Development

See AGENTS.md for additional guidelines.

git clone https://github.com/earendil-works/pi
cd pi
npm install
npm run build

Run from source:

/path/to/pi/pi-test.sh

The script can be run from any directory. Pi keeps the caller's current working directory.

The remote harness server/client integration is development-only. Run it from the repository with:

PI_EXPERIMENTAL=1 ./pi-test.sh server
PI_EXPERIMENTAL=1 ./pi-test.sh client

PI_SERVER_DIR overrides the server profile and socket directory (default: ~/.pi/server). PI_SERVER_ID selects the logical server ID when --server-id is omitted.

The client and experimental/plugin package subpaths resolve only under the source condition in a checkout. Their implementations and the server/client commands are excluded from npm packages and standalone binaries. pi-client, pi-protocol, and pi-server are development dependencies of coding-agent, not runtime dependencies. The local SDK and stdio RPC API are unchanged.

Configure via package.json:

{
  "piConfig": {
    "name": "pi",
    "configDir": ".pi"
  }
}

Change name, configDir, and bin field for your fork. Affects CLI banner, config paths, and environment variable names.

Three execution modes: npm install, standalone binary, tsx from source.

Always use src/config.ts for package assets:

import { getPackageDir, getThemeDir } from "./config.js";

Never use __dirname directly for package assets.

/debug (hidden) writes to ~/.pi/agent/pi-debug.log:

• Rendered TUI lines with ANSI codes
• Last messages sent to the LLM

./test.sh                         # Run non-LLM tests (no API keys needed)
npm test                          # Run all tests
npm test -- test/specific.test.ts # Run specific test

After building, run npm run check:package-install. It packs the public packages and installs only coding-agent as a direct dependency in a temporary directory outside the repository. Local tarball overrides select declared transitive dependencies without installing development-only packages. The check verifies SDK imports and CLI startup without credentials or model requests.

npm run check also checks runtime dependency declarations and rejects excluded development sources pulled into a package's build through imports.

packages/
  ai/           # LLM provider abstraction
  agent/        # Agent loop and message types  
  tui/          # Terminal UI components
  coding-agent/ # CLI and interactive mode