opencode/packages/opencode/specs/effect/migration.md

Effect patterns

Practical reference for new and migrated Effect code in packages/opencode.

Choose scope

Use InstanceState (from src/effect/instance-state.ts) for services that need per-directory state, per-instance cleanup, or project-bound background work. InstanceState uses a ScopedCache keyed by directory, so each open project gets its own copy of the state that is automatically cleaned up on disposal.

Use makeRuntime (from src/effect/run-service.ts) to create a per-service ManagedRuntime that lazily initializes and shares layers via a global memoMap. Returns { runPromise, runFork, runCallback }.

• Global services (no per-directory state): Account, Auth, AppFileSystem, Installation, Truncate, Worktree
• Instance-scoped (per-directory state via InstanceState): Agent, Bus, Command, Config, File, FileTime, FileWatcher, Format, LSP, MCP, Permission, Plugin, ProviderAuth, Pty, Question, SessionStatus, Skill, Snapshot, ToolRegistry, Vcs

Rule of thumb: if two open directories should not share one copy of the service, it needs InstanceState.

Service shape

Every service follows the same pattern — a single namespace with the service definition, layer, runPromise, and async facade functions:

export namespace Foo {
  export interface Interface {
    readonly get: (id: FooID) => Effect.Effect<FooInfo, FooError>
  }

  export class Service extends Context.Service<Service, Interface>()("@opencode/Foo") {}

  export const layer = Layer.effect(
    Service,
    Effect.gen(function* () {
      // For instance-scoped services:
      const state = yield* InstanceState.make<State>(
        Effect.fn("Foo.state")(() => Effect.succeed({ ... })),
      )

      const get = Effect.fn("Foo.get")(function* (id: FooID) {
        const s = yield* InstanceState.get(state)
        // ...
      })

      return Service.of({ get })
    }),
  )

  // Optional: wire dependencies
  export const defaultLayer = layer.pipe(Layer.provide(FooDep.layer))

  // Per-service runtime (inside the namespace)
  const { runPromise } = makeRuntime(Service, defaultLayer)

  // Async facade functions
  export async function get(id: FooID) {
    return runPromise((svc) => svc.get(id))
  }
}

Rules:

• Keep everything in one namespace, one file — no separate service.ts / index.ts split
• runPromise goes inside the namespace (not exported unless tests need it)
• Facade functions are plain async function — no fn() wrappers
• Use Effect.fn("Namespace.method") for all Effect functions (for tracing)
• No Layer.fresh — InstanceState handles per-directory isolation

Schema → Zod interop

When a service uses Effect Schema internally but needs Zod schemas for the HTTP layer, derive Zod from Schema using the zod() helper from @/util/effect-zod:

import { zod } from "@/util/effect-zod"

export const ZodInfo = zod(Info) // derives z.ZodType from Schema.Union

See Auth.ZodInfo for the canonical example.

InstanceState init patterns

The InstanceState.make init callback receives a Scope, so you can use Effect.acquireRelease, Effect.addFinalizer, and Effect.forkScoped inside it. Resources acquired this way are automatically cleaned up when the instance is disposed or invalidated by ScopedCache. This makes it the right place for:

• Subscriptions: Yield Bus.Service at the layer level, then use Stream + forkScoped inside the init closure. The fiber is automatically interrupted when the instance scope closes:

const bus = yield * Bus.Service

const cache =
  yield *
  InstanceState.make<State>(
    Effect.fn("Foo.state")(function* (ctx) {
      // ... load state ...

      yield* bus.subscribeAll().pipe(
        Stream.runForEach((event) =>
          Effect.sync(() => {
            /* handle */
          }),
        ),
        Effect.forkScoped,
      )

      return {
        /* state */
      }
    }),
  )

• Resource cleanup: Use Effect.acquireRelease or Effect.addFinalizer for resources that need teardown (native watchers, process handles, etc.):

yield *
  Effect.acquireRelease(
    Effect.sync(() => nativeAddon.watch(dir)),
    (watcher) => Effect.sync(() => watcher.close()),
  )

• Background fibers: Use Effect.forkScoped — the fiber is interrupted on disposal.
• Side effects at init: Config notification, event wiring, etc. all belong in the init closure. Callers just do InstanceState.get(cache) to trigger everything, and ScopedCache deduplicates automatically.

The key insight: don't split init into a separate method with a started flag. Put everything in the InstanceState.make closure and let ScopedCache handle the run-once semantics.

Effect.cached for deduplication

Use Effect.cached when multiple concurrent callers should share a single in-flight computation. It memoizes the result and deduplicates concurrent fibers — second caller joins the first caller's fiber instead of starting a new one.

// Inside the layer — yield* to initialize the memo
let cached = yield * Effect.cached(loadExpensive())

const get = Effect.fn("Foo.get")(function* () {
  return yield* cached // concurrent callers share the same fiber
})

// To invalidate: swap in a fresh memo
const invalidate = Effect.fn("Foo.invalidate")(function* () {
  cached = yield* Effect.cached(loadExpensive())
})

Prefer Effect.cached over these patterns:

• Storing a Fiber.Fiber | undefined with manual check-and-fork (e.g. file/index.ts ensure)
• Storing a Promise<void> task for deduplication (e.g. skill/index.ts ensure)
• let cached: X | undefined with check-and-load (races when two callers see undefined before either resolves)

Effect.cached handles the run-once + concurrent-join semantics automatically. For invalidatable caches, reassign with yield* Effect.cached(...) — the old memo is discarded.

