Installation

Pi is a terminal-based agent — there’s no separate app to download. You’ll install it from the command line, and you’ll interact with it from the command line too. If you’ve never used a terminal before, that’s okay: Pi will walk you through everything, and you’ll pick up what you need as you go.

Quick system check

Your system is ready!

Install Pi

curl -fsSL https://pi.dev/install.sh | sh

npm install -g --ignore-scripts @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent

nix profile add github:earendil-works/pi/stable

powershell -c "irm https://pi.dev/install.ps1 | iex"

npm install -g --ignore-scripts @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent

npm install -g --ignore-scripts @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent

The installer script is the recommended option: it pins all of Pi’s dependencies, and pi update keeps it current. Installing via npm/pnpm/bun needs Node.js 22.19 or newer.

Watch a quick walkthrough

Start Pi

cd /path/to/a/project
pi

Get connected to a model

Pi doesn’t ship with a free built-in model the way some tools do, so you’ll need to connect one before your first prompt works. Follow this decision tree:

1. Already have ChatGPT Plus or Pro? Run /login inside Pi, choose OpenAI, then Sign in with ChatGPT. This is OpenAI’s official way to use your ChatGPT plan in third-party tools, and Pi was one of the open-source tools OpenAI listed at launch. Requests count against your plan’s usage, and you can cap how much Pi uses in ChatGPT’s settings. (You may also see an older “OpenAI Codex (legacy)” option. Use the new one.)
2. No ChatGPT subscription? Create a free OpenRouter account, then run /login, choose OpenRouter, and Sign in with OpenRouter. Pi opens your browser and creates an API key for you. Then use /model to pick one of the models tagged :free (for example google/gemma-4-31b-it:free). Zero cost, no local compute required.

A note on other subscriptions. Pi’s /login also lists Claude Pro/Max and GitHub Copilot as options. We don’t recommend either: Anthropic’s own terms explicitly prohibit routing Claude subscription credentials through third-party tools, and GitHub’s terms treat non-official Copilot clients as a violation too — both have real enforcement history (account bans/suspensions). Stick with Sign in with ChatGPT, OpenRouter, or an API key.

Send a test prompt

Type this into Pi and hit Enter:

Hello, are you there?

If you get a response, you’re connected and ready to go.