opencode session list hangs for ~2 minutes due to unnecessary full InstanceBootstrap

[suxiaogang223]

Summary

Running opencode session list blocks the terminal for approximately 2 minutes before showing results, even though the underlying SQL query completes in ~0.007 seconds. The root cause is that the command triggers a full InstanceBootstrap (config loading, plugin init, LSP startup, VCS init, file watchers, snapshot system, etc.) — all of which are unnecessary for a simple read-only database query.

Environment

• opencode version: 1.18.x (current dev branch)
• Database: 94 sessions, SQLite WAL mode, 131 MB after VACUUM

Steps to reproduce

time opencode session list
# Blocks for ~2 minutes before printing the session table

Root cause

1. SessionListCommand does not set instance: false

packages/opencode/src/cli/cmd/session.ts:70-86:

export const SessionListCommand = effectCmd({
  command: "list",
  describe: "list sessions",
  // ← missing `instance: false`
  builder: (yargs) => ...
  handler: Effect.fn("Cli.session.list")(function* (args) {
    const sessions = yield* Session.Service.use((svc) => svc.list(...))
    ...
  }),
})

The instance option in effectCmd defaults to true (packages/opencode/src/cli/effect-cmd.ts:46):

/**
 * Whether the command needs a project InstanceContext. Defaults to true.
 *
 * `true` (default): ... Runs InstanceBootstrap (config + plugin
 * init + LSP/File/etc forks) eagerly.
 *
 * `false`: skip the instance entirely. ... Use `false` for commands
 * that don't read project state (e.g. `models`, `serve`, `web`, `account`, `db`, `upgrade`).
 */
instance?: boolean | ((args: Args) => boolean)

When instance: true (the default), effectCmd loads the full InstanceStore, which triggers InstanceBootstrap.run:

packages/opencode/src/project/bootstrap.ts:32-46:

const run = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* config.get()       // load configuration
  yield* plugin.init()      // initialize plugins (can mutate config)
  yield* Effect.forEach(
    [lsp, shareNext, format, vcs, snapshot, project],
    (s) => s.init()         // start LSP, file watchers, VCS, snapshot, etc.
    ...
  )
})

This boots the entire opencode runtime — including starting language servers, file watchers, git monitors, snapshot system, share service, and formatting service — just to run a single SELECT query on the session table that takes 0.007 seconds.

2. Session.list() requires InstanceState.context

packages/opencode/src/session/session.ts:548-555:

const list = Effect.fn("Session.list")(function* (input?: ListInput) {
  const ctx = yield* InstanceState.context    // ← requires full instance
  return yield* listByProject(db, {
    projectID: ctx.project.id,                 // ← used for WHERE filter
    ...
  })
})

Because list() yields InstanceState.context to get ctx.project.id, simply setting instance: false would cause a defect (the InstanceRef would be undefined).

3. Other commands already skip InstanceBootstrap

Multiple commands correctly set instance: false and work fine:

Command	File	instance
db	db.ts:11	false
account (all subcommands)	account.ts:180,195,210,220,230	false
providers	providers.ts:253,500	false
serve	serve.ts:12	false
web	web.ts:37	false
session list	session.ts:70	not set → defaults to true ❌

4. Evidence that SQL is not the bottleneck

-- Query plan shows indexed scan + temp sort (expected for ORDER BY without covering index)
EXPLAIN QUERY PLAN
SELECT * FROM session WHERE project_id=? AND parent_id IS NULL
ORDER BY time_updated DESC LIMIT 100;
-- |--SEARCH session USING INDEX session_project_idx (project_id=?)
-- `--USE TEMP B-TREE FOR ORDER BY

-- Actual execution time: ~0.007 seconds

The database has 94 sessions, 3,806 messages, and 16,449 parts. The session table scan is trivially fast even without a covering index on time_updated.

Proposed fix

Two possible approaches:

Option A (simpler): Bypass InstanceState in the CLI handler

Modify SessionListCommand to set instance: false and query sessions directly via Database.Service + directory filter (instead of project_id), following the same pattern used by the db command:

export const SessionListCommand = effectCmd({
  command: "list",
  instance: false,  // ← ADD THIS
  ...
  handler: Effect.fn("Cli.session.list")(function* (args) {
    const { db } = yield* Database.Service
    const rows = yield* db
      .select()
      .from(SessionTable)
      .where(and(
        eq(SessionTable.directory, process.cwd()),
        isNull(SessionTable.parent_id)
      ))
      .orderBy(desc(SessionTable.time_updated))
      .limit(args.maxCount ?? 100)
      .all()
    // ... format and output
  }),
})

Option B: Add a lightweight listByDirectory method to the session service

Create a new method that doesn't require InstanceState.context, using directory as the filter key instead of project_id.

Additional note

The same issue likely affects session delete (same file, same missing instance: false), as well as the stats command which also queries sessions via the full InstanceBootstrap.

[armancharan]

I'd like to take this. Plan is to skip InstanceBootstrap for session list (and the same read-only siblings if they share the footgun) by setting instance: false and listing via directory instead of requiring full InstanceState.