Idea Inbox

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You're twenty minutes deep in a refactor when a completely unrelated thought shows up: "...I should really try caching provider responses."

Traditionally there are three outcomes: you type it into the chat and derail the agent, you switch to a notes app and lose your terminal focus, or you're sure you'll remember it later (you won't).

This plugin is a fourth option. Press <leader>z, type the thought, hit Enter — it's parked in a backlog that lives in your opencode sidebar, and you never left the task you were on. When you have a free moment, press <leader>i, pick an idea, and it gets dispatched to an agent while you watch its status tick over:

○ parked  →  ◐ running  →  ● done  →  ✓ documented

The sidebar mid-session looks like this:

▶ Watch the full loop — capture an idea, dispatch it, watch it finish (GIF, ~10 s)

Which version do I need?

There are two lines of this package, one per major version of opencode:

Not sure what you're running? Check opencode --version.

The #1 "it doesn't load" cause: opencode v2 reads the plugins key (plural) and silently ignores the v1 plugin key. If nothing shows up after install, look at that key first.

Installation

Add one line to your opencode.json / opencode.jsonc — global (~/.config/opencode/opencode.json) or per-project:

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "plugins": ["opencode-idea-inbox"]
}

That's the whole setup. The package exports both halves — the server part (tools, slash commands, session events) and the TUI part (palette commands, sidebar) — and opencode v2 loads them together. There is no tui.json to create; that file only existed in v1, and the /idea, /ideas commands are registered by the plugin itself, so there's nothing to copy around either.

For opencode v1, the same key in the v1 format:

{ "plugin": ["opencode-idea-inbox@legacy-v1"] }

Restart opencode afterwards — the config is not hot-reloaded — and verify with opencode plugin list. If the sidebar panel isn't visible yet, toggle it once with your sidebar keybind; the plugin never force-opens it.

git clone https://github.com/apilot/opencode-idea-inbox.git ~/opencode-idea-inbox

{ "plugins": ["file:///home/YOU/opencode-idea-inbox"] }

Your first five minutes

1. Type /idea try caching provider responses — the thought is parked instantly (a direct write, no model round-trip) and appears in the sidebar
2. Press <leader>i — a picker opens with your pending ideas on top
3. Hit Enter on one — a delegation mission lands in the current session and execution starts immediately; the idea turns ◐
4. Watch the sidebar: ○ → ◐ → ● as the work progresses
5. When the agent finishes it marks the idea ● done; run /ideas documented <id> once you've written the results down, and the row leaves the panel for the archive

Everyday use

Keyboard

All commands have stable ids (idea-inbox.open, idea-inbox.capture, idea-inbox.remove, idea-inbox.clear, idea-inbox.take.<id>) — rebind them via keybinds in your cli.json if the defaults clash.

Slash commands

What the agent sees

The plugin registers four tools your agents can call:

Status lifecycle

FAQ

Where is my data stored? In <worktree>/.opencode/idea-inbox/ — a plain SQLite database ideas.db (WAL mode) plus diag.log, the plugin's diagnostic log. Both live one per git worktree and survive restarts. Add .opencode/idea-inbox/ to your project's .gitignore.

I ran /idea <text> and the chat stayed silent. Did it work? Yes — with text present the command writes straight to the backlog without a model round-trip, so there's no reply in the chat. Check the sidebar or run /ideas.

The sidebar is empty even though I have ideas. The panel refreshes every ~2 seconds and never force-opens itself — toggle it once with your sidebar keybind.

Something is off — where can I look for clues? The TUI part appends what it does to <worktree>/.opencode/idea-inbox/diag.log (registrations, refresh ticks, errors; rotated at ~128 KB). The file is safe to delete at any time.

Can I rebind <leader>i / <leader>z? Yes — see the command ids above and the keybinds section of your cli.json.

Why does the picker only show pending ideas? By design: done and documented rows are history. /ideas done / /ideas documented <id> manage them.

Is it safe to hand idea text to agents? Idea text is always wrapped in <<< >>> data guards in mission prompts, so a note that happens to contain instructions can't hijack the delegation.

How it works

flowchart LR
    U[User] -- "/idea text" --> CMD[Plugin command]
    CMD -- "direct write" --> DB[(ideas.db SQLite)]
    AG[Agent] -- "idea_add / idea_update" --> DB
    U -- "<leader>i" --> PICK[Plugin picker dialog]
    PICK -- "session.prompt mission" --> AG
    AG -- "idea_update in_progress / done" --> DB
    DB --> SB[Sidebar Idea Inbox]

The server half (Plugin.define({ id: "idea-inbox" }), exported from the package root) registers the tools, the /idea + /ideas commands, and settles statuses on session.idle / session.deleted. The TUI half (exported at ./tui) renders the sidebar slot and the reactive palette layer; both state stores come from the host-owned solid runtime, so the panel updates live.

Development

bun install
bun run typecheck   # tsc --noEmit (src + tests)
bun test            # full suite: store, tools, server, commands, TUI, live render

Source layout: src/store.ts (SQLite core), src/server/ (tools, slash commands, session events), src/tui/ (palette commands, sidebar slot, worktree resolver), commands/ (legacy v1 markdown commands, kept for reference).

Issues and PRs are welcome at https://github.com/apilot/opencode-idea-inbox.

License

MIT