When people talk about Pi, one word always comes up.
Minimal.
That was exactly why I wanted to try it.
I like simple tools. Not just coding harnesses, but almost everything I use. If a tool does one thing well without adding extra features, I usually prefer it.
At that time, my daily setup was Antigravity CLI.
Before that, I had used OpenCode for months. I liked it, but over time I started to feel the TUI was a little too much for me. Antigravity felt closer to what I wanted, so I switched and used it as my main coding harness.
Then Pi appeared on my radar.
Another reason made the timing even better. I realized that for about the same monthly cost I was paying for Google, I could access more advanced models like GPT. Since I was planning to change providers anyway, I decided it was a good time to try a different harness too.
So I installed Pi.
Pi terminal UI, from pi.dev.
My First Impression
Honestly, the first few days were rough.
People said Pi was minimal.
They were right.
Maybe a little too right.
Features I used every day were simply not there.
- No subagents.
- No todo list.
- No confirmation popup before running commands.
- Not even built-in web search.
After using OpenCode and Antigravity for months, those features had become part of my workflow. I wasn’t just learning a new tool. I was missing tools I depended on every day.
For the first time, I started wondering if Pi was actually too minimal for me.
Looking for Missing Pieces
Then I learned something important.
Pi was never trying to include everything.
Instead, it expects you to build the workflow you want.
Packages are a big part of that idea. They are similar to plugins. If you need something, there is a good chance someone has already built it.
So I started searching.
I found packages for the features I wanted.
But finding the right package took much longer than I expected.
For something as simple as subagents, there were multiple packages to choose from. Each one had different ideas, different documentation, and slightly different workflows.
I spent hours reading instructions, installing packages, removing them again, and trying another one.
Eventually I found what worked for me, but the process was not fun.
I shared some of that experience in my previous post comparing Pi and OMP.
That’s When I Left
After spending so much time searching and testing packages, I got tired.
Then I found OMP.
It looked much easier.
It already included most of the features I wanted.
No searching.
No comparing packages.
No wondering which extension I should install.
Everything was ready.
So I switched.
If you have read this far, you are probably thinking something.
“Didn’t you say you like simple tools?”
You’re right.
Looking back, I think I confused simple with complete.
I wanted Pi to behave like Antigravity or OpenCode on day one.
That wasn’t Pi’s goal.
I was judging Pi using someone else’s philosophy.
Why I Came Back
After spending more time with OMP, I wrote my comparison between Pi and OMP.
At that time, I even said I would probably come back to Pi.
And I did.
Not because Pi suddenly had more features.
Not because OMP became worse.
Because I finally understood what Pi was trying to be.
Pi isn’t a coding harness that comes with every feature.
It is a coding harness that expects you to build your own.
That sounds like extra work.
And at first, it is.
But once I accepted that mindset, everything started to make more sense.
Today
Today, Pi has become my daily coding harness.
It has been around three or four weeks now.
During that time, I created two custom extensions.
I modified the sample extensions to match my workflow.
I adjusted the system prompt.
The Pi I’m using today is not exactly the same Pi I installed on the first day.
More importantly, I’m not the same user either.
When I first tried Pi, I thought it was missing features.
Now I see that it was giving me a foundation instead of a finished product.
That change didn’t happen in one day.
It took frustration.
It took switching away.
It took coming back.
And I think that’s exactly why I understand Pi much better today.
In the next post, I’ll show what I actually changed, why I created my own extensions, and how I turned Pi into the coding harness that fits my daily workflow.