Local-first AI coding agent desktop: Electron + Rust host core + pi Agent Harness + user-installable plugins

PI-Desktop

Your local-first desktop workspace for AI coding agents.

Bring your own model. Open any local project. Let agents work — while you stay in control.

No PI-Desktop account. No mandatory relay. No editor lock-in.

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_{A standalone desktop workspace for coding agents, projects, models, tools, and long-running sessions.}

Most coding agents live inside a terminal, an editor extension, or a hosted service.

PI-Desktop gives them a workspace of their own.

Getting started only takes a few steps:

1. Connect a model Open Settings → Model configuration, choose a provider or compatible API, and add your credentials.

2. Open a project Add any local repository or project directory from the sidebar.

3. Pick Agent, Plan, or Goal Agent starts working. Plan waits until you approve a frozen implementation plan. Goal waits until you approve the outcome, then the agent chooses the path.

4. Review the result Inspect edits in the Review panel, check command output, preview the application, and continue the conversation without leaving PI-Desktop.

Same agent. Three gates. Privileged tools still go through the permission layer in every mode.

Agent is the default loop: inspect the tree, patch files, run commands, and keep going.

Plan is the approval boundary. The agent researches first and produces an immutable implementation plan. Execution does not start until you sign off.

Goal is outcome-first. You lock the objective and acceptance criteria; the agent decides how to get there.

Large tasks rarely belong in one context window.

PI-Desktop can delegate independent work to background Subagents for things like:

• codebase exploration
• multi-file implementation
• research and investigation
• test analysis
• adversarial review

Each Subagent runs in its own context and reports its result back to the parent agent.

PI-Desktop is designed for more than one prompt at a time.

You can manage multiple projects and sessions, pin or archive conversations, branch sessions, queue prompts while an agent is running, reference files with @, use slash commands, and search across the application.

Streaming responses are checkpointed so interrupted work can survive application restarts or runtime failures whenever possible.

PI-Desktop does not lock the agent runtime to a hardcoded model list.

Use:

• OpenAI and Anthropic
• OpenAI-compatible APIs
• hosted model gateways
• local gateways such as Ollama and LM Studio
• multiple models under the same provider
• provider OAuth accounts where supported

Model configuration can include context windows, output limits, reasoning controls, temperature, and other model-specific behavior.

Switch models directly from the Composer without recreating your session.

The agent workspace includes dedicated surfaces for the things that matter while coding:

Long-running conversations with transcript navigation	Switch providers, models, and reasoning levels per session
Extend the workspace through the plugin marketplace	Add a provider and connect a model

Explore all screenshots →

PI-Desktop has several extension layers depending on how deeply you want to customize the agent.

Give agents reusable instructions and workflows.

Skills can be installed globally or activated for individual projects.

Connect external tools and services through Model Context Protocol servers without baking them into the desktop application.

PI-Desktop can also be controlled by an external MCP Agent. Start the app with PI_DESKTOP_MCP_CONTROL=1; then read the loopback endpoint and bearer token from mcp-control.json in the Electron user-data directory. The endpoint supports project/session/Agent workflows and a reviewed desktop operation catalog. It is disabled by default, binds loopback only, and grants the calling local Agent the same authority as the desktop for those operations — confirm: true is not a user prompt.

Create specialized agents with their own instructions, tools, and model choices, then delegate work to them from another agent.

Plugins can extend PI-Desktop itself with:

• agent tools
• commands
• workspace panels
• work-panel views
• Skills
• MCP servers
• Subagents
• themes
• resident services
• inter-plugin messaging

Plugins can be installed locally or through the marketplace using the .piplug package workflow.

Build your first plugin →

PI-Desktop is local-first, not “nothing ever touches the network.”

There is no required PI-Desktop account and no mandatory PI-hosted relay between your machine and your model provider.

If you use a remote model provider, the context required for that model request is naturally sent to that provider according to its own privacy policy.

Download the latest build from GitHub Releases.

