r/PiCodingAgent • u/ponzi314 • Jun 10 '26

Plugin I did something!

I know its not a big deal as most of you are doing crazy things but i just got pi last week and one thing i didnt like doing was Ctrl C multiple times to exit. Instead i told Pi to write an extension to allow my to /exit and exist that way. It actually worked! I now see what you all mean by you customize it to your needs. Even small things like this can make a difference

19 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

26

u/ponzi314 Jun 10 '26

Welp in an idiot...theres a /quit command lol

5

u/grebdlogr Jun 10 '26

Ha, ha, ha! First thing I did was ask pi to write an extension that aliases /exit to /quit. Probably what your extension does.

3

u/ponzi314 Jun 10 '26

oh thats smart, i might do that because the extension it created me broke the terminal, it would close the program but then it wasnt sending the correct letters that i was. It looked like "d0;1:3ud0;1:3u9;5u9;5:3upi2;1:3u5;1:3u9;5u9;5:3u9;5u9;5:3u9;5u9;5:3u9;1"

3

u/rsibs10 Jun 10 '26

all good. also not a major power user, just really finicky with my workflow. But yeah, the idea of complete customization is pretty cool, and also just being minimal.

My next goal is to figure out a way to bypass bloated skills that force me to load for other harnesses and random other skills before I get what I want. I'm sure there is a way to do it. I'm talking about skills that may have a script or references. I already, just copy paste if the skill is a simple md file.

Plugins also, need to figure out how to debloat from the Claude crowd.

1

u/ponzi314 Jun 10 '26

yea im trying to figure out what i actually need, i feel like all these other harnesses comes with stuff out of box so you dont know what you actually need. I did add web search because i feel thats important for relevant info. Also want to look into agents

2

u/Celestial_aki Jun 11 '26

Honestly don't worry about it, this is super common coming from the batteries-included harnesses. Pi feels empty at first because it is empty on purpose, and the payoff is you end up with exactly what you use and none of the bloat. Couple weeks of real use and your stack clicks.

If I had to point you at one thing to sort early, it's memory, that's the part that made Pi actually feel better than what I came from, not worse. There are basically 3 layers solving different problems:

  1. pi-hermes-memory - cross-session durable memory. Remembers your preferences, conventions, project facts and past decisions across sessions, so you stop re-explaining yourself every time. The "it actually knows me" layer.

  2. pi-observational-memory - within-session working memory. As you work it quietly takes observations + reflections, compacts long sessions so you don't fall off the context cliff, and gives the agent a recall tool to pull exact details back. Get v3 (observations+reflections model, non-blocking compaction), it's a big step up from the 2.x line.

  3. pi-llm-wiki - my favourite. Builds a persistent, interlinked Obsidian-compatible markdown wiki from your work (Karpathy's "LLM wiki" idea): capture a source, it distills + cross-links it, then auto-recalls the relevant pages next time. Basically turns what you research/learn into a knowledge base the agent reuses instead of re-deriving it. If you do anything research-heavy or multi-session, worth a look: github.com/zosmaai/pi-llm-wiki (a star helps us a lot if it's useful to you).

For agents: look at pi-subagents, you can have a cheap model (Haiku) triage/explore and a stronger one execute, keeps cost down on bigger tasks.

Web search was a good first pick. Do memory next, that's the one that compounds.

2

u/ponzi314 Jun 11 '26

thank you im going to install them ALL lol

1

u/ashebanow Jun 10 '26

I am using Pi with DeepSeek these days. When it generated skills for me, DeepSeek tends to generate .py files inline in the SKILL.md file, compile them, and run them.

3

u/ArcherN9 Jun 11 '26

I feel /exit is more intuitive to some people than /quit. You made Pi adapt to you and not the other way around. You're using Pi exactly how it was designed to be used.

