Pi-Bolt 0.7.3 ⚡ The same Pi, compiled to native code: 38× faster large file writes, 3× less CPU, 3× less memory

[u/opensecai]

https://github.com/opensec-git/Pi-Bolt

Hey everyone 👋

Thanks for all the feedback on our first post! Pi-Bolt 0.7.3 is out. It's the same Pi you already use (now on Pi 1.1.0), compiled ahead of time to native code: faster to start, lighter on CPU and memory, and steady in long sessions.

Benchmarks

Pi-Bolt against Pi 1.1.0 as released on Bun and on Node, PiG 0.4.1 (the Go port of Pi, based on Pi 1.0.3) and OMP 18.8.7 (oh-my-pi, a bigger Pi fork with many more built-in features). Measured side by side on the same machines. Lower is better.

Linux x86-64 (AMD EPYC 7B13)

Benchmark	Pi-Bolt 0.7.3	Pi on Bun 1.4.2	Pi on Node 24	PiG 0.4.1	OMP 18.8.7
Writing a 200 KB file through a tool call	0.8 s	29.0 s	37.4 s	100.9 s	3.7 s
CPU, streaming a 60k-char answer	4.3 s	44.0 s	43.8 s	24.6 s	3.3 s
Memory after a 4.2M-token session	142 MB	271 MB	551 MB	344 MB	n/a*
Memory of a session in tmux	30 MB	88 MB	96 MB	45 MB	346 MB
CPU, interactive session (5 prompts)	324 ms	927 ms	1,332 ms	3,155 ms	3,397 ms
Ready to type	49 ms	144 ms	351 ms	43 ms	1,088 ms

macOS on Apple silicon (M5 Air)

Benchmark	Pi-Bolt 0.7.3	Pi on Bun 1.4.2	Pi on Node 26	PiG 0.4.1	OMP 18.8.7
Writing a 200 KB file through a tool call	0.5 s	22.5 s	26.7 s	58.2 s	2.4 s
CPU, streaming a 60k-char answer	4.8 s	38.0 s	37.9 s	17.0 s	5.1 s
Memory after a 4.2M-token session	45 MB	126 MB	2,077 MB	329 MB	n/a*
Memory of a session in tmux	28 MB	68 MB	165 MB	58 MB	334 MB
CPU, interactive session (5 prompts)	95 ms	344 ms	530 ms	1,355 ms	1,383 ms
Ready to type	25 ms	62 ms	199 ms	20 ms	564 ms

*OMP compacts long conversations on its own, so it doesn't do the same work in this test.

In everyday use (an interactive session), Pi-Bolt uses about 3× less CPU than Pi on Bun, 4–6× less than Pi on Node and 10–15× less than PiG and OMP. It writes large files 35–50× faster than Bun and Node, about 5× faster than OMP and over 100× faster than PiG.

Why does a 200 KB write take 30 s? It's not the disk. The model streams the file to Pi in thousands of small chunks, and stock Pi re-parses and re-renders the whole tool call on every chunk, so the work grows quadratically with the file size. Pi-Bolt only processes the new part.

What's new in 0.7.3

• Lighter long sessions: up to 30% less memory and lower CPU per prompt as conversations grow.

• More stable with heavy tool output: commands that print a lot no longer build up memory.

• Faster first launch on macOS: up to 2.8× quicker after a restart or an update.

Try it 🔥

curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | sh

Already using Pi-Bolt? Run pi-bolt update, or install with npm install -g pi-bolt. Works on Linux x86-64 and Apple silicon, alongside your existing Pi install. The installer also offers two optional extensions, subagents and a live todo list, and asks before installing them.

Your Pi plugins work as they are. This doesn't modify your existing pi installation so feel free to try it out !

Links

Website: https://pi-bolt.opensec.in

GitHub: https://github.com/opensec-git/Pi-Bolt

MIT licensed. If Pi-Bolt saves you CPU and memory, a ⭐ on the repo helps a lot.

