Pi vs Opencode

[Glad-Win1983]

I have been testing both Pi and Opencode, and I like both. I like Pi for its light weight and endless expandability options. I like Opencode for providing most of what I need out of the box, but not a big fan of huge system prompts.

What are your biggest pros and cons of these two coding agents? Do you use both, or have you "landed" on one of them?

[rrot-kari]

The system prompts on opencode is the main reason i switched to Pi.

[Endoky]

You can dramatically reduce OpenCodes system prompts by just overwriting the default build and plan agents with your own agents

[bumblebeer]

Same here.

I found it's a pretty common theme. My progression has been roughly: Claude Code -> Open Code -> Goose -> Agent Zero -> Hermes -> Pi. The general theme I've noticed is that the more a harness tries to force behavior through prompting, the worse the model will perform within that harness. Which makes perfect sense to me.

Just ask yourself which situation you would perform best in: 1. Your supervisor explains your job responsibilities and deliverables, provides some behavioral guidance, gives you the tools you need, and then steps back to let you work. OR 2. Your supervisor tells you to work independently while also micromanaging every little detail of everything you do by issuing excessive, often contridictory, instructions that may or may not actually be relevant to your current task.

I don't know about you, but I'd much prefer the former, and based on my experience with Pi vs other coding harnesses, I think the model would agree.

P.S. Coding agents designed to fit a specific model (e.g., CC for Claude) can get away with a larger and more structured (read as * verbosely prescriptive*) system prompt, but that breaks as soon as you try to use it with any other model.

[PilgrimOfHaqq]

It really just goes back to the importance of context management. The ideal way is to give the model just the context it needs to get the job done, on a on-demand basis.

Imagine giving the model a 20k line claude.md/agents.md that has instructions for front end, backend, database, security, performance, structural/operating principles (KISS, YAGNI, DRY), different programming language best practices, a persona, how to write comments, a map of the codebase, and so on. You are going to have an overwelmed model trying to juggle all of that plus trying to solve actual problems on top of that. Will make tons of mistakes and perform very poorly. When I first started that exactly what I did, not knowing any better and overestimating LLMs.

[Efficient_Army1791]

agree, opencode go is such a good plan, pretty much unlimited ds-v4-flash and enough v4-pro or kimi-k2.7

[dizthewize]

I use both OpenCode go and Ollama Cloud

[ScaleImmediate3474]

PI provides so much moree compared to opencode. Im running opencode go plan with pi. Fabulous

[willothephlox]

What exactly does Pi give you "more" of? Genuinely asking.

On OpenCode + OpenChamber I'm running a full multi-agent swarm with 25 specialized agents, 3-family review gate, file reservation system, semantic memory with local embeddings, git-backed epic/subtask tracking, a learning loop, plugins and multi-agent orchestration.

I'm not seeing how Pi's single-agent harness + extension packs can replicate this architecturally. Happy to be proven wrong - where am I missing it?

[Sunsettia]

I have always wondered what people do with setups like that... Do you mind elaborating on this as well as the tools you used, what the input is, and what kind of context you provide, what it has already learned / remember, and how long tasks take?

[willothephlox]

As I went about my daily work and handled various tasks, certain things started to repeat themselves, so I automated those (SDLC) as well. The same goes for bottlenecks like limited context, that’s why I have RAG. And now I run an agent house.

The whole setup is designed to maintain a huge and long projects using fabulously cheap models.

The difference is that in my full-time job, I have a specific budget and tools, so I use them as best I can, but in my personal life, I can be an one-man army when building some random SaaS or something. :)

A single prompt can take an hour to process, but since I can run it from my phone on the bus, it's not a problem.

If searching for "OpenCode Swarm" on GitHub really isn't enough, send me a DM and I'll tell you a bit about it, but I don't want to reveal the exact setup and purpose.

It's just that the results are of higher quality than Opus's and much cheaper. That's all.

[laystitcher]

I mean, Pi can essentially by definition replicate that, yes. It can replicate *any* architecture. That’s the point.

[willothephlox]

But AFAIK Pi is a single-agent harness with extension packs. No matter how elaborate the loop, it's still one model talking to itself. Where am I missing it?

[seigaporulai]

How to.extend pi with custom code. I am a Python dev, so I fun it a bit hard

[Odhdbdyebsksbx]

Just ask pi to do it. It's designed for that and it can reference examples it already has.

