Pi is positioned as a "minimal agent harness." The development team stated that they are focusing on allowing users to adapt Pi to their own specific workflows.
Features such as sub-agents and plan modes have been intentionally omitted, with a design that allows users to build and add these functions themselves as needed. It is reported that users can give instructions to Pi to implement features, then reload and continue using them immediately.
The system prompt is kept minimal to improve token efficiency. By incorporating AGENTS.md files, skills, and prompt templates, users can exercise fine-grained control over context window management.
Pi supports numerous providers, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, and allows users to switch models during a session. Sessions are saved in a tree structure, featuring the ability to branch off from any past message to continue work.
Sources: Pi – A minimal terminal coding harness (HN 608pt, 306 comments) (HN Search (backfill), 2026-02-25)