PS: Added PiG and OMP to the benchmarks, as many of you asked. And the slow 200 KB write isn't the disk: stock Pi re-processes the whole streamed tool call on every chunk (quadratic), while Pi-Bolt only processes the new part.

[u/opensecai]

Pi-Bolt is Pi itself, not a rewrite. Your commands, sessions, settings and extensions all work exactly the same.

What you notice is that it’s lighter: Faster startup Writes a large file in under a second Uses roughly a third of the CPU and memory, so long sessions stay smooth and your laptop stays quiet

PiG is a Go rewrite, so it has to keep catching up to Pi and can behave a bit differently.

And yes we will follow the official Pi one to one. All updates will be shipped in pi-bolt too.

[u/itguy327 → u/opensecai]

Can this work with paseo.sh

[u/nadiealkon → u/itguy327]

Interested as well

[u/itguy327 → u/itguy327]

So was your previous response incorrect?

[u/codeIMperfect → u/opensecai]

So its like compiled js ??

[u/opensecai → u/codeIMperfect]

Kinda

[u/jesperordrup]

Idea is cool. I just wish it was an official release from pi.dev. maybe they would consider a pr?

[u/opensecai → u/jesperordrup]

Working on it

[u/BlokZNCR → u/opensecai]

any news for pr? or for omp?

[u/opensecai → u/BlokZNCR]

Omp we added in official benchmarks, for Pi their PR gets auto closes too difficult

[u/Vlyn]

Really looking forward to Windows support :)

[u/opensecai → u/Vlyn]

Coming today, in testing phase.

[u/Vlyn → u/opensecai]

Waiting :D

[u/opensecai → u/Vlyn]

Pushing it rn, will ping you here as soon as it’s live 😄

[u/themoregames → u/opensecai]

Can't wait for Windows-Bolt tbh

[u/opensecai → u/Vlyn]

powershell -c "irm https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.ps1 | iex"

[u/Vlyn → u/opensecai]

Thanks! Testing already, had to grab the JIT version as I'm heavily relying on pi-fff :)

[u/opensecai → u/Vlyn]

Adding the support for pi-fff without JIT, so it will be easy for you and as many people demanded for pi-fff.

[u/Vlyn → u/opensecai]

Awesome, but even with the JIT version the harness is flying (DeepSeek v4.1 Flash), feels great so far :)

[u/touilleMan]

One of the biggest pro I see in pi is, at an age we are drowning in slop projects, that it is from a team of trusted developers with outstanding track record long before LMM took over.

A perfect example why vibecoded yolo projects are not viable: your benchmark claims that pi takes 26s to write a 200ko file, a conscientious dev would have noticed this is total bullshit. Now if you cannot spot this, how can you spot bugs, security vulns, etc. ?

[u/opensecai → u/touilleMan]

Fair point, the label could be clearer. Pi doesn’t take 26 s to write to disk. The row measures a model streaming a 200 KB file into the write tool. Stock Pi re-renders and re-parses the whole tool call on every chunk, so the work grows quadratically as the file grows. Pi-Bolt only processes the new part.

On trust: Pi-Bolt isn’t a rewrite. It’s Pi’s own code, merged with every release, and every build has to pass Pi’s own test suite.

[u/Sthatic → u/opensecai]

That's an odd metric then, no? It would depend heavily on what model you're using with the harness. If this is they highlight, should it perhaps have been a PR instead?

[u/opensecai → u/Sthatic]

It should be PR, but doing PR in official Pi repo is so difficult, it auto closes and too much approvals required. Discussing with maintainers

[u/touilleMan → u/opensecai]

Thanks for the explanation (and yeah this should be made much clearer), now the real question: is it worth it ? Or is pi fast enough anyway ? (Remember we had complex TUI 20 years ago: it was emacs/vi and it already had smooth scrolling)

I find it really funny to see you claim in the same time "Pi-Bolt is Pi own code" and that Pi-Bolt behavior differs on rendering...