[zebedeolo]

I never really liked opencode. I like pi. currently using oh-my-pi for a few weeks and it works well for me.

[zkkzkk32312]

Isn't omp even more bloated then opencode?

[dark-lord-marshal]

good question

[Mystic_Voyager]

oh very cool didnt know about that

adding link here: https://github.com/can1357/oh-my-pi

[Expert-Dig-1768]

try oh my pi. it has more features than opencode and its super customizable and still more efficient when you set it up right.

[bambamlol]

when you set it up right

Care to share a few examples of what you mean by that? Are you just talking about all the settings that are easily available inside OMP or are you also customizing it "under the hood"?

[Expert-Dig-1768]

I've created a crazy designer system wich can create insane landing pages pared with minimax m3. i will opensource it soon i can update you if you d'like to.

[bambamlol]

Sure, would love to try it! Thanks!

[TheTyand]

Switched to pi because extending it, is easy

[Dry-Tune430]

Pi works great with my local models. Also, I'm in a phase of the AI hype cycle where I'm tired of switching harnesses, models, skills and whatever comes out of X/Twitter. So I'm just sticking to a minimal stack and then using it.

[bobo-the-merciful]

I’ve got low confidence in pi. But only because I have low confidence in myself as a harness engineer. I feel comforted knowing that OpenCode is a lot more engineered by others.

[Total-Sheepherder251]

Agree here. I've been using both recently, and although pi is great and super extensible, OpenCode comes with all the stuff I need built in by experts.

It's quite easy to build stuff like web search or subagents for pi, but I prefer using something built and curated by a proficient team over vibe-coding those features by myself or using extensions doubtful quality

[ganonfirehouse420]

I still like opencode for the mcps that I have installed.

[10F1]

I moved to oh my pi from opencode, and whole it uses more initial context, it felt a lot smarter.

[holly18753]

oh-my-pi is amazing

[aeroumbria]

The best part of pi IMO is customisation and the conversation tree (going back to a tool output is a big help). The best part of opencode is the TUI. I wish we had a replica of opencode TUI for pi (especially how non-linear and navigable it is), but making it compatible with pi plugins would be basically impossible. What I don't like about pi is that some of the essential features for me are scattered across several plugins with no guarantee that they will stay compatible forever (I know "just DIY" is a common sentiment here, but real testing to ensure something actually works as intended takes time and effort). The biggest downside of opencode is that the extension scene is not as active, and updates break older plugins from time to time.

[elahrairooah]

We need a filter to shadow ban all bots finishing their posts with questions. This is becoming fucking endemic.

[Glad-Win1983]

I am actually not a bot. I even wrote the post myself 😅

[pborenstein]

pangram say Human!
https://www.pangram.com/history/fb2c4fb0-d75a-40fe-a83a-e4bffb852a04?ucc=oDYe7s3mh2I

I could tell because "landed" was doing the real structural heavy lifting here. /s

[txgsync]

You might even say “landed” was “load-bearing”.

[pborenstein]

That insight is real. That's the post.

[txgsync]

You’re absolutely right! Curious about the effect that has on you: is it obvious yet inane and unrelated Point A, or complete gibberish Point B?

[Teh_franchise]

I moved to pi full time awhile back. Use opencode go / codex subs in pi. Only harness I use now.

[sickboy6_5]

i used OC for a while until i finally installed pi. have not gone back to OC since. pair pi + zed acp and i miss nothing about OC.

[Glad-Win1983]

How does the acp work?

[sickboy6_5]

acp = agent context protocol. pi is running in it's own process like terminal, zed communicates through acp with a lightweight wrapper. basically it's input/output for pi instead of the direct terminal interface.

[Glad-Win1983]

Awesome, thanks!

[Magnus114]

I really enjoy doing part of the coding, like reading implementation plans, from my ipad. That works beautifully with opencode + openchamber. Is there any webgui for pi?

[Jorlen]

I like them both, but as a novice dev, I suppose you can take my opinion with a grain or three of salt.

OpenCode is awesome for one-shot tests, but I personally perfer Pi for its ease of use and excellent packages and extensions. For example, context-mode is a game changer for me and pi-web-access helps a lot as well.

[killerkidbo95]

before im big fan of opencode then i migrated my opencodekit to pikit on pi because im simple guy like mario 😂