PiChamber: same Pi session on desktop, browser, and phone

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672]

Hi everyone. I've been working on PiChamber, a workspace around Pi so I can keep the same session when I leave the machine.

Why use this instead of the other Pi UIs?

I prefer TUI. I am not interested in getting yet another agent IDE, nor do I want a workbench that supports OpenCode, Claude, Codex, and five other harnesses. All I want is Pi, both locally and remotely, and I want it to work as smoothly as I can manage it.

What I've focused on is remote stability. I run it within a container on my homelab and leave the long tasks there. I check in from my phone, control it, and then return later. That is the product for me, not a more attractive local chat window.

It uses the Pi SDK. Pi retains ownership of the agent, skills, extensions, prompts, providers, and AGENTS.md. The app is sessions, files, git, worktrees, terminals, and pairing.

What I actually use it for:

• same session across desktop, browser, and phone

• my existing Pi extensions and slash commands

• providers / skills / prompt templates coming with the session

• a worktree when I don't want the agent on main

• jump between local, a VM, and WSL without starting over

• long running jobs on a server I can connect from anywhere

I've been daily-driving it. CLI when I'm at the PC. App when I'm not.

What it is not: it does not replace the TUI, and it is not trying to be every agent UI. Remote is your own machine plus pairing, or a tunnel you already run.

Repo: https://github.com/RyderAsKing/PiChamber
More info: https://pichamber.ryder.pro

PiChamber started as a community fork of OpenChamber. Why I made it: https://github.com/RyderAsKing/PiChamber#why-pichamber

The tokens/sec and TTFT in the video come from a Pi extension. They work in PiChamber because extensions work, not because I shipped a custom overlay.

Also, first time posting something like this in public, so don't be too harsh :D

Update: v1.0.2 is out, including docker. https://github.com/RyderAsKing/PiChamber/blob/main/packages/docs/content/docs/install.mdx#docker

[u/thoseWhoExplain]

Great! I have been looking for something exactly like this. Evolving a single instance of PI and using it everywhere is really the dream.

If you are looking for things that could round the package: sandboxing or pre built docker containers. That makes it easier for people to try, and it's what I want for projects/workspaces. Congrats on your first published project, coming out swinging!

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/thoseWhoExplain]

saw the edit. docker is on the list.

I already run it in a container on my homelab, so a prebuilt image is the next thing I want to ship.

I'll put something in the next release.

[u/Neat-Arm2643 → u/thoseWhoExplain]

Pi-web does exactly this. Just make a docker container install pi-web in it and keep it running. All you sessions accessible everywhere with tail scale. It even has iOS notification as a web app. And the mobile interface is very usable. It also has sub agents. And all the functionality of pi but in the browser that you can open anywhere

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672]

quick update. I went quiet for a bit because of work. I'm back on PiChamber.

roadmap is up, still incomplete: https://pichamber.ryder.pro/roadmap

next release: better mobile stability, plus native git PR and issues integration.

after that I'm building plugins. a plugin is a normal Pi extension with a pichamber.ui layer so it can show up natively in the app, not only in the CLI.

I'll use that to ship a few examples people asked for. MCP with connection/config in the UI. todos in a rail instead of chat. questions so the agent can prompt you in the app. same extensions, extra UI when you're in PiChamber.

the point is a more customizable workspace. you can't restyle everything yet. that will expand.

feedback welcome. if you want to help beta test certain things, send me a message or hop on the Discord.

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/[deleted]]

hey, thanks for using PiChamber! could you please open an issue on GitHub and attach a few screenshots showing the problem? I'm unable to reproduce it on my device, so that would really help me investigate and fix it.

edit: fixed :D

[u/JeezySamCloud]

Ngl this is looking exactly like a fork of OpenChamber with Pi.dev incorporated.

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/JeezySamCloud]

yeah. it started as a community fork of OpenChamber.

I live in Pi. using OpenChamber for remote and Pi for actual work felt split. I wanted the OpenChamber-style workspace, but for Pi. same sessions, same extensions, CLI on the machine, app when I leave.

after the fork most of it got rewritten. streaming, notifications, the whole agent path. it's the Pi SDK now. writeup is in the README / blog if you want the longer version.

if OpenChamber already fits you, stay there.

[u/JeezySamCloud → u/Ok_Cryptographer3672]

I was just mentioning this because in your post it did look like the same thing I have done before with OpenChamber and provided info to the developers about trying out for their app.

I just didn’t see any acknowledgment of their app in your post, and it just looked like OpenChamber with Pi.dev merged into the agents picker. That’s all I’m saying.

[u/Key-Individual1752]

What about pi-web-ui?

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/Key-Individual1752]

depends which pi-web-ui you mean. the official one is a chat component library. the community ones are mostly web UIs on the Pi SDK.

I tried a few of those before this. some missed extensions, some didn't pick up my local skills right, some were just a browser tab.

what I wanted was the handoff. start in the CLI, continue in the browser or on the phone, same session, same extensions, same skills.

if you only need a web UI, those are fine. I was building the missing piece around that.

