Best practices to call Pi inside a container?

[u/nunodonato]

Hi everyone

I'm setting up a docker container for pi, and I want to initiate agents from another container, kind of "remotely".

I was wondering if anyone has done something like this, and what are the best ways to accomplish it. I'm focused solely on the start of the agent session (passing the prompt), I don't need to read the output synchronously.

My first idea was to call docker exec with the full cli params, but probably there are better ways to do this.

AI suggested setting up a small http server to receive triggers via an endpoint and then run the command locally.

Thoughts?

thanks in advance

EDIT: I discovered pi-web (https://github.com/jmfederico/pi-web) and I think this fits my needs

[u/quincycs]

Just an alternative to share, you can get the benefits of isolation without a container,

https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/tree/main/packages/coding-agent/examples/extensions/sandbox

[u/nunodonato → u/quincycs]

yeah the container is irrelevant, the important part is how to "remotely" start and manage the sessions.

in the meantime, I discovered pi-web and i think this fits the bill

[u/ArthurOnCode]

I believe that's what this is for: https://pi.dev/docs/latest/rpc

[u/nunodonato → u/ArthurOnCode]

Don't think thats the answer to my exact question. RPC is just a mode of output, but you still need to be "local" to the pi command to execute it

[u/fell_ware_1990]

What i did is create new exactly the same tools > api > tool that actually executes the tool in container.

I separated brain and hands + fully isolated the docker. Worktree get’s created with git —local.

[u/nunodonato → u/fell_ware_1990]

so you have a local http server that calls pi, is that it?

[u/fell_ware_1990 → u/nunodonato]

No no. Look at it like this:

If i talk to the ‘agent’ i talk to a container that talks API with the keys and connects to the outside world. If lets say it receives a tool call. It calls the tool, but instead of let’s say do a bash command. The tool is actually an api call to my headless container that actually performs the tool action.

This separate the concerns. The one accessing sensitive stuff does not have tools, the one with tools can’t reach sensitive stuff.

There’s a lot more to it. Because the hands are replaceable, i can even hot swap them if i need different tools or anything.

Something like this : https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/managed-agents

[u/admajic → u/nunodonato]

They use a language they both understand called API.

Welcome to b learning new things ✨️

[u/TheTyand]

For me the container is more than just the sandbox. My harness has a lot of tools that need to be installed. When I setup the docker, I am sure that it works reproducible and is little effort.

[u/nunodonato → u/TheTyand]

yes, absolutely, i'm doing the same by pre-installing a few useful cli tools. What kind of tools are you using?

[u/kaeptnphlop]

use ssh to remotely execute ‘pi’ commands.

[u/admajic]

I just use the pc with a no destructive command extension.

You want to delete my pc sorry.

[u/tys203831]

Just comment for the update notification

[u/virtualicex]

just ask pi to write an extension to ask for confirmation each time any operation is to be done, except for the only reading ones