Pi Agent – Crash Course | Minimal Coding Agent
Pi Agent is a lightweight terminal harness that gives you a powerful coding assistant without the bloat. Unlike traditional agents with built-in sub-agents, plan modes, and permission popups, Pi starts with just four tools: read, write, edit, and bash. You build the features you need. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to customize Pi with your favorite models (HuggingFace, OpenAI, Anthropic subscriptions, GitHub Copilot), create custom prompt templates, load skills, design themes, and build extensions directly by asking Pi to write them. See how to add permission guards for dangerous commands, create welcome messages, and navigate sessions with tree-based history. By the end, you'll have Pi running on your machine, editing real code, and understanding why "minimalist" doesn't mean "limited." --- 🤓 Topics Covered - Pi Agent installation and core philosophy - Model switching and provider configuration - Custom prompts, skills, and themes - Building extensions with TypeScript - Session management and export --- ⏱️ Timestamps 0:00 - Introduction 0:51 - What is Pi Agent 3:46 - Switching Models 5:28 - Custom Prompts 8:05 - Skills 11:26 - Themes 13:17 - Context Files 15:13 - Extensions 20:32 - Packages 22:02 - Sessions 25:54 - Conclusion --- Connect with me X: https://x.com/_alejandroao LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-ao/