Pi-mono: Claude Code Alternative AI Coding Agent 5.9k stars

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pi-mono: Create Your Own AI Coding Agent in Your Terminal

  • GitHub Stars: 5.9k
  • Language: TypeScript 96.5%
  • License: MIT

Why This Project Is Popping Up

One developer felt that Claude Code had become too complex. Mario Zechner experimented with LLM coding tools for 3 years and eventually decided to create his own. [Mario Zechner]

pi-mono is an AI agent toolkit created with the philosophy of “don’t build it unless you need it.” It starts with a 1000-token system prompt and 4 core tools (read, write, edit, bash). This is very lightweight compared to Claude Code’s thousands of tokens prompt. Is there even one?

  • Integrated LLM API: Use 15+ providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Azure, Mistral, Groq from a single interface
  • Coding Agent CLI: Write, test, and debug code interactively in your terminal
  • Session Management: Interrupt and resume tasks, and branch like git
  • Slack bot: Delegate Slack messages to a coding agent
  • vLLM pod management: Deploy and manage your own models on GPU pods
  • TUI/Web UI library: Create your own AI chat interface

Quick Start

# Install
npm install @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent

# run
npx pi

# or build from source
git clone https://github.com/badlogic/pi-mono
cd pi-mono
npm install && npm run build
./pi-test.sh

Where Can I Use It?

If Claude Code’s ₩200,000 per month is burdensome, and you work primarily in the terminal, pi can be an alternative. This is because you only pay for API costs.

If you want to use a self-hosted LLM but existing tools don’t support it well, pi is the answer. It even has built-in vLLM pod management.

Personally, I think “transparency” is the biggest advantage. Claude Code performs tasks by running invisible sub-agents internally. With pi, you can directly see all model interactions.

Things to Note

  • Minimalism is the philosophy. MCP (Model Context Protocol) support is intentionally omitted.
  • Full access, called “YOLO mode,” is the default. Be careful because permission checks are looser than Claude Code.
  • Documentation is still lacking. Read the AGENTS.md file carefully.

Similar projects

Aider: Also an open-source terminal coding tool. It is similar in that it is model-agnostic, but pi covers a wider range (UI library, pod management, etc.). [AIMultiple]

Claude Code: Has more features, but requires a monthly subscription and has limited customization. pi allows you to freely add features through TypeScript extensions. [Northflank]

Cursor: An AI form integrated into the IDE. If you prefer a GUI over a terminal, Cursor is better.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Is it free to use?

A: pi is completely free under the MIT license. However, if you use external LLM APIs such as OpenAI or Anthropic, you will incur those costs. If you use Ollama or a self-hosted vLLM locally, you can use it without API costs.

Q: Is the performance good enough to use instead of Claude Code?

A: In the Terminal-Bench 2.0 benchmark, pi using Claude Opus 4.5 showed competitive results with Codex, Cursor, and Windsurf. This proves that the minimalist approach does not cause performance degradation.

Q: Is Korean supported?

A: The UI is in English, but if the LLM you connect to supports Korean, you can communicate and code in Korean. You can connect Claude or GPT-4 to write code with Korean prompts.

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References

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