Deep Analysis

Deep analysis — disposable workers, durable artifacts

Calls are cheap; context is the scarce resource. Heavy reading and reasoning happen in fresh-context workers that die after returning a capped artifact. The orchestrating session holds packets and artifacts only — rot cannot accumulate in a context that is thrown away.

Packet assembly (step 1 of every deep command)

A packet is everything a worker sees. Build it from:

1. The question/goal, verbatim.
2. TASK.json invariants + forbidden files (if a ledger exists).
3. File REFERENCES (paths + line ranges + a sentence on relevance). Inline full contents only when small; the mapper is the only worker built for raw dumps.
4. The matching section of memory/briefs/CODEBASE-BRIEF.md, if one exists.

Packet cap: ~200 lines. Needing more is the signal to run /deep-read first and reference the brief instead.

Staleness check (before using any brief)

Compare the brief's frontmatter git_sha to git rev-parse HEAD. If drifted, warn the user and offer an incremental /deep-read refresh (changed subsystems only) before proceeding.

Artifact discipline

• Workers return text; only the synthesizer writes files. One artifact per command run, following the matching template in .opencode/templates/.
• Ephemeral analyses → .analysis/ (gitignored). Durable briefs → memory/briefs/ (committed).
• Caps are hard: 150 lines per artifact (40 per brief section), frontmatter always filled (command, date, git_sha, models, inputs, status).
• The orchestrator NEVER pastes raw worker output into the main thread. Report the artifact path + a compact verdict + the dissent register. That's it.

Blindness

Fan-out workers answer the SAME packet independently. Never include one worker's output in another worker's input — correlation destroys the ensemble's value. Only the judge and synthesizer see multiple outputs, and they see them labeled by model.

Degradation ladder

1. Worker output non-conforming (oversized/off-format) → retry that worker ONCE with a stricter format reminder → still bad? proceed with survivors. A council of 2 is a council.
2. All workers fail → answer single-model inline, but the artifact says status: degraded and the report says so honestly.
3. A model missing from your provider catalog → use the fallback named in the agent file's frontmatter comment; node tools/doctor.mjs checks every pinned model against opencode models (and round-trips it when run live).