Opencode hangs at startup if a .git repo is present and inotify user instances run out

[Christoph-D]

Description

Steps to reproduce

1. Run sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_instances=16 or some other lower number
2. Run opencode in a path that contains a .git directory.

Expected behavior

Opencode starts normally. Or, if it really can't work without a lot of inotify instances, then it should show a clear error message and exit.

Actual behavior

Opencode hangs at startup with a blank screen, completely unresponsive.

Likely root cause

Opencode doesn't handle the error "EMFILE (Too many open files)" when creating new inotify instances.

Workaround

Increase the systemwide limit of inotify user instances: sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_instances=2048

Log

Last log lines from where it hangs:

$ opencode run hello --print-logs
[...]
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +2ms service=server method=GET path=/event request
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +0ms service=server status=started method=GET path=/event request
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +0ms service=server method=POST path=/session/ses_331e54564ffeUxW4QHflpXACOJ/message request
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +0ms service=server status=started method=POST path=/session/ses_331e54564ffeUxW4QHflpXACOJ/message request
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +0ms service=server event connected
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +1ms service=bus type=* subscribing
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +5ms service=server status=completed duration=6 method=GET path=/event request
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +1ms service=server status=completed duration=7 method=POST path=/session/ses_331e54564ffeUxW4QHflpXACOJ/message request
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +3ms service=vcs branch=HEAD initialized
INFO  2026-03-08T15:39:44 +0ms service=bus type=file.watcher.updated subscribing
^C

Plugins

None. The same issue happens when I disable all plugins.

OpenCode version

1.2.21

Steps to reproduce

1. Run sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_instances=16 or some other lower number
2. Run opencode in a path that contains a .git directory.

Screenshot and/or share link

No response

Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04, Alpine 3.23

Terminal

bash

[Christoph-D]

parcel-bundler/watcher#159 looks like the same issue. Perhaps this causes opencode to hang.

[MichaelFisher1997]

Also affected — NixOS, opencode-desktop 1.3.3, 102% CPU on FileWatcher.init

I'm experiencing the exact same issue on the desktop GUI (not TUI). The TUI works perfectly fine — it's specifically the desktop's bundled sidecar (opencode-cli serve) that spins at 102% CPU indefinitely.

Environment

• OS: NixOS (Linux)
• OpenCode Desktop: 1.3.3 (via nix package opencode-desktop-unwrapped-1.3.3)
• Sidecar: bun-based opencode-cli --print-logs --log-level WARN serve
• inotify settings: max_user_instances=524288, max_user_watches=524288 (already very high)

Symptoms

The desktop sidecar's FileWatcher.init enters a tight CPU loop on every project directory and worktree simultaneously. Every single call times out:

ERROR service=file.watcher dir=/home/micqdf cause=TimeoutError: TimeoutError
    at FileWatcher.state (index.js:63114:57)
    at FileWatcher.init (index.js:23526:109)
    at FileWatcher.init (definition) (index.js:236755:32) failed to subscribe

This repeats for:

• The home directory (/home/micqdf)
• All project directories (~/nixos/nix-config, ~/github/...)
• All .git directories within projects
• All worktree directories under ~/.local/share/opencode/worktree/

The sidecar never recovers — it's stuck at 102% CPU in this loop and never reaches the point of sending LLM API requests. The desktop GUI shows infinite "thinking" on all models.

Key observation

The system inotify limits are already set very high (524288). The issue isn't system-level inotify exhaustion — it's the FileWatcher implementation itself timing out on every directory regardless. The watcher.ignore config option also has no effect on the desktop sidecar (only works for TUI/CLI).

Workaround

Only the TUI works. No config-based workaround has been effective for the desktop.

[EmpireJones]

I just ran into this same issue; I had to increase fs.inotify.* values to get opencode to start 👍

I agree that a clear error message is needed.

[cfal]

adding the following to config allowed opencode to startup for me. +1 to clear error message, this is painful since the process completely hangs with a black screen.

  "watcher": {
    "ignore": [".git"]
  }