Harness · Pi

Pi.

Pi is a minimal terminal coding agent CLI — read, write, edit, bash, plus whatever MCP servers you wire in. Tiny system prompt, token-efficient, provider-agnostic. Workbooks slots in as one MCP server.

Auto-install

Paste this into Pi

Click below to copy a self-install prompt. Paste it into Pi and the agent will create the MCP config, install the CLI, and verify the connection in one go.

Or follow the manual steps below.

1. Install both CLIs

npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
npm install -g @work.books/cli

2. Configure Pi's MCP servers

Pi reads MCP server config from ~/.pi/agent/config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "workbooks": {
      "command": "workbook",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

If the file doesn't exist, create it with the snippet above. Pi loads it on every pi invocation.

3. Run Pi in a project directory

cd ~/my-workbook-project
pi

The workbooks tools appear alongside Pi's built-ins (read, write, edit, bash). Ask in chat: "List my workbook groups."

Quirks & tips

Sessions auto-save. Pi keeps a session under ~/.pi/agent/sessions/ keyed by working directory. Continue with pi -c, browse past with pi --sessions.
AGENTS.md. Drop an AGENTS.md in your project root with workspace-specific instructions (e.g. "always publish to the showcase group"). Pi reads it at session start.
Provider flexibility. Pi works with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Bedrock, OpenRouter, Ollama, and more — pick whichever model you have access to. The Workbooks MCP server is provider-agnostic.
Subscription billing note. If you're on Anthropic's third-party subscription, Pi will warn that usage draws from extra-usage tokens. That doesn't affect Workbooks; the CLI runs locally and only talks to Studio's broker.

Verify

pi
> list my workbook groups

Pi should call the Workbooks MCP and print the result.