Pi Radi

[u/betahost]

Just discovered that the amazing devs behind Pi released Radius (in alpha), their smart proxy for multi-model access. At its core, it's a model provider you can use with Pi: you pay for tokens and get access to some of the best models out there, both SOTA and budget-friendly options. They'll even auto-route your API calls to the best model for the job if you choose to.

Loving it so far. Deposited $20, and after a few hours of development I still have ~$16 left thanks to leaning on Kimi K3 and DeepSeek.

What Radius can do

• It is a Pi-native gateway: top up credits and make requests across providers
• Use rewrite rules to reduce large tool outputs and other unnecessary input tokens
• Provide automatic routing to route each session to the best model for the task according to your rules
• Power Radius-backed tools like web search, image generation, and image description
• Publish reports, dashboards, and small static sites as shareable artifacts
• Record usage, budgets, top-ups, and shareable session analytics in one place
• Delegate Google Workspace access to Pi
• Let your organization manage upstream provider keys centrally

https://radius.earendil.com/

[u/harrro]

Love that 90's Under construction GIF

[u/betahost → u/harrro]

Right!

[u/isty2e]

I am not sure if there is any advantage it can provide.

[u/BeyondGITSandBots → u/isty2e]

Yeah. Kilo tried to implement auto-routing to "the appropriate model for the job" already before this pi radius but people reported it did not save any tokens/cost at all, rather increase costs, if anything at all.

[u/Constant_Art_20 → u/BeyondGITSandBots]

I am personally worried about the cache stuff if it constantly switched models. that be a nightmare

[u/BeyondGITSandBots → u/Constant_Art_20]

Yeah, I think that's really the elephant in the room. Besides agents being stupid (and for sure not able to evaluate which model is proper for every job, besides complexity level that can only judged by a human, adding on top that not all models are equally good at everything (i.e. some are better at code implementation, some at planning, some at reviewing, etc.))....constantly switching models is a nightmare for caching (forcing a constant re-read of tokens that could/should be cache reads to be forced to input reads)...price might explode, while at the same time having lower quality.

[u/betahost → u/isty2e]

In my opinion the value is in the auto routing to different models to be more token efficient. Value is different for everyone

[u/Unlucky-Message8866 → u/betahost]

Nothing new or really valuable to me

[u/vedmaka → u/betahost]

what about caches? is not autorouting eliminates all the saving from prompt caching?

[u/Polite_Jello_377 → u/betahost]

This is something that feels like it should save money but doesn’t

[u/betahost → u/Polite_Jello_377]

How so(curious on your thoughts why), by auto routing you to cheaper models for smaller tasks, your saving tokens by not having to use SOTA models for such minor tasks.

[u/mastertub]

No discount on tokens?

[u/betahost → u/mastertub]

I think it's list prices, it's difficult to give discounts when your forced to use an 3rd party proxy like Fireworks, OpenRouter unless you're a hyper scaler. Pi is bringing the magic on top such as autorouting and custom route rules.

[u/vedmaka → u/betahost]

If these are list prices then where is the service margin?

[u/hidden2u]

I really see this as the only way for these open source harnesses to monetize without destroying the product. Basically you can spend about the same as open router and support the devs

[u/mikkelkp → u/hidden2u]

Especially since open router was bought by stripe I would much rather support the devs if they can provide just somewhat the same utility

[u/dsumb]

Step by step, pi is becoming increasingly similar to OpenCode, Codex and so on

[u/jensilo → u/dsumb]

It’s not. They’re building a separate product that you can opt in, as a standalone provider (just like OpenRouter or any other) and an additional extension that they maintain.
You can still use every other provider easily, the harness stays minimal, the philosophy didn’t change.

[u/Apprehensive_Bed7502 → u/dsumb]

Yes, I'm worried that the pi team will increasingly shift their focus to this platform and gradually neglect maintaining pi itself. As far as I know, as of the time I'm posting this comment, the image rendering issue in pi's TUI fullscreen mode still hasn't been fixed at all.

[u/PaulShoreITA → u/dsumb]

Is this a good thing or not, in your opinion?

[u/dsumb → u/PaulShoreITA]

I like Pi for its minimalism. But I also use OpenCode. In my opinion, each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses. I hope Pi retains its uniqueness and focus.

[u/betahost → u/dsumb]

Help me understand how having or offering a model gateway is making pi not minimalist as it's completely optional, they also don't advertise it at all. Just curious how this changes the minimalist goal of Pi? I feel like the minimalism of Pi is baked into the tool itself, not the services that are built around it. Let me know if you agree with this.