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Course Outline

Introduction to Pi

  • Understanding Pi’s core philosophy of minimalism and control
  • Comparing Pi with tools like Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Cursor
  • Overview of the four built-in tools: read, write, edit, and bash
  • Scenarios where choosing Pi is advantageous over heavier agents

Installation and Setup

  • Installing Pi via npm and other package managers
  • Configuring API keys for support of 15+ providers
  • Setting up working directories and context files
  • Running Pi in local environments as well as Docker containers

Core Terminal Workflows

  • Generating code from simple text prompts
  • Precisely reading and editing files
  • Safely executing bash commands within the agent
  • Managing session state and performing context resets

Building Custom Skills

  • Understanding the TypeScript skill API structure
  • Writing custom operations for read, write, and edit functions
  • Integrating bash execution hooks for specialized workflows
  • Isolated testing and debugging of skills

Prompt Templates and Themes

  • Customizing system prompts for various languages and frameworks
  • Creating reusable prompt templates to ensure team consistency
  • Packaging themes as shareable modules

Extending Pi with npm Packages

  • Bundling skills into pi packages
  • Publishing packages to npm and Git repositories
  • Installing community-contributed packages
  • Managing dependency versions and ensuring compatibility

Provider Flexibility

  • Switching between Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and other backends
  • Optimizing for cost, speed, and quality based on specific tasks
  • Running local models entirely offline for sensitive code handling

Practical Use Cases

  • Automated testing and test generation workflows
  • Refactoring legacy code using custom skill chains
  • Documentation generation and ongoing maintenance
  • Seamless CI integration with minimal agent overhead

Security and Control

  • Understanding the limitations of the 300-word system prompt boundary
  • Requiring manual approval for all write operations
  • Sandboxing bash execution in untrusted environments
  • Maintaining audit logs of all agent actions

Summary and Next Steps

  • Recap of key principles: minimalism, control, and extensibility
  • Accessing community resources and understanding contribution guidelines
  • Exploring advanced topics for experienced Pi users

Requirements

  • Experience with terminal-based development and bash scripting
  • Foundational knowledge of TypeScript or JavaScript
  • Familiarity with npm package management

Target Audience

  • Developers looking for a lightweight, customizable coding agent
  • Senior engineers seeking full control over agent internals
  • Teams embracing terminal-first development methodologies
 14 Hours

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