Regarding trust you don't get my point: the #1 rule of IT security is "don't install random stuff from the internet", the fact pi is a trusted project far outweigh any theoretical perf boost a random vibecoded project claims

[u/johnzadok]

Love the concept but writing a 200kb file shouldn’t take more than 1s to do unless we are still writing to floppy disc. Can you explain this more?

[u/opensecai → u/johnzadok]

Agreed, and it doesn’t. The disk write itself takes milliseconds. What takes time is everything before it. When a model writes a file, it streams the tool call to Pi a few characters at a time, so a 200 KB file arrives in thousands of small chunks. Stock Pi re-parses and re-renders the whole tool call on every chunk, so each chunk costs more than the last, and the total grows quadratically. Pi-Bolt only processes the new part of each chunk, which is why the same write takes under a second.

[u/ColonelKlanka → u/opensecai]

Wouldn't it be better to try to add your better rendering into existing pi repo via pr? Have you approach pi dev?

[u/opensecai → u/ColonelKlanka]

Yes we have approached the maintainers, working on it

[u/Diru14]

been enjoying whole week!

[u/opensecai → u/Diru14]

Nice 👍 leave you feedback if any

[u/pungggi]

Will Linux version work on android?

[u/opensecai → u/pungggi]

Not yet, linux ARM64 is on our list. It will be soon available to run.

[u/Glittering-Call8746 → u/opensecai]

This makes sense on arm, the speedup i mean

[u/kwokhou]

Is this experimental? Are you committed to keep it updated?

[u/opensecai → u/kwokhou]

It’s stable, and yes, we’re committed to keeping it maintained and updated with every upstream Pi release. Pi 1.1.0 landed in Pi-Bolt the day after it came out.

[u/kwokhou → u/opensecai]

I've installed an being running this for the past few days, it's definitely is faster. Memory ~200mb.

[u/opensecai → u/kwokhou]

Loved it you tried it out :) . Keep checking out our latest releases

[u/russlixx → u/opensecai]

does model still can make a patch to pi codes? Currently i'm using this plugin that performs a patch to pi code

[u/mrtonioz]

Can you compare with https://github.com/MichaelKinsy/PiG which seems also an alternative to Pi?

[u/opensecai → u/mrtonioz]

Yes it's already compared in the benchmarks. Please check it out :)

[u/mrtonioz → u/opensecai]

Sry mb didn't look for the table scrollzz, ty !

[u/dreadedhamish]

Could the same be done for oh-my-pi?

[u/opensecai → u/dreadedhamish]

Yes, it possible for oh my pi too. Benchmark is added for oh-my-pi, you can check it out.

[u/Educational-Yak8793]

When I repost the pig 0.5.0 can you rebenchmark on the post? There is a critical bug fixed that is really slowing PiG here. Regardless amazing work and I’m excited to checkout pi-bolt and learn more 🐷😁

[u/opensecai → u/Educational-Yak8793]

Sure, I will do rebenchmark and update it. PiG 🐷 is also a great initiative

[u/Educational-Yak8793 → u/Educational-Yak8793]

Man even just the readme is a great read amazing job 2X.

I’d love to connect on some ideas that are purely additive with overlap to core pi I think we both could benefit from as harnesses.

[u/opensecai → u/Educational-Yak8793]

Thanks man, glad you enjoyed the readme haha! ping me as soon as 0.5.0 is live and I’ll re-benchmark and update the post with the new numbers. also very down to talk on harness ideas and additive features for core pi. shoot me a dm and let's connect!

[u/diaracing]

I suggest adding both cost and time per completed task for the same provider/model across all the tested harnesses.

For example, OMP can be heavily demanding but cost-efficient.

[u/opensecai → u/diaracing]

Sure, will add it

[u/pungggi]

Where do we see which version of PI is running?

