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Pi is a minimal coding agent you shape yourself

Daine Mawer|#ai#tooling

Pi (opens in a new tab) is an open-source, MIT-licensed agent harness from Earendil. It does the same basic job as Claude Code, but the core is deliberately small. Sub-agents, plan mode, permission popups and built-in to-dos aren't included. You add the ones you want through TypeScript extensions, skills, prompt templates or packages installed from npm or git.

That trade is why it's worth a look next to straight Claude Code:

  • Not tied to one vendor. It talks to 15+ providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Ollama and more), and you can switch models mid-session.
  • Sessions are trees. /tree branches from any earlier point in a conversation, so you can try a different approach without losing the first one.
  • It runs in more places. Besides the TUI, there's a print/JSON mode for scripts, RPC over stdin/stdout, and an SDK for embedding.
  • It reads AGENTS.md. Existing project instructions carry over.
npm install -g --ignore-scripts @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent

The catch is the same as the pitch: Claude Code gives you the batteries, and Pi gives you a blank harness and expects you to build what you need.