pi-kimi-coder

A pi extension that adds the Kimi K2 Coding Plan as a provider. Use Moonshot AI's kimi-for-coding (K2.6) model directly inside pi with full tool use, extended thinking, and image support.

What is the K2 Coding Plan? Moonshot AI offers a subscription plan that gives unlimited (fair-use) access to their flagship coding model through api.kimi.com/coding/v1. This is different from the pay-per-token Open Platform at api.moonshot.ai.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Authentication
  • Option A: Already using kimi-cli (recommended)
  • Option B: Login through pi
  • Option C: Environment variable
• Usage
• Models
• How It Works
  • Architecture
  • Token Lifecycle
  • Credential Sharing
• Configuration
• Comparison with pi-moonshot
• Troubleshooting
• Development
• License

Features

• Zero-config if you use kimi-cli — existing credentials are automatically imported
• OAuth device flow — browser-based login via /login kimi-coder, no API keys to copy
• Automatic token refresh — tokens are refreshed on session start and every 10 minutes during long sessions
• Bidirectional credential sharing — tokens stay in sync between pi and kimi-cli
• Extended thinking — full reasoning/chain-of-thought support via the zai thinking format
• Image input — send images to the model for analysis
• 262K context window — large context for working with entire codebases
• Three model options — kimi-for-coding (stable alias), kimi-k2.6 (direct), and kimi-k2-thinking (deep reasoning)
• $0 cost tracking — subscription plan, so no per-token costs to track

Prerequisites

• pi (v0.50.0+)
• A Kimi K2 Coding Plan subscription — sign up at kimi.com
• kimi-cli (optional but recommended) — uv tool install kimi-cli or pip install kimi-cli

Installation

From npm (recommended)

pi install npm:pi-kimi-coder

Try without installing

pi -e npm:pi-kimi-coder

From GitHub

pi install git:github.com/picassio/pi-kimi-coder

Install to a specific project only

pi install -l npm:pi-kimi-coder

Authentication

The extension supports three authentication methods, in order of convenience.

Option A: Already using kimi-cli (recommended)

If you have kimi-cli installed and logged in, no extra setup is needed. The extension reads your credentials directly from ~/.kimi/credentials/kimi-code.json.

# If you haven't logged in yet:
kimi-cli login

# Then just start pi — credentials are picked up automatically
pi --provider kimi-coder --model kimi-for-coding

You'll see a notification: "Kimi Coder: using kimi-cli credentials".

Option B: Login through pi

Use pi's built-in OAuth device flow. No kimi-cli required.

pi
/login kimi-coder

This will:

1. Open your browser to Kimi's authorization page
2. Show a device code in the terminal
3. After you approve, tokens are saved for both pi and kimi-cli

Option C: Environment variable

If you have an API access token (e.g. from the Moonshot Open Platform), set it directly:

export KIMI_CODER_API_KEY="your-token-here"
pi --provider kimi-coder --model kimi-for-coding

Or add it to ~/.pi/agent/settings.json:

{
  "apiKeys": {
    "KIMI_CODER_API_KEY": "your-token-here"
  }
}

Note: Tokens from the Coding Plan are short-lived OAuth tokens. For persistent access without kimi-cli, use Option B.

Usage

Start pi with Kimi Coder

pi --provider kimi-coder --model kimi-for-coding

Switch to Kimi Coder inside an existing session

/model kimi-coder/kimi-for-coding

Set as default model

Add to ~/.pi/agent/settings.json:

{
  "defaultProvider": "kimi-coder",
  "defaultModel": "kimi-for-coding"
}

One-shot (print mode)

pi --provider kimi-coder --model kimi-for-coding -p "explain this error" < error.log

Control thinking level

# Inside pi
/thinking high

# Or via CLI
pi --provider kimi-coder --model kimi-for-coding --thinking high -p "refactor this function"

Models

Model ID	Display Name	Context	Reasoning	Image	Description
kimi-for-coding	Kimi for Coding (K2.6)	262K	✅	✅	Stable alias, coding-optimized, default for Coding Plan
kimi-k2.6	Kimi K2.6	262K	✅	✅	Direct K2.6 access, Moonshot's latest flagship
kimi-k2-thinking	Kimi K2 Thinking	262K	✅	✅	Deep reasoning mode for complex multi-step problems

All models:

• Use the zai thinking format (extended reasoning via reasoning_content in streamed responses)
• Support text and image inputs
• Have a 262,144 token context window
• Output up to 32,768 tokens per response
• Costs show as $0 (subscription plan — unlimited fair-use)

How It Works

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  pi                                          │
│                                              │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  pi-kimi-coder extension               │  │
│  │                                        │  │
│  │  • Registers "kimi-coder" provider     │  │
│  │  • Auto-imports kimi-cli tokens        │  │
│  │  • Handles OAuth device flow           │  │
│  │  • Refreshes tokens in background      │  │
│  └──────────────┬─────────────────────────┘  │
│                 │                             │
│  ┌──────────────▼─────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  openai-completions API adapter        │  │
│  │  (built into pi)                       │  │
│  └──────────────┬─────────────────────────┘  │
│                 │                             │
└─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┘
                  │  HTTPS + SSE streaming
                  │  Authorization: Bearer <token>
                  │  User-Agent: KimiCLI/1.5
                  ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  https://api.kimi.com/coding/v1              │
│  (Kimi K2 Coding Plan API)                   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Token Lifecycle