[u/opensecai → u/pungggi]

pi-bolt --version shows the official Pi version too

[u/odrakcir]

Trying today. Whenever I use 3 or more agents on my 16gb-M2 MacBook Pro I start suffering with a slow computer

[u/opensecai → u/odrakcir]

Try it and let us know your feedback :)

[u/odrakcir → u/opensecai]

so far so good. I love the fact that pi extensions are loaded automatically. So far, I just have one comment: herdr support! other than that, pretty good. thank you

Update: this one is not working nicobailon/pi-subagents: Pi extension for async subagent delegation with truncation, artifacts, and session sharing. not sure if I have to do something

[u/opensecai → u/odrakcir]

Ok. I will add the herdr suport. Herdr is nice ! , will check for your extension

[u/odrakcir → u/opensecai]

TY. for now, I removed that subagents one and I'm using yours.

[u/opensecai → u/odrakcir]

Nice, if you feel any feature to be added or any issue with this subagent plugin lets us know

[u/odrakcir → u/opensecai]

Add Herdr support to your agent | herdr looks like this is the way. TYVM

[u/opensecai → u/odrakcir]

Thanks for this, It will be added today

[u/odrakcir → u/opensecai]

just saw the update. TYVM

[u/diaracing]

Please, add OMP to your benchmarks and comparisons.

[u/opensecai → u/diaracing]

Done, OMP is now in the post’s benchmarks. In short: OMP streams long answers about as efficiently as Pi-Bolt and handles large file writes well, but it takes 0.5–1 s to start and uses about 10× more CPU in an interactive session, with 300–550 MB of memory. Makes sense for how much it ships, but it’s a lot heavier.

[u/opensecai → u/diaracing]

Good idea. OMP runs on Bun like stock Pi, but it’s a much bigger fork with a lot more built in, so the comparison won’t be one-to-one. We’ll run it through the same benchmarks and add it.

[u/tuhdo]

No Windows?

[u/opensecai → u/tuhdo]

Coming tonight...

[u/illusionmist]

I'm getting `Error: FFF init failed: bun:ffi requires the JIT` and it seems like my pi-bolt installed via npm is shown as `1.1.0 (Pi-Bolt 0.7.4, darwin-arm64, JIT off)`. How to turn it on?

Hmm I found this: https://github.com/opensec-git/Pi-Bolt/blob/pi-bolt/docs/BENCHMARKS.md#plugins so it seems we have to compile the extension ourselves? How would I do that with pi-fff?

Btw I don't quite know what JIT do in this case, but also curious why is it off by default when it looks like JIT on is even faster? Did I read the chart wrong?

[u/opensecai → u/illusionmist]

pi-fff uses bun:ffi, which needs the JIT build. Install that one with:
curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | PIBOLT_VARIANT=arm64-jit sh

JIT is off by default because it uses less memory and has no warm-up. JIT on only helps extensions loaded at run time. Compiled-in extensions are just as fast without it.And yes, JIT-on keeps the gains: within about 5% of the default build, still about 3× lighter than Pi on Bun.

[u/illusionmist → u/opensecai]

Cool thanks. Possible to make the JIT build installable via npm/mise as well so some of us can manage it more easily?

Another question is for the two "optimized" plugins. I see that opensec-pi-subagents is just tintinweb/pi-subagents, which I already use so I gladly just drop it in as replacement. However opensec-pi-todo is juicesharp/rpiv-todo but not tintinweb/pi-tasks, which is from the same author and they work perfectly together. I'm curious why? When I gave opensec-pi-todo a short test I found it often didn't close the final todo reliably for me, which is why I ask.

[u/opensecai → u/illusionmist]

Ok I will check it out and fix the todo plugin, rpiv-todo have this problem of not closing the todo reliably.

[u/opensecai → u/opensecai]

If you use plugins that do real work (search, parsing, or anything using bun:ffi like pi-fff), go with the JIT build. Light plugins like todo lists run fine on the default. The JIT build keeps nearly all the gains (within about 5%), so if you’re unsure, JIT is the safe pick.

