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Course Outline

Introduction to Pi

  • Understanding Pi and its philosophy of minimalism and control.
  • Comparing Pi with other tools such as Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Cursor.
  • An overview of the four built-in tools: read, write, edit, and bash.
  • When to choose Pi over more complex agents.

Installation and Setup

  • Installing Pi via npm and other package managers.
  • Configuring API keys for over 15 supported providers.
  • Setting up the working directory and context files.
  • Running Pi in local and Docker environments.

Core Terminal Workflows

  • Generating code from simple prompts.
  • Precisely reading and editing files.
  • Safely executing bash commands within the agent.
  • Managing session state and performing context resets.

Building Custom Skills

  • Understanding the TypeScript skill API.
  • Writing custom operations for read, write, and edit.
  • Integrating with bash execution for specialized workflows.
  • Testing and debugging skills in isolation.

Prompt Templates and Themes

  • Adapting system prompts for various languages and frameworks.
  • Creating reusable prompt templates to ensure team consistency.
  • Packaging themes as shareable modules.

Extending Pi with npm Packages

  • Bundling skills as pi packages.
  • Publishing to npm and Git.
  • Installing community-contributed packages.
  • Managing dependency versions and compatibility.

Provider Flexibility

  • Switching between backends such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and others.
  • Optimizing for cost, speed, and quality on a per-task basis.
  • Running entirely local models for sensitive code handling.

Practical Use Cases

  • Automating testing and test generation workflows.
  • Refactoring legacy code using custom skill chains.
  • Generating and maintaining documentation.
  • Integrating with CI pipelines with minimal agent overhead.

Security and Control

  • Understanding the boundaries of the 300-word system prompt.
  • Requiring manual approval for write operations.
  • Sandboxing bash execution for untrusted environments.
  • Maintaining audit logs of all agent actions.

Summary and Next Steps

  • Recapping the principles of minimalism, control, and extensibility.
  • Exploring community resources and contribution guidelines.
  • Introducing advanced topics for experienced Pi users.

Requirements

  • Experience with terminal-based development and bash scripting.
  • Basic knowledge of TypeScript or JavaScript.
  • Familiarity with npm package management.

Target Audience

  • Developers looking for a lightweight, hackable coding agent.
  • Senior engineers seeking full control over agent internals.
  • Teams transitioning to terminal-first development practices.
 14 Hours

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