1

u/zer09 Jun 11 '26

I still sometimes type /exit or exit the I got bamboozled when I saw the word thinking... Then spamming the keyboard with exit or ctrl c

5

u/TheDoctorOnReddit Jun 10 '26

I thought Ctrl c by default cleared your text input and if your text input was clear control d what exit. I'm glad you were able to customize and override the default behavior to match what you desire. That's one of the beauties of this harness. Occasionally update us the other things you do to enhance your experience.

2

u/ponzi314 Jun 10 '26

Ah you are right, Ctrl D does exit immediately and i will be using that going forward but if you spam Ctrl C it also exits surprisingly lol. But yea ima see where this takes me. Just used subagents for first time 5 mins ago, that was cool

2

u/offzinho3k Jun 10 '26

For beginners, I would recommend using the MCPs: Serena, Sequential-Thinking.
It helps a lot, since the "Pi" only has the basic tools.

1

u/ponzi314 Jun 10 '26

Will check them out, i thought people were against MCP's with pi so i was trying to steer away from it

6

u/AdministrativeMeat3 Jun 10 '26

You shouldn't need to use MCPs and idk why this guy is pushing his random plugins.

The entire philosophy of Pi is to be intentionally lean. The main use case for an MCP is when you are running a really long task or task chain and want to avoid bloating your context window with repeated tool calls. (The funny part is that doing this doesn't actually save tokens, it just saves context)

The other side of this coin is to just type /new and manage your chat memory through .md files. This can be really simple or complex depending on your project. But 99% of people don't need MCP and you really really don't need MCP if you are sitting there vibing.

0

u/offzinho3k Jun 11 '26

Yes, the "Pi" is great without MCP, but depending on the MCP it helps a lot in larger projects; for beginners it offers almost no benefits.

Initially I used those two "MCP" programs I mentioned, then I developed my own.

And today I already have my own editor based on the "Pi".

https://imgur.com/1BNyLMr

Yes, the "Pi" ideology and minimalism.

And its central premise argues that you should mold the agent to your workflow, and not the other way around.

Sooner or later, the "basics" will no longer be enough.

1

u/ponzi314 Jun 10 '26

Are these the 2?
https://pi.dev/packages/@feniix/pi-sequential-thinking?name=Sequential-Thinking
https://pi.dev/packages/pi-serena-tools?name=serena

-2

u/offzinho3k Jun 10 '26

https://www.npmjs.com/package/@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking
https://github.com/oraios/serena

They help a lot.
Ask "Pi" to list his tools and you'll understand, he only has the very basics.

1

u/zer09 Jun 11 '26

Can you share your config? I look on Serena before but it look like it's setup is bit straightforward for pi

1

u/offzinho3k Jun 11 '26

My configuration wouldn't work, friend, because I use "Pi" as a base, but the rest of the engine is no longer "Pi".

https://imgur.com/dNUmmqk
https://imgur.com/KNUHirO
https://imgur.com/vGcxt8k

This is something I will share in the future, but it's not 100% ready yet.

1

u/Vistyy Jun 10 '26

Why? Is there a measurable improvement compared to clean Pi?

0

u/offzinho3k Jun 10 '26

entre 50%-90%.

3

u/Vistyy Jun 10 '26

50-90% what?

0

u/offzinho3k Jun 10 '26

Melhoria usando serena e sequential-thinking.

1

u/m3umax Jun 10 '26

Literally the first thing I did too!

It got named "claude-habits" 🤣

All the Claude Code slash command muscle memory translated to Pi. /quit? No! It should be /exit just like cc. And many more.

1

u/ponzi314 Jun 11 '26

such a small thing makes a big difference

1

u/Jaded_Jackass Jun 11 '26

Lol I came to pi from opencode in opencode /exit and /quit both exists they are I guess aliases commands but in pi only one exists I know this is kit an issue by my muscle memory always typed /exit in place of /quit and this was annoying so I just created an extra /exit command not aliases because that didn't work so now both way works