Scheduled Tasks

For loops or periodic work, use Effect.repeat or Effect.schedule with Effect.forkScoped in the layer definition.

Preferred Effect services

In effectified services, prefer yielding existing Effect services over dropping down to ad hoc platform APIs.

Prefer these first:

• FileSystem.FileSystem instead of raw fs/promises for effectful file I/O
• ChildProcessSpawner.ChildProcessSpawner with ChildProcess.make(...) instead of custom process wrappers
• HttpClient.HttpClient instead of raw fetch
• Path.Path instead of mixing path helpers into service code when you already need a path service
• Config for effect-native configuration reads
• Clock / DateTime for time reads inside effects

Child processes

For child process work in services, yield ChildProcessSpawner.ChildProcessSpawner in the layer and use ChildProcess.make(...).

Keep shelling-out code inside the service, not in callers.

Shared leaf models

Shared schema or model files can stay outside the service namespace when lower layers also depend on them.

That is fine for leaf files like schema.ts. Keep the service surface in the owning namespace.

Migration checklist

Service-shape migrated (single namespace, traced methods, InstanceState where needed).

This checklist is only about the service shape migration. Many of these services still keep makeRuntime(...) plus async facade exports; that facade-removal phase is tracked separately in Destroying the facades.

• Account — account/index.ts

• Agent — agent/agent.ts

• AppFileSystem — filesystem/index.ts

• Auth — auth/index.ts (uses zod() helper for Schema→Zod interop)

• Bus — bus/index.ts

• Command — command/index.ts

• Config — config/config.ts

• Discovery — skill/discovery.ts (dependency-only layer, no standalone runtime)

• File — file/index.ts

• FileTime — file/time.ts

• FileWatcher — file/watcher.ts

• Format — format/index.ts

• Installation — installation/index.ts

• LSP — lsp/index.ts

• MCP — mcp/index.ts

• McpAuth — mcp/auth.ts

• Permission — permission/index.ts

• Plugin — plugin/index.ts

• Project — project/project.ts

• ProviderAuth — provider/auth.ts

• Pty — pty/index.ts

• Question — question/index.ts

• SessionStatus — session/status.ts

• Skill — skill/index.ts

• Snapshot — snapshot/index.ts

• ToolRegistry — tool/registry.ts

• Truncate — tool/truncate.ts

• Vcs — project/vcs.ts

• Worktree — worktree/index.ts

• Session — session/index.ts

• SessionProcessor — session/processor.ts

• SessionPrompt — session/prompt.ts

• SessionCompaction — session/compaction.ts

• SessionSummary — session/summary.ts

• SessionRevert — session/revert.ts

• Instruction — session/instruction.ts

• SystemPrompt — session/system.ts

• Provider — provider/provider.ts

• Storage — storage/storage.ts

• ShareNext — share/share-next.ts

• SessionTodo — session/todo.ts

Still open at the service-shape level:

• SyncEvent — sync/index.ts (deferred pending sync with James)
• Workspace — control-plane/workspace.ts (deferred pending sync with James)

Tool migration

Tool-specific migration guidance and checklist live in tools.md.

Effect service adoption in already-migrated code

Some already-effectified areas still use raw Filesystem.* or Process.spawn in their implementation or helper modules. These are low-hanging fruit — the layers already exist, they just need the dependency swap.

Filesystem.* → AppFileSystem.Service (yield in layer)

• config/config.ts — installDependencies() now uses AppFileSystem
• provider/provider.ts — recent model state now reads via AppFileSystem.Service

Process.spawn → ChildProcessSpawner (yield in layer)

• format/formatter.ts — direct Process.spawn() checks removed (air, uv)
• lsp/server.ts — multiple Process.spawn() installs/download helpers

Filesystem consolidation

util/filesystem.ts is still used widely across src/, and raw fs / fs/promises imports still exist in multiple tooling and infrastructure files. As services and tools are effectified, they should switch from Filesystem.* to yielding AppFileSystem.Service where possible — this should happen naturally during each migration, not as a separate sweep.

Tool-specific filesystem cleanup notes live in tools.md.

Primitives & utilities

• util/lock.ts — reader-writer lock → Effect Semaphore/Permit
• util/flock.ts — file-based distributed lock with heartbeat → Effect.repeat + addFinalizer
• util/process.ts — child process spawn wrapper → return Effect instead of Promise
• util/lazy.ts — replace uses in Effect code with Effect.cached; keep for sync-only code

Destroying the facades

This phase is still broadly open. As of 2026-04-11 there are still 31 makeRuntime(...) call sites under src/, and many service namespaces still export async facade helpers like export async function read(...) { return runPromise(...) }.