Extension loads
  │
  ├─ Read ~/.kimi/credentials/kimi-code.json
  │   └─ Found? → Set KIMI_CODER_API_KEY env var
  │
  ├─ Seed ~/.pi/agent/auth.json (for OAuth refresh)
  │
  ├─ Register "kimi-coder" provider with pi
  │
  └─ Session starts
      │
      ├─ Token < 5 min remaining?
      │   └─ Yes → Refresh via https://auth.kimi.com
      │            Save to ~/.kimi/credentials/
      │            Update env var
      │
      └─ Start 10-minute refresh interval
          │
          └─ Every 10 min: check token, refresh if < 5 min left

Credential Sharing

Credentials are stored in two locations and kept in sync:

Location	Format	Used by
~/.kimi/credentials/kimi-code.json	{ access_token, refresh_token, expires_at, ... }	kimi-cli, pi-kimi-coder
~/.pi/agent/auth.json	{ type: "oauth", access, refresh, expires }	pi OAuth system

• When the extension starts, it reads from ~/.kimi/credentials/ → writes to ~/.pi/agent/auth.json
• When tokens are refreshed (by either tool), both files are updated
• kimi-cli and pi can run simultaneously without conflicts

Configuration

Extension settings in ~/.pi/agent/settings.json

The extension is listed under packages after installation:

{
  "packages": [
    "npm:pi-kimi-coder"
  ]
}

Custom API endpoint

If you're using a self-hosted or proxied Kimi API, set the base URL via environment variable:

export KIMI_CODE_BASE_URL="https://your-proxy.example.com/v1"

The extension uses https://api.kimi.com/coding/v1 by default.

Comparison with pi-moonshot

pi-moonshot is a separate extension for the Moonshot Open Platform (pay-per-token). Here's how they differ:

	pi-kimi-coder	pi-moonshot
API endpoint	api.kimi.com/coding/v1	api.moonshot.ai/v1
Authentication	OAuth device flow	API key (MOONSHOT_API_KEY)
Billing	Subscription (K2 Coding Plan)	Pay-per-token
Primary model	kimi-for-coding	kimi-k2.6
kimi-cli interop	✅ Shared credentials	❌
Token refresh	✅ Automatic	N/A (static key)
User-Agent header	✅ Required by API	Not needed
All Moonshot models	❌ Only coding models	✅ Legacy + new models

Which one should I use?

• K2 Coding Plan subscriber → pi-kimi-coder (this extension)
• Moonshot Open Platform user → pi-moonshot

You can install both simultaneously — they register different provider names (kimi-coder vs moonshot).

Troubleshooting

"401 The API Key appears to be invalid"

Your OAuth token has expired. Fix:

# If you have kimi-cli:
kimi-cli login

# Or via pi:
/login kimi-coder

"403 Kimi For Coding is currently only available for Coding Agents"

The API checks the User-Agent header. This extension sets it to KimiCLI/1.5 automatically. If you're seeing this error, ensure you're using the extension (not raw API calls).

"No API key found for kimi-coder"

No credentials were found anywhere. Solutions:

1. Login with kimi-cli first: kimi-cli login
2. Or login through pi: /login kimi-coder
3. Or set the env var: export KIMI_CODER_API_KEY="..."

Token expires during a long session

The extension automatically refreshes tokens every 10 minutes. If you see auth errors after a very long session:

/login kimi-coder

kimi-cli and pi show different login states

Delete stale credentials and re-login:

rm ~/.kimi/credentials/kimi-code.json
kimi-cli login
# pi will pick up the new credentials automatically on next start

Model not showing in /model selector

Ensure the extension is installed:

pi list

If pi-kimi-coder is not listed:

pi install npm:pi-kimi-coder

Development

Project structure

pi-kimi-coder/
├── extensions/
│   └── index.ts          # Extension entry point
├── package.json           # Pi package manifest
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

Key technical details

• API compatibility: Kimi's Coding API is OpenAI Chat Completions compatible, so this extension uses pi's built-in openai-completions adapter
• Thinking format: Uses "zai" — the API streams reasoning in reasoning_content delta fields (same format as DeepSeek/Qwen thinking)
• Auth flow: OAuth 2.0 Device Authorization Grant (RFC 8628) via https://auth.kimi.com
• Client ID: 17e5f671-d194-4dfb-9706-5516cb48c098 (Kimi Code's official client ID, shared with kimi-cli)
• User-Agent gating: The Coding API returns 403 unless User-Agent matches a known coding agent pattern

Testing locally

# Run pi with the extension from source (no install needed)
pi -e ./pi-kimi-coder

# Test in print mode
pi -e ./pi-kimi-coder --provider kimi-coder --model kimi-for-coding -p "hello"

Making changes

Edit extensions/index.ts directly — pi loads TypeScript via jiti, no build step needed. If installed, use /reload in pi to pick up changes.

License

MIT