Readit NewsNot only did you build a minimal agent, but the framework around it so anyone can build their own. I'm using Pi in the terminal, but I see you have web components. Any tips or creating a "Chat mode" where the messages are like chat bubbles? It would be easier to use on mobile.
This is great work, I am looking forward how it evolves in the future. So far Claude Code seems best despite its bugs given the generous subscription, but when the market corrects and the prices will get closer to API prices, then probably the pay-per-token premium with optimized experience will be a better deal than to suffer Claude Code glitches and paper cuts.
The realization is that at the end agent framework kit that is customizable and can be recursively improved by agents is going to be better than a rigid proprietary client app.
And I'm personally very happy that Peter's project gets all the hype. The pi repo already gets enough vibesloped PRs from openclaw users as is, and its still only 1/100th of what the openclaw repository has to suffer through.
I would add subagents though. They allow for the pattern where the top agent directs / observe a subagent executing a step in a plan.
The top agent is both better at directing a subagent, and it keeps the context clean of details that don't matter - otherwise they'd be in the same step in the plan.
Or you use any of the packages people provide, like this one: https://github.com/nicobailon/pi-subagents
No matter how much I tried to force it to stick to a mostly line-by-line port, it kept trying to "improve" the code. At some point it had to undo everything as it introduced a number of bugs. I asked it: "What should I add to your prompt so you won't do this again?" and it gave me this:
### CRITICAL LESSON: Don't "Improve" During Porting
- **BIGGEST MISTAKE: Reorganizing working code**
- **What I did wrong:** Tried to "simplify" by splitting `createStartButton()` into separate creation and layout methods
- **Why it failed:** Introduced THREE bugs:
1. Layout overlap (getY() vs getY() - getHeight())
2. Children not sized (Group.setSize() doesn't affect children)
3. Origins not updated (scaling animations broken)
- **The fix:** Deleted my "improvements" and copied the original Android pattern faithfully
- **Root cause:** Arrogance - assuming I could improve production-tested code without understanding all the constraints
- **Solution:** **FOLLOW THE PORTING PRINCIPLES ABOVE** - copy first, don't reorganize
- **Time wasted:** ~1 hour debugging self-inflicted bugs that wouldn't exist if I'd just copied the original
- **Key insight:** The original Android code is correct and battle-tested. Your "improvements" are bugs waiting to happen.
The good news: we shipped our differential renderer to everyone today. We rewrote our rendering system from scratch[1] and only ~1/3 of sessions see at least a flicker. Very, very few sessions see flickers in rapid succession which was so annoying before. Those numbers will keep dropping as people update.
We've also been working upstream to add synchronized output / DEC mode 2026 support to environments where CC runs and have had patches accepted to VSCode's terminal[2] and tmux[3]. Synchronized output totally eliminates flickering. As always, I recommend using Ghostty which has 2026 support and zero flicker.
Happy to answer questions!
[1]: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/769#issueco...
Now where have I seen that before.
Memory comparison of AI coding CLIs (single session, idle):
That's a 24x to 50x difference for tools that do the same thing: send text to an API.vmmap shows Claude Code reserves 32.8 GB virtual memory just for the V8 heap, has 45% malloc fragmentation, and a peak footprint of 746 MB that never gets released, classic leak pattern.
On my 16 GB Mac, a "normal" workload (2 Claude sessions + browser + terminal) pushes me into 9.5 GB swap within hours. My laptop genuinely runs slower with Claude Code than when I'm running local LLMs.
I get that shipping fast matters, but building a CLI with React and a full Node.js runtime is an architectural choice with consequences. Codex proves this can be done in 15 MB. Every Claude Code session costs me 360+ MB, and with MCP servers spawning per session, it multiplies fast.