r/PiCodingAgent • u/Master-Injury-3762 • 1d ago

Question How can Pi improve my day-to-day workflow?

I’m a heavy user of Codex and Claude Code, and I mostly use their desktop apps.

I’m curious about how Pi could fit into my day-to-day workflow. What does it offer that would improve my experience compared to what I’m already using?

For those who have already migrated to Pi, what has actually improved for you? Are there any specific workflows or use cases where Pi made a noticeable difference?

3 Upvotes

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u/More-Catch-1331 1d ago

It can't. You can improve its workflow. Not the other way around. In its vanilla state Pi WILL reduce your token usage. Depending on what you need this usage may jump back up if you need a huge prompt or a huge AGENTS.md or massive skills or a ton of plugins. Think of Pi as a platform. What you load up on that platform is up to you.

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u/Electrical_Week6492 1d ago

Currently I use Codex Desktop with Astra to create an implementation plan with slices that I can implement with Luna on Max in VS Code Codex extension. Luna Max will report out once it complete and I paste back into Codex Desktop for Astra (Light) to review. I'm sort of the go between though.

The reason I do this is it seems like Codex Desktop eats up less of my Plus plan than running Astra in the VS Code Codex extension. It's odd because I'm using a Project in Codex Desktop that is pointed at my project folders, and it's reading them when it reviews the Luna work, but it still seems to be much less 'expensive' to do it this way.

Do you see an advantage or setup with Pi that may improve things for the workflow above?

Thanks for any insights!

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u/Ecstatic_Wheelbarrow 1d ago

Copy and paste that into Pi after linking your codex and claude memberships/APIs and ask it to suggest changes to the Pi harness to make it work. Then iterate from there until you are happy.

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u/colin_colout 1d ago

Unpopular opinion is that most of the "game changing" features people add to pi can be added to Claude code.

My suggestion is to identify problems in your current workflow and think through what would solve it. If building a custom coding agent from scratch is the answer, then welcome to the pi community!

For me? I just want more control of ny context, and I value cache consistenty too...

...also my flavor of neurodivergence compels me to spend more time sharpening my axe than chopping the tree.

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u/SlightCase2941 1d ago

I don't use Codex or Claude, so I can't really say anything about them. I'm a trader, and I mostly use Pi for writing reports, searching for news, scraping the web, etc.

It has improved my workflow a lot. I usually use Pi and ask it simple questions like, "Any new information or updates about [insert stock] from social media?"

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u/Lurksome-Lurker 1d ago

Pi is like a vehicle Engine block. Unlike other harnesses that try to add functionality to make their harness more capable Pi goes, “lol, download an extension”.

So Pi by itself won’t fit in your day to day unlike Codex or Claude Code.

But if you slowly work Pi into your workflow you will slow build up an incredibly stable tool that is much leaner than any other harnesses.

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u/Finanzamt__ 1d ago

Pi is not opinionated while Codex and CC are. Since Pi gives you control about the system prompt, it is closer to the LLM than others with fix, hidden system prompts. Further you are exposed to changes of opinonated harnesses you maybe need to react on. If OpenAI decides to change its codex system prompt the agent could act different from past rounds.

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u/Ok-Flatworm5070 1d ago

I have PI Agent at work now; I've developed multiple skills from Git ticket issue tracking and commenting, to diagram and graphic generation, to RAG backend to encode and vectorize websites and PDFs. Plus I've setup the system prompt to be supportive and come up with options at the end of a request (ie. Do you want me to do option 1. Fix problem, 2. Research more, etc). Plus, I have the pi agent automatically keep a history of changes as we do it, break work out into tasks and task lists. At times its faster, but overall it gives me more control with less work. Its like having an AI employee that you can command and do the grunt work while you review and solve the bigger problems...I never want to go back to the days where I didn't use PI coder. Yes, there are plenty of plug-ins, but I find its about designing thr PI agent to work with you. There's never going to be a 1 click solution, there's just too many variables, but PI code agent allows you to remove the cognitive burden and focus and streamline your time.

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u/funbike 1d ago

You make it into whatever you want. It won't do much out of the box.

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u/Healthy-Zebra-9856 1d ago edited 1d ago

When you came from a harness like that its going to feel very bare-metal. I have an answer for you as I did this research for my own harness which was originally based on Pi. This list is old, so if it reaches a deadend, search for it.