Target Claude Code or opencode

You run more than one assistant, or you want to be certain a command acts on the one you mean. This guide shows how to pin the assistant a command targets, persist the choice so you stop repeating the flag, and what changes concretely when you install for opencode instead of Claude Code. Getting started walks through a first run end to end. For the full resolution order and the flag table, see the CLI overview; for why the same source artifact takes a different shape on each assistant, see artifact natures.

Pin the assistant for one command

Pass --assistant on any command that writes or audits (install, check, remove, update):

rigger install jr/skill:tdd-coach --assistant opencode --yes

The flag accepts only claude or opencode, and it wins over everything else: a script that names it never depends on what happens to be installed on the machine. A value that is neither is a hard error before any work runs:

[error] Invalid --assistant value: "foobar". Must be "claude" or "opencode".

Let rigger resolve it

Without the flag, rigger picks exactly one assistant per run. In short: a single configured assistant is used, otherwise a single detected one (~/.claude for Claude Code, ~/.config/opencode for opencode), otherwise a terminal prompt, otherwise claude as the back-compatible default. check, remove, and update read the manifest first, so when every entry they touch was installed for one assistant, that assistant is used with no prompt. The CLI overview is the authoritative order.

In a terminal with nothing configured or detected, rigger asks:

Which assistant do you want to target?

In a script the prompt is not available, so pin the assistant explicitly (the flag above) or configure it once (below). Resolution is the same for every command, which means a machine set up one way behaves the same across install, check, remove, and update.

Persist your choice

rigger init writes the assistants you pick into assistants[] in your configuration. When that list holds a single entry, every command targets it without the flag, and detection and the prompt are skipped. Configure it once instead of passing --assistant on each call. See getting started for the init walkthrough.

What changes when you target opencode

The command surface is identical. What differs is where files land and the native shape each artifact takes.

Where files land. Claude Code artifacts go under ~/.claude at user scope, or <repo>/.claude at project scope. opencode artifacts go under ~/.config/opencode at user scope; at project scope opencode.json and AGENTS.md sit at the repository root and the rest under <repo>/.opencode. The full grid of every nature against every assistant and scope is where each nature lands.

Guardrails. A guardrail on Claude Code is a set of deny and allow rules merged into settings.json. On opencode it is a native permission object merged into opencode.json. The catalog authors opencode’s permission descriptor directly; there is no automatic translation from the Claude rules, so a guardrail installs for opencode only when its catalog entry ships one.

Agents. Claude Code links the source .md as it is. opencode writes a translated file: its frontmatter is rewritten into opencode’s schema. You get a different file on disk from the same catalog source.

You do not need opencode installed. rigger writes opencode’s files directly and never invokes the opencode binary, which means you can provision an opencode harness on a machine before opencode itself is installed. The only effect of a missing ~/.config/opencode is on auto-detection: rigger will not pick opencode on its own, so pass --assistant opencode or set assistants[].

When an artifact does not target your assistant

Every catalog entry declares which assistants it targets. When you select an entry whose targets exclude the assistant you are installing for, rigger skips it rather than writing the wrong format. It reports the skip and installs nothing:

--- Skipped (assistant mismatch) ---
  [skipped] example/skill:hello-rigger — targets [claude], not opencode

The run exits 0 and touches no files. The fix is not a flag: either target the assistant the entry was authored for, or use a catalog entry that lists yours among its targets.

copilot is reserved

copilot is a recognised assistant name, but with no adapter yet it cannot be selected. Passing it is rejected like any invalid value:

[error] Invalid --assistant value: "copilot". Must be "claude" or "opencode".

The command exits 2 and writes nothing.