--- title: Pi Coding Agent is now my absolute favorite... | daily.dev description: Pi is a minimal, highly customizable coding agent harness designed for developers who prefer a do-it-yourself approach. Unlike OpenCode which comes fully... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/pi-coding-agent-is-now-my-absolute-favorite--yxzsptoyy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Pi Coding Agent is now my absolute favorite... | daily.dev og:description: Pi is a minimal, highly customizable coding agent harness designed for developers who prefer a do-it-yourself approach. Unlike OpenCode which comes fully... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/pi-coding-agent-is-now-my-absolute-favorite--yxzsptoyy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/yXZsPtOYY.png og:image:alt: Pi Coding Agent is now my absolute favorite... 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. # Pi Coding Agent is now my absolute favorite... **[NeuralNine](https://daily.dev/sources/neuralnine)** · 13 min read · 2 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Pi is a minimal, highly customizable coding agent harness designed for developers who prefer a do-it-yourself approach. Unlike OpenCode which comes fully configured out of the box, Pi starts with just a chat interface and file editing capability — everything else (permissions, undo/redo, web search) must be added via extensions installed from npm or GitHub. The walkthrough covers installation, connecting to an API provider, setting up a permissions config file, and installing three extensions: pi-permission-system, pi-undo-redo, and pi-web-access. Pi is positioned as ideal for running open-weight models like GLM 5.2 and Kimi K3 with a lightweight, composable setup. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the difference between the Pi coding agent and Open Code? Pi is a minimal, unopinionated agent harness with no built-in features beyond a basic chat interface that edits files, requiring extensions installed via npm for permissions, undo/redo, or web search. Open Code is a fully-featured, opinionated coding agent that comes with MCP, to-dos, LSP, and undo/redo built in, comparable to Neovim versus VS Code in philosophy. _Developers weighing a build-your-own agent setup against a ready-made one can compare tradeoffs like this on daily.dev._ ### Does the Pi coding agent ask for permission before running commands by default? No, out of the box Pi executes commands like running a Python script without asking for approval first, which can be dangerous. Adding permission prompts requires installing a separate extension called pi-permission-system via npm and configuring a permissions.json file that sets ask/allow policies for tools, bash commands, MCP, and skills. _Anyone hardening an AI coding agent's default behavior can track setup details like this on daily.dev._ ### How do you add undo and redo functionality to the Pi coding agent? Undo and redo are not built into Pi by default and require installing the pi-undo-redo npm extension. Once installed, typing undo or redo in a session reverts or restores file changes made by Pi's write/edit tools, though in non-git mode it only restores files explicitly touched by those tools, not changes from shell commands. _Developers customizing a minimal coding agent piece by piece can keep track of extensions like this via daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@agustinbarrientos** · 0 upvotes > I'd install the permission extension before giving Pi a real repository. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Alternative Coding Agents: Pi](https://daily.dev/posts/alternative-coding-agents-pi-isvyl3rz6) · Scott Logic · 15 upvotes · 0 comments - [pi.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/pi-dev-m8ldx0c1j) · Hacker News · 14 upvotes · 0 comments - [My favorite AI coding tool isn't OpenCode: it's something way better \(and cooler\)](https://daily.dev/posts/my-favorite-ai-coding-tool-isn-t-opencode-it-s-something-way-better-and-cooler--mhoh5tl9y) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#opencode](https://daily.dev/tags/opencode) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/pi-coding-agent-is-now-my-absolute-favorite--yxzsptoyy) ```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":"Pi Coding Agent is now my absolute favorite...","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/pi-coding-agent-is-now-my-absolute-favorite--yxzsptoyy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/pi-coding-agent-is-now-my-absolute-favorite--yxzsptoyy"},"datePublished":"2026-07-20T14:19:02.011Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:04:08.051Z","description":"Pi is a minimal, highly customizable coding agent harness designed for developers who prefer a do-it-yourself approach. 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