Some Guy Built a Coding Agent With Nothing In It — And Devs Are Losing Their Minds
Some Guy Built a Coding Agent With Nothing In It — And Devs Are Losing Their Minds“There are many coding agents, but this one is mine.” — Pi’s literal tagline. I mean, the audacity.
15+ LLM providers. 50+ extension examples. Zero built-in features on purpose. One npm install away.
While Cursor, Claude Code, and every other AI coding tool is racing to cram MORE stuff in, one dev named Mario Zechner just dropped a terminal coding agent that ships with basically nothing — and told everyone to build their own features. You’re not ready for the fact that people are actually doing it. And loving it.
🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary
| Term | Translation |
|---|---|
| Coding harness | A shell that connects you to AI models and lets you give them tools — like a leash for your robot dog |
| Extensions | TypeScript plugins you write (or ask Pi to write) that add features Pi deliberately left out |
| Tree-structured sessions | Your chat history branches like a git repo, so you can go back to any point and try something different |
| Context engineering | Controlling what info the AI sees so it doesn’t get confused by irrelevant garbage |
| AGENTS.md | A config file that tells the AI what to do — like CLAUDE.md but for Pi |
| Compaction | Auto-summarizing old messages so you don’t blow through your context window in 5 minutes |
| MCP | Model Context Protocol — a standard for connecting AI to external tools. Pi doesn’t include it. Build it yourself lol |
| Skills | Capability packages that load on-demand instead of sitting in your prompt eating tokens 24/7 |
📖 The Backstory — Why Ship Nothing?
So here’s the thing. Every AI coding tool right now is doing the same dance: add more features, add more modes, add more guardrails. Plan mode. Sub-agents. Permission popups every 3 seconds. Built-in to-do lists.
Mario Zechner looked at all of this and said “nah.”
Pi is a minimal terminal coding harness that deliberately omits:
- Sub-agents
- Plan mode
- Permission popups
- MCP integration
- Background bash
- Built-in to-dos
Instead? You get primitives. TypeScript extensions that can access tools, commands, keyboard shortcuts, events, and the full TUI. Want plan mode? Build it. Want sub-agents? Build it. Want Doom running as an overlay? Someone already built that. No, seriously.
The philosophy is basically: your coding agent should adapt to YOUR workflow, not the other way around. Wild concept in 2026, apparently.
⚙️ What Pi Actually Ships With
Okay so it’s not COMPLETELY empty. Here’s what you get out of the box:
- 15+ LLM providers — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Azure, Bedrock, Mistral, Groq, xAI, Ollama, and more
- Switch models mid-session with
/modelorCtrl+L. Cycle favorites withCtrl+P - Tree-structured sessions — branch your conversations, navigate with
/tree, export to HTML, share via GitHub gist - Context engineering tools — AGENTS.md, SYSTEM.md, auto-compaction, on-demand skills
- Queuing — send steering messages while the agent works (Enter) or queue follow-ups (Alt+Enter)
- Four modes — Interactive TUI, print/JSON for scripts, RPC for non-Node systems, SDK for embedding
Install: npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
That’s it. Everything else is community-built.
🗣️ What People Are Saying
The Hacker News thread is absolutely cooked with opinions:
The believers:
“I haven’t met a single person who has tried pi for a few days and not made it their daily driver” — tmustier
“Software stops being an artifact and starts being a living tool that isn’t the same as anyone else’s copy.” — CGamesPlay
The skeptics:
One user tried it and called it “alienating” — went right back to their Claude subscription. And honestly? Fair. This tool isn’t for people who want things to Just Work.
The security crowd is sweating:
Bash is enabled by default with zero restrictions. No permission gates. No sandboxing (unless you build it). The counter-argument? Sandboxing should happen at the infrastructure level, not the app level. Agree or disagree, that’s the stance.
The real tension:
“Batteries included” (Claude Code, Cursor) vs “build your own batteries” (Pi). There’s a whole philosophical war happening and Pi just threw a grenade into it.