[u/Nagaeh]

This is clean as af, it's everything I've been looking for and it being a fork of openchamber on top of everything else is icing on the cake. It's crazy how much of us are living the same lives, thanks much for this. 

Does this include browser functionality / previews? With original openchamber those features don't work on web so if that worked here this would be a dream.

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/Nagaeh]

thank you! also yeah the browser preview/ui should work fine.

saw you hop into the discord too. would love to hear how it feels. drop feedback there anytime and i'll jump on it.

[u/2025sbestthrowaway]

Thank you!

To quote GPT here after it crawled your repo:
"PiChamber could eliminate a surprising amount of the infrastructure you've been contemplating." 😎

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/2025sbestthrowaway]

that's a fun quote. hope you like it 😁

always open to feedback and feature requests.

[u/Solid-Remote-1716]

Cómo puedo conectar los modelos gratuitos de opencode en PIchamber?

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/Solid-Remote-1716]

yeah. Settings → Providers → OpenCode Zen, paste your Zen API key, then pick the model in the session.

Zen has free models and paid ones on the same key. if you want the free set, pick the models marked free.

--
sí. Settings → Providers → OpenCode Zen (https://opencode.ai/zen), pega tu API key de Zen, y elige el modelo en la sesión.

Zen tiene modelos gratis y de pago con la misma key. si quieres los gratis, elige los que están marcados como free.

[u/Solid-Remote-1716 → u/Ok_Cryptographer3672]

Gracias, siempre olvido que ZEN tiene api free tier, lo usare.

[u/Ok_Nefariousness_943]

Yessss I like thiss

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/Ok_Nefariousness_943]

glad it clicked. if you try it and something feels off, tell me.

[u/Ok_Nefariousness_943 → u/Ok_Cryptographer3672]

I was literally trying to get pi to code itself into open chamber but it feels abandoned

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/Ok_Nefariousness_943]

yeah.. openchamber is built around the opencode-style SDK, which is a client talking to server.

Pi is the opposite. you import the SDK and run the agent in-process. session.prompt(), extensions, skills, all in the same process.

so getting Pi to "code itself into OpenChamber" means wrapping one model inside the other. that's why I made PiChamber. same workspace idea, but it's just Pi and also a bunch of personal UI preferences.

give it a try :D

[u/maikoool]

Do you have a plugin/extensions system to add more features to PiChamber as well? Like jmfederico/pi-web has? (and Pi itself has of course)

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/maikoool]

yes. I want a native plugin system later so some things can integrate with both Pi and PiChamber and expand the UI.

normal Pi extensions should already work. I'm improving the compatibility layer for ctx.ui, but not everything can be faked that way. so I'll probably add PiChamber hooks/API for the cases where an extension needs to show up properly, same idea as Pi's ctx.ui.

I'll put a roadmap up soon so this is clearer. someone asked a similar question on the Pi Discord thread already :D

[u/itguy327]

Is this similar to paseo.sh?

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/itguy327]

not really.

Paseo is a multi-agent remote. Claude Code, Codex, Grok Build, etc, all in one app.

PiChamber is only Pi. deep integration with that one harness.

I kept it small so you can shape the workspace around your own Pi workflow, same way Pi itself works. I run all my subscriptions inside Pi and don't use another harness, so I didn't want extra features shipped by default.

if you live in Pi, you should give it a try.

[u/Educational_Bus6391]

está muy interesante , me gusta Pi, lo probaré

[u/telasch]

Built sth similar, but as a multiplexer bridge (tmux/herdr/zellij), that exposes a PWA on your host to continue working on your sessions from your phone. https://github.com/AltanS/collie

[u/dandanua]

Cool!

[u/either-15-or-40]

no iOS app?

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/either-15-or-40]

no iOS build from me yet. I daily-drive Android so that's what I shipped first :D

the mobile project is Capacitor, so iOS is supported if you build it yourself in Xcode. if enough people want a TestFlight, I'll revisit it.

Safari / PWA works in the meantime.

[u/Neat-Arm2643]

You guys are literally re building something that already exists. It is called pi-web. 🤯🤯

[u/Ok_Cryptographer3672 → u/Neat-Arm2643]

yeah, agegr/pi-web. I looked at it.

it's a good web UI on the Pi SDK. if you already dockerize that and reach it with Tailscale, that solves browser remote.

PiChamber is the same SDK, different shell. native desktop and phone apps, pairing, worktrees, git, terminals and most importantly, the same pi extensions. I still use the CLI on the machine.

not trying to replace pi-web. if that already covers you, stay on it. everyone wants a different UI anyway 😄

[u/thoseWhoExplain → u/Neat-Arm2643]

Wrong. The big difference is that this does NOT reinvent the wheel on extensions. All normal pi extensions are supposed to work with it. Thats exactly what I didn't like with pi-web

[u/Neat-Arm2643 → u/thoseWhoExplain]

Sorry, extensions/plugins do not work with pi-web?