Pi Delegate
You are the orchestrator. Delegate a bounded coding task to a separate implementer - the Pi
coding agent CLI - then review what it produced and land it yourself. You write the brief and own
the judgment; the implementer makes changes in its own session; you verify and commit.
The loop needs only a shell command and file access, so any comparable orchestrator can drive it.
When NOT to use this
- The task is small enough to do inline; delegation overhead is not worth it.
- The
pi CLI is not installed or authenticated.
- You need a sandboxed implementer. Pi has no sandbox and no permission modes;
--read-only
restricts the tool surface, but a write-capable run executes without prompts.
Prerequisites (check once)
- Install pi with
npm install -g @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent.
- Authenticate:
/login inside pi for a subscription provider, or an API-key environment
variable / pi's auth file for an API-key provider.
- Confirm
pi --version succeeds.
- Work in, or point
--cd at, the target git repository.
Choose the model (optional)
Omit --model to use pi's configured default. To pick another, choose from pi --list-models
and pass an explicit id or pattern like <provider>/<model-id> or sonnet:high. The relay
accepts letters, digits, and . _ : / - only (the value reaches a shell on Windows), so glob
patterns with * are not forwarded.
The loop
Run these five steps per task. Steps 1, 4, and 5 require judgment; 2 and 3 are mechanical.
1. Write the brief
Pi sees only the text you send plus what it can inspect in the workspace - no chat history or
shared context. Include the goal, current state, what to change, what to leave untouched, the
project's actual gates, and a report contract. Tell pi not to commit. Keep one task per brief.
Pi auto-loads AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md context files from the workspace and its parents, so repo
instructions reach it without inlining. See
references/writing-the-brief.md.
2. Dispatch
Use the bundled relay. It pipes the brief to pi --mode json on stdin, captures the JSON event
stream, and writes result.json. (<skill-dir> is the installed folder containing this
SKILL.md.)
node "<skill-dir>/scripts/relay.mjs" --brief brief.txt --cd /path/to/repo
# choose a model: add --model <id from pi --list-models>
# choose a provider: add --provider <name>
# read-only run (review/diagnosis): add --read-only
# trust project .pi resources: add --approve
# resume the most recent session: add --resume-last (delta brief only)
# resume a specific session: add --session <id> (delta brief only)
# hard time limit (watchdog): add --timeout 2h (the 30m default suits short runs; implementation briefs routinely need 1-2h)
# see all options: node .../relay.mjs --help
The child process's cwd pins the workspace. The relay writes artifacts under the system temp dir
by default and never commits. See references/dispatch-and-poll.md.
3. Wait for completion
The relay blocks until pi finishes. Run it with the orchestrator's background-command facility,
or background it in the shell and poll for result.json. A pre-run usage error exits 2 and writes
no result; a missing pi exits 127 and writes status: "pi_unavailable".
Trust process state and the working tree over a progress display. Completion means the process
exited and result.json exists. Pi's full report is the finalMessage field in result.json
(also printed in full on stdout between the report markers).
4. Review - do not trust the self-report
Treat pi's final message and gate claims as claims:
- Re-run the project's gates yourself.
- Read the diff against the brief, starting with
touchedFiles.
- Run relevant guard skills if installed.
- Round-trip migrations and grep for dangling references after removals or renames.
See references/review-and-land.md.
5. Land it
The implementer edits the working tree; the orchestrator commits. Commit only after the gates
pass and the diff holds. If rework is needed, send a delta brief with --resume-last or
--session <id>, then review again.
Autonomy and permissions
Pi has no sandbox and no permission modes. A default headless run reads, writes, edits, and
executes shell commands with no prompts - the controls are:
--read-only restricts pi's callable tools to --tools read,grep,find,ls across built-in,
extension, and custom tools. Installed extension code still runs with the user's host permissions.- The relay passes
--no-approve by default, so project .pi settings, extensions, and skills
stay untrusted. --approve is the explicit opt-in for a repository the user trusts.
touchedFiles and the diff are the record of what changed. Inspect them after every run.
Authorization model
Delegation is something the human opts into. Once they have ("run this queue", "proceed"),
committing verified, gate-passing work is the agreed contract. Two limits remain: surface, don't
absorb (report pi's design decisions, defensible-but-unasked turns, and non-blocking nitpicks)
and stop for scope changes (if correct completion needs going beyond the brief, ask instead of
expanding the mandate). See references/review-and-land.md.
References
- references/writing-the-brief.md - structure, report contract,
real gates, stdin delivery, and delta briefs.
- references/dispatch-and-poll.md - flags, artifacts,
result.json, polling, and failure recovery.
- references/review-and-land.md - review checklist, commit
boundary, and rework through pi sessions.
- references/multi-task-queues.md - sequential queues,
constraint carry-forward, progress tracking, and the final coherence pass.
anthropics/skills180k
