented on Oct 17, 2026

Comentário para colar no #54599

Ambiente

O que observo

Medições (banco local opencode.db, 238 sessões do big-pickle)

Correlação que isola o sintoma

Workarounds testados localmente

Conclusão

Made-of-Clay commented on Oct 17, 2026

Bad0Weather commented on Oct 17, 2026

Counts

Short turns correct, long turns leak

Inconsistent split within a single turn

Global

Raw sqlite3 output

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions

Medições (banco local `opencode.db`, 238 sessões do big-pickle)

Raw `sqlite3` output