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Pi (@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent) is a terminal coding agent with a rich extension model: TypeScript extensions, pi packages, skills, and AGENTS.md instructions. Smithers ships a first-party Pi plugin that goes deeper than any other agent, embedding a live run inspector (run tree, frame scrubber, node inspector) directly in the Pi TUI.
Pi has no built-in MCP client (“No MCP” is by design), so unlike Claude Code or Cursor, you integrate Smithers through a skill or the pi-plugin, not an MCP server.
@smthrs/pi-plugin wraps the Smithers control plane as a Pi extension, registering tools to launch, approve, deny, cancel, and stream workflow runs, plus the run inspector inline: the tightest integration Smithers ships, turning Pi into a full Smithers operator console. See the guide for setup and the three integration modes (Pi as a workflow agent, Pi as a server client, and the hybrid): Pi integration.

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Install the skill

For the lighter path, skills add installs the Smithers skill set into Pi’s directory:
Pi reads skills from ~/.pi/agent/skills/ (global) or .pi/skills/ (project) and loads AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md at startup; drop the onboarding skill in by hand:
Invoke it with /skill:smithers, or let Pi pick it up by description.

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Standing instructions

Pi concatenates AGENTS.md from global, parent, and current directories. Add an orchestration section as you would for Codex or Cursor:

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Smithers runs Pi too

Smithers also spawns Pi as a worker via PiAgent, including its text / json / rpc modes and extension-UI hook callbacks:
See CLI Agents and Pi integration.