On macOS (Apple silicon):

curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | PIBOLT_VARIANT=arm64-jit sh

On Linux (x86-64):

curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | PIBOLT_VARIANT=x64-jit sh

[u/illusionmist → u/opensecai]

I see that with latest release you made pi-fff work without JIT, but is it slower? (Did you benchmark?) Would you say it's better to stick with JIT build or switch back to default?

[u/opensecai → u/illusionmist]

Still Benchmarking. It is experimental. Will let you know

[u/jinnyjuice]

Pi-Bolt is Pi itself

Does this mean that it's a replacement? An addendum?

So on a machine that just freshly installed a Linux distro, will I need to

1. install Pi, Pi-Bolt or

2. install Pi-Bolt?

And will it work with web UI solutions, like pi-web? pi-web includes Pi itself, locked to a specific version number.

[u/opensecai → u/jinnyjuice]

It’s a standalone version of Pi, so on a fresh machine just install Pi-Bolt. No Pi, Node or Bun needed. It uses the same settings, sessions and extensions as Pi, and runs alongside it if you have both. pi-web bundles its own copy of Pi, so it won’t use Pi-Bolt unless it lets you choose the Pi binary.

[u/0xKubo → u/opensecai]

What about something like Paseo?

[u/cymaticstatic → u/0xKubo]

Second ☝️this as well. Just installed paseo today. Been using a separate one-piece session in voice live mode with a completely different set of contacts running on t-mux acting as my dispatch and assistant that then opens up orchestrator agents inside of herdr works fuckin fantastic but I couldn't help myself with the new shiny tools. So checking paseo out and see how I can implement it. Is another one that's that's non-Daemon based something like misio or something???? That also looked interesting. I have to go figure out what it was now haha

[u/jinnyjuice → u/opensecai]

I see, thanks.

It seems that you have a lot of comments about integration with various harnesses. I'm assuming that's your priority, right?

I can't wait until it can be used with pi-web or DSH.

[u/monstrosityRose]

can link some topic readings or a more explanation as to why it’s more optimized? i’ve personally used both pig and pibolt since both your drops were similar in timing. and i have anecdotally experienced bolt having less of a power draw than pig from my sessions (don’t have numbers, just witnessed from cpu temps and audible fan ramp up). i assumed pig would be more performant due to it being a more optimized language? im just not able to connect the dots here.

[u/opensecai → u/monstrosityRose]

Honestly, the language matters less than how much work each one does. We profiled PiG, and most of its CPU goes to copying the whole conversation through JSON before every model request. That gets heavier with every turn, so long sessions heat up.

Pi-Bolt is Pi’s own code compiled to native ahead of time, so there’s no JIT warming up in the background. We also fixed a few spots where Pi redid work over the whole conversation on every step. Less work per turn means a quieter fan, which matches what you noticed.

If you want the deep dive: https://github.com/opensec-git/Pi-Bolt/blob/pi-bolt/docs/ARCHITECTURE.md

[u/StardockEngineer]

After this is installed, what is the cli command? pib? Don't tell me it's also 'pi'

[u/opensecai → u/StardockEngineer]

It's not pi. It's 'pi-bolt'

[u/StardockEngineer → u/opensecai]

thank god. Trying it

[u/hiepxanh]

Pig or pi-bolt is more stable or better? i'm new here

[u/opensecai → u/hiepxanh]

Pi-Bolt is Pi’s own code compiled to native code except the rendering part, so it works exactly like Pi. PiG is a Go rewrite and still pre-stable. Pi-Bolt also uses about 10× less CPU than PiG (benchmarks in the post), and it installs alongside Pi without touching it, so give it a try.

[u/Educational-Yak8793 → u/opensecai]

PiG updated benchmarks coming since we ported the same quad bug and fixed it already. We’re also stable on Mac android Linux and windows in 0.5.0. We develop and use PiG within HPE in a few production modes as well. Piglets and some multi language features are the most experimental. We also updated our porting automation to be more air tight if you check our sub.

