--- title: JetBrains Built an IDE Around the Pi Coding Agent... description: ThinkRail is a free, open-source agentic IDE built on top of the Pi coding agent, released under the Apache 2 license. It adds a graphical web and desktop UI,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-built-an-ide-around-the-pi-coding-agent-thinkrail--eevnd9m6v twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: JetBrains Built an IDE Around the Pi Coding Agent (ThinkRail) | daily.dev og:description: ThinkRail is a free, open-source agentic IDE built on top of the Pi coding agent, released under the Apache 2 license. It adds a graphical web and desktop UI,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-built-an-ide-around-the-pi-coding-agent-thinkrail--eevnd9m6v og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/eevNd9M6V.png og:image:alt: JetBrains Built an IDE Around the Pi Coding Agent (ThinkRail) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # JetBrains Built an IDE Around the Pi Coding Agent (ThinkRail) **[NeuralNine](https://daily.dev/sources/neuralnine)** · 16 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary ThinkRail is a free, open-source agentic IDE built on top of the Pi coding agent, released under the Apache 2 license. It adds a graphical web and desktop UI, a Monaco-based code editor, and 'workspaces' that use Git worktrees so you can run multiple agent sessions on separate branches in parallel. It also supports spec-driven development, where goal, architecture and spec markdown files guide the agent instead of ad hoc prompting. Because it builds on Pi, it automatically inherits your existing Pi settings, skills and permission configuration. The project is part of the JetBrains Innovation Hub, and this video is a sponsored integration. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is ThinkRail and how does it relate to the Pi coding agent? ThinkRail is a free, open-source agentic IDE built on top of the Pi coding agent, adding a graphical web and desktop UI, a Monaco code editor, and workspace management. Because it is built on Pi, it automatically picks up existing Pi settings, skills, and permission configuration, such as an OpenCode Go API key already configured in Pi. It is released under the Apache 2 license and is part of the JetBrains Innovation Hub. _Developers evaluating agentic IDEs track how new tools extend existing agents like Pi on daily.dev._ ### How do workspaces in ThinkRail let you work on multiple features at once? Workspaces in ThinkRail use Git worktrees to check out multiple branches of the same repository simultaneously, each running its own agent session. You create a new isolated workspace from a branch like origin main, assign it a task and a model (for example DeepSeek V4.1 Flash with high reasoning), and the agent works on that branch independently of main and other workspaces, so changes can later be merged together. _Teams running parallel AI coding agents can compare worktree-based workflows like this on daily.dev._ ### What is spec-driven development in ThinkRail? Spec-driven development in ThinkRail means defining what the software should do in markdown specification files, such as goal and requirements, architecture, and front-end specs, rather than just prompting the agent directly. ThinkRail recognizes these nested spec files automatically without needing a separate agents.md file, displays them in a sidebar, and lets you tell the agent to 'implement the specs' so it builds and verifies against each claim. _Developers weighing spec-first agent workflows versus freeform prompting can dig deeper on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [JetBrains Air lands on Windows](https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-air-lands-on-windows-djngfqegv) · JetBrains · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Introducing Copilot CLI and agentic capabilities enhancements in JetBrains IDEs](https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-copilot-cli-and-agentic-capabilities-enhancements-in-jetbrains-ides-fhajsuozv) · GitHub Changelog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [JetBrains launches Air and Junie CLI for AI-assisted development](https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-launches-air-and-junie-cli-for-ai-assisted-development-ftgcpbnsa) · InfoWorld · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#git](https://daily.dev/tags/git), [#spec-driven-development](https://daily.dev/tags/spec-driven-development) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-built-an-ide-around-the-pi-coding-agent-thinkrail--eevnd9m6v) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"JetBrains Built an IDE Around the Pi Coding Agent (ThinkRail)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-built-an-ide-around-the-pi-coding-agent-thinkrail--eevnd9m6v","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/jetbrains-built-an-ide-around-the-pi-coding-agent-thinkrail--eevnd9m6v"},"datePublished":"2026-10-23T16:22:21.664Z","dateModified":"2026-10-23T16:22:49.047Z","description":"ThinkRail is a free, open-source agentic IDE built on top of the Pi coding agent, released under the Apache 2 license. 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