---
title: "Pi"
url: https://perrotta.dev/2025/12/pi/
last_updated: 2026-02-16
---


Mario Zechner's pi ([via Peter Steinberger](https://steipete.me/posts/2025/signature-flicker)):

> Mario Zechner's pi is currently the gold-standard for differential rendering,
> while also using all tricks of modern terminals — including showing inline
> images:

This paragraph was enough to entice my curiosity to try it out.

https://shittycodingagent.ai/:

> There are many shitty coding agents, but this one is mine.

> **Features**
>
> Minimal. Opinionated. Extensible.
>
> Lean core keeps your context clean. Use only what you need.

This was love at first sight.

Sounds [familiar](https://miniflux.app/)?

I love its philosophy:

> What we didn't build
>
> pi is opinionated about what it won't do. These are intentional design
> decisions to minimize context bloat and avoid anti-patterns.
>
> — No MCP. Build CLI tools with READMEs (see Skills). The agent reads them on demand. Would you like to know more? If you must, use mcporter.
> — No sub-agents. Spawn pi instances via tmux, or build your own sub-agent tool. Observability and steerability for you and the agent.
> — No permission popups. Security theater. Run in a container or build your own with Hooks.
> — No plan mode. Gather context in one session, write plans to file, start fresh for implementation.
> — No built-in to-dos. They confuse models. Use a TODO.md file, or build your own with custom tools.
> — No background bash. Use tmux. Full observability, direct interaction.

The full rationale is in the [blog
post](https://mariozechner.at/posts/2025-11-30-pi-coding-agent/), which is a
very recommended read.

We need more of this. It is currently one of my favorite CLI agents, alongside
Claude Code (the golden standard) and Amp Code.

Note that `pi` is model agnostic, comparable to
[OpenCode](https://opencode.ai/).