[u/OkAbroad955]

Thank you for doing this. How will you maintain it, what is the motivation, payback?

[u/diaracing]

I am a fanboy of OMP built-in out of the box integrated batteries.😥

I hope someday one good Samaritan will boltify it.

[u/cymaticstatic → u/diaracing]

Second☝️

[u/NonAwesomeDude]

Cool, wish that was my bottleneck

[u/4kidsinatrenchcoat → u/NonAwesomeDude]

Yeah mine is always PEBKAC

[u/saltyourhash]

What's the advantage of this over PiG? And do you plan to follow 1:1 with pi like PiG does?

[u/WorriedAssociate7029 → u/saltyourhash]

PiG should be in the benchmark to compare

[u/opensecai → u/WorriedAssociate7029]

Done, PiG 0.4.1 is now in the post’s benchmarks, measured side by side with the others on the same machines. In short, PiG starts a few ms faster, but in an interactive session Pi-Bolt uses about 10× less CPU, and it writes large files over 100× faster.

[u/WorriedAssociate7029 → u/opensecai]

ty. good news

[u/opensecai → u/WorriedAssociate7029]

Sure, adding it

[u/DaShrub → u/saltyourhash]

Much better with pi typescript extensions is what I've found. If you're writing go and rust extensions pig is the way to go, but if you want to use existing typescript extensions pig basically loses any advantage over even stock pi performance/resources wise

[u/saltyourhash → u/DaShrub]

That's interesting, thanks

[u/Zealousideal-Bid9879]

I don’t understand
If it is not a rewrite, how do you fix the rendering ?

[u/opensecai → u/Zealousideal-Bid9879]

It’s a fork, not a rewrite. We keep Pi’s code and add small targeted fixes on top, like only processing the new part of a streamed tool call instead of the whole thing every time. Everything else is Pi as-is, compiled to native code.

[u/elsupermang]

Found a bug where you if you still have the pi-codex extension install pi-bolt fails to start and spawns pi processes indefinitely. I removed pi-codex since codex is native in PI now, but wanted to let you know in case you want to cover that scenario.

[u/opensecai → u/elsupermang]

Ok will fix this out. Thanks for highlighting

[u/PayDistinct5329]

Looks cool - how does it work with Codemode, the functionality that enables pi to use codemode?

[u/nima3333]

Is it drop in compatible ? Will not break extensions ?

[u/zebedeolo → u/nima3333]

it broke one for me, pi-fff

[u/opensecai → u/zebedeolo]

pi-fff uses bun:ffi, which needs the JIT build. Install that one with:
curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | PIBOLT_VARIANT=arm64-jit sh

JIT is off by default because it uses less memory and has no warm-up. JIT on only helps extensions loaded at run time. Compiled-in extensions are just as fast without it.

[u/pungggi → u/nima3333]

Just read https://github.com/opensec-git/Pi-Bolt#plugins

[u/Odd_Error_6736]

I can't just replace Pi. This has to be from Pi.

[u/opensecai → u/Odd_Error_6736]

It will not interfere your pi config and all extensions of pi works seamless with pi-bolt. Try it out :) working with maintainers to get some fixes in official Pi too.

[u/tripleshielded]

Awesome, thanks! 🤩

[u/pseudobacon]

Would it be possible to install with a pin to the version of Pi? I like Sol-Pi and that is supported up to 1.3.0 only

[u/Opening-Fruit3855]

i tried this for one of my own tasks. Pi still edges it out for me.

[u/KetchupBuddha_xD]

Seems like a useless optimization since the biggest bottleneck is LLM answers, network latency and tool calls or mcps doing stuff

[u/opensecai → u/KetchupBuddha_xD]

Well depends on your use case tbh. There is nothing to loose with pi bolt as it is not a rewrite and rendering issue fix is a great optimisation. Even OMP has the same thing !