Pi appears to have a smaller, less “pre-made” ecosystem, but with more flexibility, enthusiasm and extensibility.
Is this correct? Should I look towards Pi over OpenCode? What are the UI options?
Honestly, it's been a dream, I have it running in a docker-sandbox with access to a single git repo (not hosted) that I am using for varied things with my business.
Try it out, it's super easy to setup. If you use docker sandbox, you can just follow what is necessary for claude, spin up the sandbox, exit out, exec into it with bash and switch to Pi.
I looked a bit into the reasoning for Pi’s design (https://mariozechner.at/posts/2025-11-30-pi-coding-agent/#to...) and, while it does seem to do a lot of things very well around extensibility, I do miss support for permissions, MCP and perhaps Todos and a server mode. OpenCode seems a lot more complete in that regard, but I can well imagine that people have adapted Pi for these use cases (OpenClaw seems to have all of these). So it’s definitely not out of the race yet, but I still appreciate OpenCodes relative seeming completeness in comparison.
> I do miss support for permissions,
As soon as your agent can write and execute code, your permissions are just a security theater. If you care, just do proper sandboxing. If not, there are extensions for that.
> MCP
Again, Pi is extensible.
pi install pi-mcp-adapter
Now, you can connect to any mcp.
> and perhaps Todos
At least 10 different todo extensions. Pick which one you like. If you don't like any of them, ask Pi to write one for you.
> and a server mode.
Pi has rpc mode, which is a kind of server. If that's not enough, you could extend it.
> OpenCode seems a lot more complete in that regard,
Yes, but good luck working with Opencode if you don't like their plan-mode. Or todo support. And MCP. You pay their cost in complexity and tokens even if you don't use them or you don't like how they work.
> but I can well imagine that people have adapted Pi for these use cases (OpenClaw seems to have all of these). So it’s definitely not out of the race yet, but I still appreciate OpenCodes relative seeming completeness in comparison.
There's also an oh-my-pi fork if you want an out-of-the-box experience. Still, in my experience, nothing beats Pi in terms of customizability. It's the first piece of software that I can easily make completely to my liking. And I say that as a decade old Emacs user.