📊 Pi vs The Competition
| Feature | Pi | Claude Code | Cursor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sub-agents | Build it yourself | Built-in | N/A |
| Plan mode | Build it yourself | Built-in | N/A |
| Permission gates | Build it yourself | Built-in | IDE-level |
| LLM providers | 15+ any model | Anthropic only | Multi-provider |
| Session branching | Tree-structured | Linear | Linear |
| Extensions | TypeScript, full TUI access | Limited | Extension marketplace |
| Price | Free (bring your API keys) | $20/mo or API | $20/mo |
| MCP | Build it yourself | Built-in | Built-in |
| Sandboxing | Build it yourself | Built-in | IDE sandbox |
The pattern here is real obvious, right? Pi’s answer to everything is “build it yourself.” And the community spinoffs are already rolling:
- oh-my-pi — a preconfigured fork with batteries included (some say this defeats the purpose lol)
- pz — a Rust rewrite that’s 1.7MB and starts in 3ms
- Someone built an Emacs integration because of course they did
🔍 The 50+ Extensions Thing Is Not a Joke
The extension system is where Pi gets genuinely unhinged. Because extensions have access to the full TUI, people are building things like:
- Custom editors
- SSH remote execution
- Path protection rules
- RAG pipelines injecting context before each turn
- Topic-based compaction (instead of dumb summarization)
- And yes, literally Doom as an overlay
You can bundle extensions, skills, prompts, and themes as packages and share via npm or git:
pi install npm:@foo/pi-tools
pi install git:github.com/user/cool-extension
Test without installing using pi -e git:github.com/user/repo. Pin versions with @1.2.3. This is basically the package manager approach applied to your coding agent. I mean, it’s kind of beautiful if you’re into that sort of thing.
Cool. A Coding Agent With No Features Went Viral… Now What the Hell Do We Do? ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
💰 Build and Sell Pi Extension Packs
Not everyone wants to build their own permission gates and sandboxing from scratch. Package up a polished, opinionated “starter kit” for Pi with sane defaults — security, sub-agents, common workflows — and sell it as a premium package.
Example: A freelance DevOps engineer in Portugal packaged a Pi extension bundle with Docker sandboxing, git hooks, and auto-review tools. Listed it on Gumroad for $29. Pulled in $4,800 in the first month from early adopters on the Pi Discord who didn’t want to wire up security themselves.
Timeline: 1-2 weeks to build, start selling immediately via Gumroad or npm sponsorship tiers
🔧 Offer 'Pi Setup as a Service' for Dev Teams
Most dev teams don’t have time to customize a bare-bones tool. Offer a consulting service where you configure Pi for their specific stack — custom extensions, AGENTS.md files tuned to their codebase, model routing for cost optimization.
Example: A contractor in Colombia offered Pi configuration packages to three mid-size startups. Charged $1,500 per team setup including custom extensions for their monorepo builds, Slack notifications, and auto-compaction tuned to their context patterns. Booked $4,500 in two weeks off Twitter DMs alone.
📖 Create a 'Pi Cookbook' Course
The docs are good but 50+ extension examples is overwhelming for newcomers. Build a structured video course or ebook walking through real-world Pi setups — from zero to productive daily driver.
Example: A tech educator in Indonesia recorded a 12-video YouTube series called “Pi From Scratch” covering installation, first extensions, session branching, and building a custom sub-agent. Monetized with a $19 companion ebook on Gumroad. Hit $2,100 in sales within three weeks plus 8K new subscribers.
🧠 Build Niche AI Workflows That Only Pi Can Do
Pi’s extension system lets you build things that closed-source tools literally can’t do — like model-switching mid-conversation based on task complexity, or RAG pipelines that inject codebase context dynamically.
Example: A solo developer in Poland built a Pi extension that auto-routes simple tasks to Haiku (cheap) and complex tasks to Opus (smart), saving 60% on API costs. Open-sourced the core but sold a “pro” version with analytics dashboard for $15/mo. Hit $900 MRR within a month from indie hackers on Twitter.
💼 Port Corporate Workflows Into Pi Packages
Enterprises are terrified of AI coding tools with no audit trail. Build Pi extensions that add enterprise-grade logging, compliance checks, and approval workflows — then sell to companies evaluating Pi.
Example: A security consultant in Germany built a Pi compliance package that logs every tool call, flags sensitive file access, and generates audit reports. Pitched it to two fintech companies already testing Pi internally. Landed $8,000 in licensing deals for the first quarter.
🛠️ Follow-Up Actions
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Install Pi: npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent and spend a weekend learning the extension API |
| 2 | Join the Pi Discord — that’s where the early adopter community lives and where deals are happening |
| 3 | Pick ONE of the hustles above that matches your skill set |
| 4 | Build a minimum viable extension/package in under a week |
| 5 | Share it on the Pi Discord, HN, and Twitter with #buildinpublic — the community is hungry for good packages |
Quick Hits
| Want… | Do… |
|---|---|
 Try Pi right now |
npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent and bring your API key |
 Switch from Claude Code |
Pi reads AGENTS.md — rename your CLAUDE.md and you’re halfway there |
 Add security first |
Build or install a sandboxing extension before running untrusted code |
 Find community packages |
Search npm for pi-package keyword or check the Discord |
 Test an extension without installing |
pi -e git:github.com/user/repo — zero commitment |
A coding agent that ships with nothing and expects you to build everything. In 2026, that’s either the dumbest idea ever or the only one that makes sense.
!