Packaged builds can check GitHub Releases for updates and surface new versions inside the application. Windows NSIS and Linux AppImage can download and install in-app; macOS, Linux deb/rpm, and the Windows portable exe open the releases page. The Linux .asar asset is available for repackaging with a system Electron; launch it with electron PI-Desktop-<version>-linux-x64.asar after adding the native host and packaged resources required by the target distribution.

Linux x64 packages need glibc 2.35 or newer. That is the library shipped with:

• Ubuntu 22.04 or later
• Debian 12 or later
• Fedora 36 or later

Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 11, Fedora 35, and older releases cannot load the bundled host. Check with ldd --version.

The tagged-release workflow publishes unsigned macOS artifacts by default. For a trusted unsigned install, move PI-Desktop.app to Applications and double-click PI-Desktop-macOS-open.command if macOS says the app is damaged. A manually dispatched run with sign_macos: true signs, notarizes, and staples macOS artifacts with Developer ID credentials before publication; signed builds do not need the helper.

Already using another coding agent?

PI-Desktop can import local sessions from supported tools including:

• Claude Code
• Codex
• OpenCode
• Pi

Open Settings → Import to bring existing work into the desktop workspace.

PI-Desktop deliberately separates the user interface from privileged host capabilities and the agent loop.

flowchart TB
    UI["React Renderer<br/>Chat · Projects · Reviews · Settings"]
    Electron["Electron Main<br/>Desktop orchestration"]
    Rust["Rust Host Core<br/>Permissions · Filesystem · SQLite · Secrets"]
    Agent["pi Agent Sidecar<br/>Agent loop · Models · Streaming"]
    Provider["Model Provider<br/>Cloud or Local"]

    UI --> Electron
    Electron --> Rust
    Electron --> Agent
    Agent <--> Rust
    Agent --> Provider

The renderer has no Node integration.

The Rust Host Core owns privileged workspace operations, permissions, persistence, and secrets. The pi Agent Sidecar owns model interaction and the agent loop. Electron coordinates the desktop lifecycle while keeping those responsibilities separated.

Read the architecture specification →

PI-Desktop is an early preview under active development.

The current 0.14.x line includes the desktop shell, streaming agent runtime, Agent / Plan / Goal workflows, permission-aware workspace tools, projects and sessions, session imports, local MCP control, MCP / Skills / Subagents, background delegation, multi-provider model configuration, plugins and marketplace support, context checkpoints, notifications, release notes, and cross-platform packaging.

Current priorities include:

• macOS tagged-release qualification
• installer upgrade and rollback qualification
• continued runtime and session-recovery hardening
• stronger plugin sandboxing and publisher verification
• broader UI-driven end-to-end coverage

Follow development through the project board and milestones.

• Node.js >=22.19
• pnpm >=10
• stable Rust toolchain

The repository currently pins pnpm 11, while CI and release builds use Node 24.

git clone https://github.com/vastsa/PI-Desktop.git
cd PI-Desktop

pnpm install

cargo build -p host-core
pnpm build:js

pnpm dev

pnpm typecheck
pnpm lint
pnpm test

Additional protocol, Plan, supervision, Subagent, and Electron E2E suites are documented in the repository specification.

pnpm docs:dev
pnpm docs:check

Useful references:

• Documentation
• Specification index
• Architecture
• Product scope
• Plugin development
• E2E test plan
• Release runbook
• Repository agent guide

Issues, bug reports, feature proposals, documentation improvements, and pull requests are welcome.

For larger changes, opening an issue first makes it easier to align the implementation with the existing architecture and product contracts.

When working in the repository, start with AGENTS.md and the specification index.

Report an issue · View open issues

PI-Desktop builds on the excellent work of the open-source ecosystem.

The agent runtime uses pi-ai and pi-agent-core from pi-mono.

The desktop application is built with technologies including Electron, React, TypeScript, Rust, SQLite, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Shiki, Mermaid, KaTeX, TypeBox, and i18next.

Thank you to every project and contributor that makes PI-Desktop possible.

This project was created by the models below — not by a lone genius, but by a token-powered construction crew.

Total for listed models: 27,144,044,009 tokens.

• Linux.Do — A community for sharing and discussing technology.

PI-Desktop is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0.

See LICENSE for details.