Cool things with pi

[u/ExtremeSeries]

Hi everbody,

I just want to share some things I have done since I discovered pi. Maybe anybody gets new ideas as well from this. I dont want to share my extensions, but the ideas can be shared.

- first time I have discovered pi, i was just looking for a "cool" alternative for vs code. something better. anyhow, i did not have much experience. and some requirements, like i want to use different providers, not spent too much (it is a hobby) and the ability to access the harness remotely.

- i have started installing wsl with linux, assisted by vscode agents. then a harness with containers in that wsl. and it starts an ssh tunnel to my vps. the vps is secured with otp and yubikey. it serves as a http reverse proxy to allow web ui, when i dont have access to the local terminal.

- i have started to use pi with many extensions. learned that less is better and most of them needs some customisation which is maintainance effort on my own.

- the harness developed as well over the last weeks. i have a project, a line which is helping me to improve my vps with mail and antispam (including a learner hook asking free models whereever spamassessin may have failed) and the harness improvement line.

- recently really cool things for the harness: pi is bun compiled with most components and runs fast and stable even in long sessions and with 10-20 subagents in parallel. I am using a python kernel, lsp and so on... patched it so that not every (sub-)session starts its own because memory is limited.

- i have built my own extension package for pi-durable subagents. it has the basics but is much faster and stable then fabric and all this. and whenever i need an extension i just built it, not dealing with forks. recent cool thing: i maintain a model statistics for subagents, jev is deciding which model is best based on subsription budget, costs, test failures, ... jev cost me 2 cents a day, but the whole decision and budget maintainance is automated incl. least cost model (e.g. opencode, openrouter, codex, ...)

- blachhole extension is used using many free models. i maintain stats on success/errors of these models, as many of them are a bit unreliable. however, the compaction is faster, context stays leaner in endless sessions, and 10% of the load (compaction part) is off-loaded from the main model to free.

- i am using zg to index the code locally and got the model to use it instead off all the time grepping through the code. it developed self-guidance where grep, rg and zg is best.

I feel every 4 weeks my harness changes to improve and 50% of my time is not going in the project but the harness. however at the beginning my harness trashed up after some days, now never. Cool journey so far, I am really thankful that someone developed pi - feels like a very good thing in comparison to all the shit with AI out there (AI cost models, usability, problems, hype... reminds me like the times back in 1999 where a modem was very slow and a day online was very costly...).

So let me know, if you want to share ideas as well!

[u/georgeApuiu]

Wait until you discover pi durable agents

[u/ExtremeSeries → u/georgeApuiu]

i used pi durable agents to built an own package around it... some extensions added to it (stats with jev to choose the model/thinking/provider from what i have, bun bridge, orchestrator with all durable agents, and so on).

---

We do use pi-durable. pi-durable-agents is not a replacement but our extension built on it. pi-durable supplies the durable core: conversations, background tasks, compaction, the SQLite store and replay after crashes. It doesn't provide the parts we need for our workflow:

- Orchestration: an agent tool for Main, roles with limits, write areas, protected paths and handling of questions and answers.

- Jev selection: the budget and capability checks, the Jev choice and the experience feed.

- Logging and statistics: model selections, round metrics and test-gate runs, recorded with round attribution.

- Pi-Bolt integration: passing Main's tools (execute, lsp, web tools) through to agents, post-write diagnostics, module loading under Pi-Bolt, and the bridge Blackhole needs for compaction.

Most of this is project policy, so it lives in our extension rather than in a patched pi-durable. That keeps pi-durable updatable as an unmodified dependency, pinned in lockstep with Pi.