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Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

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Re: Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

#241

Post by lantry »

rescbr wrote: post #227
Systemerror7A69 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wish it wouldn't ask me to pipe an install script directly to shell to install. Yes, I can probably inspect that but I do think installing through package managers is the best practice. It looks better than pi with XDG and not being JS but that is it's own red flag for me.

I personally also don't like this, so use cargo to install it, it's in the readme. Takes a reasonable time to build on my X220, but on a modern computer it is plenty fast. cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/tontinton/maki.git maki

Is there a meaningful security difference between curl-pipe-bash and cargo install --git? Couldn't the cargo install include a buildscript that jumps right into a shell?

Re: Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

#242

Post by catlover76 »

timwis wrote: post #90
swingboy wrote: post #27

Aside from the minimal system prompt, how does it handle context better than other agents? It still has to send the system prompt (which includes AGENTS.md and skill definitions) along with the full conversation every request, no?

The /tree feature is incredible for context management. It's really surprising the other harnesses haven't slurped it up yet. It lets you rewind back to any previous message and fork the conversation from there, removing your 'side quest' (e.g. where you dig into something the agent said) from the context. Some other harnesses have a 'rewind' feature, but this lets you maintain the previous conversation history in a…

[dead]

Re: Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

#243

Post by newtwilly »

anon7000 wrote: post #95
timwis wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The /tree feature is incredible for context management. It's really surprising the other harnesses haven't slurped it up yet. It lets you rewind back to any previous message and fork the conversation from there, removing your 'side quest' (e.g. where you dig into something the agent said) from the context. Some other harnesses have a 'rewind' feature, but this lets you maintain the previous conversation history in a…

I think cursor has this where you can fork a thread from a previous message

Yes, pi's works a bit better since it exposes the whole tree to you, but in the simple case of forking to a new conversation it is about the same as Cursor and probably other coding agents.

One thing you can do in pi that you can't in Cursor: Have a 5-prompt conversation, jump back to prompt 3 and have a new conversation [call this convo2], then jump back to the original point 5, then jump back to convo2.

So fork is really only needed for when you need to interact with the conversation tree in two separate processes.

Re: Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

#245

Post by avenger123 »

paldepind2 wrote: post #130

Lots of praise for Pi in this thread, so I'll offer up a diverging opinion. Given all the hype, I was a bit underwhelmed by Pi. It definitely has some good ideas around customization, but it annoyed me in many little ways. For a program that's minimal it sure takes a long time to start up, the standard C-p and C-n bindings don't work, it doesn't follow the XDG Base Directory Specification and just pollutes my $HOME d…

I have similar sentiment but still haven't spent time to give it due process to come to good conclusion.

I tried the bare pi and now I am using oh my pi. At this point I feel that unless I am really concerned with maximizing token usage the Claude, Codex and Cursor cli are good enough. I think if you're looking for a reason to use pi versus you have a problem and pi is the solution than it's probably not a good fit.

I do think using it with open weight models may be worthwhile. I can see value with using it with a open router subscription. I have used opencode but I would rather standardize on it pi.

Re: Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

#246

Post by rescbr »

lantry wrote: post #241
rescbr wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally also don't like this, so use cargo to install it, it's in the readme. Takes a reasonable time to build on my X220, but on a modern computer it is plenty fast. cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/tontinton/maki.git maki

Is there a meaningful security difference between curl-pipe-bash and cargo install --git? Couldn't the cargo install include a buildscript that jumps right into a shell?

Sure, but you can review the git repo's content/commits in plain text, while curl-pipe-bash would require you to reverse engineer the binary that's downloaded.

If somebody hacks the project's home page and switches the download location to a hacked binary, you'd be none the wiser. Of course, somebody could hack the repo and add a deliberate vulnerability as well, but at least you would have a trail of it.

Re: Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

#247

Post by throwuxiytayq »

throw10920 wrote: post #239
paldepind2 wrote: post #130

Lots of praise for Pi in this thread, so I'll offer up a diverging opinion. Given all the hype, I was a bit underwhelmed by Pi. It definitely has some good ideas around customization, but it annoyed me in many little ways. For a program that's minimal it sure takes a long time to start up, the standard C-p and C-n bindings don't work, it doesn't follow the XDG Base Directory Specification and just pollutes my $HOME d…

> Lots of praise for Pi in this thread, so I'll offer up a diverging opinion. Being reflexively contarian is not what HN is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45530593 > For a program that's minimal it sure takes a long time to start up It took the same amount of time (3 seconds) as cursor-agent and codex on my machine, which isn't particularly high-spec. > the standard C-p and C-n bindings don't work It has p…

> Being contrarian for the sake of it is not good form.

Why would you say that? Is it good form to post that someone is being contrarian for the sake of it? OP’s comment looks like constructive criticism with plenty of good points.

> It took the same amount of time (3.5 seconds) as cursor-agent and codex on my machine.

So what? Nobody is pretending that these are minimalist. Codex is 1.2M of Rust LOC.

> which necessarily means that you have some powerful and expressive extension language, ideally the one the harness was written in.

Don’t be silly, JS is a joke. I was going to check Pi out, but now that I know it’s based on a shitty stack, I’m staying the fuck away from it. I don’t have the RAM to spare.

> If these are your complaints, then this is one of the strongest endorsements of Pi that I've ever seen. I think I'm bookmarking this comment.

> good form

Re: Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

#248

Post by zbentley »

lantry wrote: post #241
rescbr wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally also don't like this, so use cargo to install it, it's in the readme. Takes a reasonable time to build on my X220, but on a modern computer it is plenty fast. cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/tontinton/maki.git maki

Is there a meaningful security difference between curl-pipe-bash and cargo install --git? Couldn't the cargo install include a buildscript that jumps right into a shell?

You can review the contents of the git repo before building it.

For curl | bash, you cannot. “But you can pipe to a fil—“ nope: https://tferdinand.net/en/why-curl-bash-is-a-dangerous-bad-h...

Re: Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

#249

Post by rsyring »

paldepind2 wrote: post #130

Lots of praise for Pi in this thread, so I'll offer up a diverging opinion. Given all the hype, I was a bit underwhelmed by Pi. It definitely has some good ideas around customization, but it annoyed me in many little ways. For a program that's minimal it sure takes a long time to start up, the standard C-p and C-n bindings don't work, it doesn't follow the XDG Base Directory Specification and just pollutes my $HOME d…

Pi but in Rust: https://github.com/Dicklesworthstone/pi_agent_rust

Re: Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage

#250

Post by nfRfqX5n »

mft_ wrote: post #214
v3gas wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is that set of functions for you?

I can't offer a definitive list. But some/all of web access, web search, sub-agents, plan, goals, looping, and maybe a to-do list. I'd suggest the default should be anything that makes the model more efficient or effective to a reasonable current level.

Are you sure those tools make the model more efficient?
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