How to Setup MiniMax in OpenCode - Blog - Naufaldi Rafif Satriya

OpenCode is a powerful AI coding assistant that supports multiple LLM providers. This guide shows you how to set up MiniMax-M2.1, a state-of-the-art coding model, as your OpenCode provider.

What You'll Get

By the end of this guide, you'll have:

• OpenCode installed and ready to use
• MiniMax-M2.1 configured as your coding assistant
• Full access to MiniMax's advanced polyglot programming and code refactoring capabilities

Prerequisites

• A MiniMax API key (get one at platform.minimax.io)
• Node.js 18+ or a Unix-like terminal (for curl installation)

Step 1: Install OpenCode

You have two installation options. Choose the one that works best for your setup.

Option A: Install via curl (Recommended)

curl -fsSL https://opencode.ai/install | bash

Option B: Install via npm

npm i -g opencode-ai

Important: Close and reopen your terminal (or start a new terminal session) to ensure the opencode command is available in your PATH.

After installation, verify that OpenCode is available by running:

opencode --version

Step 2: Authenticate with MiniMax

OpenCode provides an interactive authentication flow that makes provider setup simple.

Run the authentication command:

opencode auth login

When prompted to select a provider:

• Search for and select MiniMax from the provider list
• Enter your MiniMax API key when prompted

Note: If you subscribed through the Coding Plan, you can find your API key at https://platform.minimax.io/user-center/payment/coding-plan

That's it! OpenCode will save your credentials securely.

Step 3: Select the MiniMax-M2.1 Model

Start OpenCode in your project directory:

cd /path/to/your/project
opencode

Once OpenCode is running, type /models to open the model selector.

Select MiniMax-M2.1 from the list of available models.

You're now ready to use MiniMax-M2.1 for AI-assisted coding!

Step 4: Set MiniMax-M2.1 as Default Model

To avoid selecting the model every time you start OpenCode, you can set MiniMax-M2.1 as your default model.

Edit the OpenCode configuration file at ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json and add the defaultModel field:

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "defaultModel": "MiniMax-M2.1"
}

If the file doesn't exist, create it with the above content. If it already exists, just add the defaultModel line to your existing configuration.

Now when you start OpenCode, it will automatically use MiniMax-M2.1 without requiring manual selection each time.

Verification Checklist

To confirm everything is working correctly:

• [ ] opencode --version shows the installed version
• [ ] opencode auth login successfully authenticated with MiniMax
• [ ] /models command shows MiniMax-M2.1 in the model list
• [ ] You can send a test prompt and receive a response from MiniMax-M2.1

Important: MiniMax Model Limitations

The MiniMax-M2.1 model you just configured is a text-only model. This means:

• No visual input: MiniMax-M2.1 cannot directly analyze images, screenshots, or diagrams
• No web search: MiniMax-M2.1 cannot search the web for up-to-date information or documentation

These are common requirements in modern coding workflows. To add these capabilities, you need to install the MiniMax MCP server, which provides two additional tools:

• web_search: Search the web for documentation, examples, and solutions
• understand_image: Analyze screenshots, UI mockups, architecture diagrams, and more

The MCP server works alongside MiniMax-M2.1, giving your AI assistant access to visual understanding and real-time web information.

Ready to extend your setup? Check out the companion guide: How to Add MiniMax MCP Tools to OpenCode

Next Steps

Now that you have MiniMax set up in OpenCode, you might want to:

• Add MiniMax MCP tools: Install the MiniMax MCP server to add web_search and understand_image capabilities (see the companion guide on setting up MiniMax MCP in OpenCode)
• Explore MiniMax capabilities: Try complex refactoring tasks, multi-language code generation, or debugging with MiniMax-M2.1
• Customize your workflow: Check out the OpenCode documentation for advanced configuration options

References

• MiniMax OpenCode Setup Guide
• OpenCode Documentation
• MiniMax API Documentation