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How I keep my OpenCode server running with Solo

Solo auto-starts and restarts OpenCode and a Caddy proxy, so every device connects to the same server.

· · 9:05 video · Builds

OpenCode runs as one server with many clients, so every device shares the same sessions, config and metrics. My problem: I ran opencode serve in a terminal window, and whenever I closed it or the machine slept, my phone lost the server.

Solo, Aaron Francis’s desktop app for managing dev processes, fixed that. It’s free for up to three projects, and this video isn’t sponsored.

Summary

  • Solo runs two processes for me: opencode serve with mDNS on a fixed port, and a Caddy reverse proxy.
  • Both start automatically at login and restart after a crash, and Solo notifies me when a process exits or needs input.
  • Caddy maps https://opencode.local to the server, so any device on my network reaches the same OpenCode instance.
  • Solo’s restart-when-changed option should be able to restart the server whenever your OpenCode config changes, though a restart stops active agents.
  • To restart from inside OpenCode, I had OpenCode build a stateless CLI around Solo’s MCP server, then added a /restart command that calls it.

How to apply it

  1. Run OpenCode as one long-lived server and point every client at it.
  2. Add the server and a reverse proxy to Solo with auto-start and auto-restart turned on.
  3. Give it a stable local HTTPS address with Caddy so phones and other machines connect easily.
  4. Wrap Solo’s MCP in a small CLI, like my gist, and expose it as a custom slash command for one-step restarts.

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