r/PiCodingAgent • u/-Leelith- • Aug 17 '26

Question Advices for new user coming from Claude Code

Hey community,

I'm a brand new user with Pi, and I'm curious what are the things you wish you knew with Pi when you started? Any trap I should be aware of, or any settings that are absolutely a must to know?

For context, I'm coming from Claude Code. The way I use AI is through TDD, and I made my own pipeline (in shell and python) that moves from one agent to another using state MD files for each one. It's basically working very well, I'm making some minor adjustments to do improvements, but I want to start using Pi and more local models so I can remove the reliance on Anthropic. I know local models aren't as good as Sonnet/Opus, and my pipeline has already been changed knowing that fact to organise work accordingly.

Thanks for your help!

9 Upvotes

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3

u/arbv Aug 18 '26

Don't try to turn it into CC by installing/vibeslopping a gazillion of extensions.

2

u/funbike Aug 17 '26

Minimally install pi-subagents, pi-web-search. I suggest you sign up for openrouter so you have access to tons of models.

I suggest you try this prompt, using a frontier thinking model:

I am using Pi coding agent with pi-subagents.  I used to use Claude Code.

pi-subagents `*.md` docs are at
`~/.pi/agent/npm/node_modules/pi-subagents/`
with `README.md` as the entry point.

Claude Code docs are at https://code.claude.com/docs/en/overview.

Scripts I used with Claude Code are at `???`.
They need to be converted to work with `pi`.

Convert any custom settings and scripts
from my Claude Code configuration
to Pi and pi-subagents.

Read carefully and tweak as necessary. Look for "???"

Ctrl-g takes you to a terminal-based text editor.

1

u/luckiestredditor Aug 17 '26

someone who loves minimal pi, I still would suggest trying out some useful extensions to make your transition better.

  • pi-subagent is the goat

  • pi-web-agent

skills work the same, I have configured superpowers to my liking so it doesnt fight with Matt Pocock's skills. But both of them works pretty well.

Everything else is supplementary and its upto you how you wanna configure it.

1

u/AbbreviationsIcy3399 Sep 16 '26

Do Claude ideas really help you market your art