Pi Provider

The Pi provider runs Pi in-process through its TypeScript SDK. Unlike Codex and Copilot, which shell out to external CLIs, the Pi adapter calls the SDK directly.

Prerequisites

1. Install Pi independently:

npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
pi /login          # authenticate with your provider
pi /model          # pick a default model

2. Node.js 22.5+ (same as the Sidemesh daemon).

Setup

Guided setup

npm install -g sidemesh @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
sidemesh setup         # select Pi from the provider list
sidemesh up

Manual config

Add to ~/.sidemesh/config.json:

{
  "providers": [
    {
      "kind": "pi",
      "agentDir": "~/.pi/agent",
      "stateDir": null
    }
  ],
  "defaultProviderKind": "pi"
}

Field	Description
agentDir	Pi config directory. Default: ~/.pi/agent
stateDir	Sidemesh Pi sidecar state. Default: ~/.sidemesh/pi-provider

Capabilities

Feature	Status	Notes
Text input	✅	Full support
Local images	✅	Base64-encoded
Image URLs	❌	Ignored with warning
Skills	✅	Inlined from Pi skill dirs
Model switching	✅	Auth-filtered model list
Thinking level	✅	Override when supported
Compaction	✅	Native Pi compaction
Session archive	✅	Sidecar tracked
Interrupt	✅	Calls Pi abort()
Filesystem	Host	Daemon-owned
Approvals	❌	Pi does not expose gating
Terminal	Host	Daemon-owned

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
SIDEMESH_PI_AGENT_DIR	Override Pi agent directory
SIDEMESH_PI_STATE_DIR	Override Sidemesh sidecar directory

Troubleshooting

Unknown Pi session after restart The sidecar index is stale. Restarting triggers a fresh scan of ~/.pi/agent/sessions/.

No API key for anthropic/claude- The model is visible but unauthenticated. Run pi /login for that provider.

Image URLs silently ignored Pi only accepts local files. Sidemesh emits a stderr warning and substitutes an explanatory prompt.

Slow session list First scan walks all .jsonl files. Subsequent calls use a stat-based fingerprint cache.