These facades exist because cyclic imports used to force each service to build its own independent runtime. Now that the layer DAG is acyclic and AppRuntime (src/effect/app-runtime.ts) composes everything into one ManagedRuntime, we're removing them.

Process

For each service, the migration is roughly:

1. Find callers. grep -n "Namespace\.(methodA|methodB|...)" across src/ and test/. Skip the service file itself.
2. Migrate production callers. For each effectful caller that does Effect.tryPromise(() => Namespace.method(...)):
   • Add the service to the caller's layer R type (Layer.Layer<Self, never, ... | Namespace.Service>)
   • Yield it at the top of the layer: const ns = yield* Namespace.Service
   • Replace Effect.tryPromise(() => Namespace.method(...)) with yield* ns.method(...) (or ns.method(...).pipe(Effect.orElseSucceed(...)) for the common fallback case)
   • Add Layer.provide(Namespace.defaultLayer) to the caller's own defaultLayer chain
3. Fix tests that used the caller's raw .layer. Any test that composes Caller.layer (not defaultLayer) needs to also provide the newly-required service tag. The fastest fix is usually switching to Caller.defaultLayer since it now pulls in the new dependency.
4. Migrate test callers of the facade. Tests calling Namespace.method(...) directly get converted to full effectful style using testEffect(Namespace.defaultLayer) + it.live / it.effect + yield* svc.method(...). Don't wrap the test body in Effect.promise(async () => {...}) — do the whole thing in Effect.gen and use AppFileSystem.Service / tmpdirScoped / Effect.addFinalizer for what used to be raw fs / Bun.write / try/finally.
5. Delete the facades. Once grep shows zero callers, remove the export async function block AND the makeRuntime(...) line from the service namespace. Also remove the now-unused import { makeRuntime }.

Pitfalls

• Layer caching inside tests. testEffect(layer) constructs the Storage (or whatever) service once and memoizes it. If a test then tries inner.pipe(Effect.provide(customStorage)) to swap in a differently-configured Storage, the outer cached one wins and the inner provision is a no-op. Fix: wrap the overriding layer in Layer.fresh(...), which forces a new instance to be built instead of hitting the memoMap cache. This lets a single testEffect(...) serve both simple and per-test-customized cases.
• Effect.tryPromise → yield* drops the Promise layer. The old code was Effect.tryPromise(() => Storage.read(...)) — a tryPromise wrapper because the facade returned a Promise. The new code is yield* storage.read(...) directly — the service method already returns an Effect, so no wrapper is needed. Don't reach for Effect.promise or Effect.tryPromise during migration; if you're using them on a service method call, you're doing it wrong.
• Raw .layer test callers break silently in the type checker. When you add a new R requirement to a service's .layer, any test that composes it raw (not defaultLayer) becomes under-specified. tsgo will flag this — the error looks like Type 'Storage.Service' is not assignable to type '... | Service | TestConsole'. Usually the fix is to switch that composition to defaultLayer, or add Layer.provide(NewDep.defaultLayer) to the custom composition.
• Tests that do async setup with fs, Bun.write, tmpdir. Convert these to AppFileSystem.Service calls inside Effect.gen, and use tmpdirScoped() instead of tmpdir() so cleanup happens via the scope finalizer. For file operations on the actual filesystem (not via a service), a small helper like const writeJson = Effect.fnUntraced(function* (file, value) { const fs = yield* AppFileSystem.Service; yield* fs.makeDirectory(path.dirname(file), { recursive: true }); yield* fs.writeFileString(file, JSON.stringify(value, null, 2)) }) keeps the migration tests clean.

Migration log

• SessionStatus — migrated 2026-04-11. Replaced the last route and retry-policy callers with AppRuntime.runPromise(SessionStatus.Service.use(...)) and removed the makeRuntime(...) facade.
• ShareNext — migrated 2026-04-11. Swapped remaining async callers to AppRuntime.runPromise(ShareNext.Service.use(...)), removed the makeRuntime(...) facade, and kept instance bootstrap on the shared app runtime.
• SessionTodo — migrated 2026-04-10. Already matched the target service shape in session/todo.ts: single namespace, traced Effect methods, and no makeRuntime(...) facade remained; checklist updated to reflect the completed migration.
• Storage — migrated 2026-04-10. One production caller (Session.diff) and all storage.test.ts tests converted to effectful style. Facades and makeRuntime removed.
• SessionRunState — migrated 2026-04-11. Single caller in server/instance/session.ts converted; facade removed.
• Account — migrated 2026-04-11. Callers in server/instance/experimental.ts and cli/cmd/account.ts converted; facade removed.
• Instruction — migrated 2026-04-11. Test-only callers converted; facade removed.
• FileTime — migrated 2026-04-11. Test-only callers converted; facade removed.
• FileWatcher — migrated 2026-04-11. Callers in project/bootstrap.ts and test converted; facade removed.
• Question — migrated 2026-04-11. Callers in server/instance/question.ts and test converted; facade removed.
• Truncate — migrated 2026-04-11. Caller in tool/tool.ts and test converted; facade removed.

Route handler effectification

Route-handler migration guidance and checklist live in routes.md.