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Best Pi Coding Agent Extensions (2026)

By @pickwiseresearched with AIUpdated

The best extensions for the Pi coding agent (some people call them plugins), picked from the setups developers publish and the write-ups that tested them, not from download counts alone.

  1. pi-subagents

    Pi ships without sub-agents, and this is the extension most people add to get them back. It comes with seven ready-made child agents, among them a scout, a reviewer and an oracle for second opinions, and you call them in plain language: "use reviewer to review this diff". The built-in researcher needs pi-web-access installed too, and Kay Rhodes warns it likely clashes with pi-agent-flow.

    Install
    pi install npm:pi-subagents
    Downloads last month
    622,053
    GitHub stars
    3,896
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    nicobailon
    Works with
    Pi only
  2. pi-web-access

    Pi can't search the web until you install something like this. It adds web search, page and PDF extraction and YouTube video understanding, and it clones GitHub links locally so the agent reads real files instead of rendered HTML. It works with no API key through Exa, but Kay Rhodes points out that Exa is free only up to 1,000 searches a month, so she gave it a Gemini key instead.

    Install
    pi install npm:pi-web-access
    Downloads last month
    693,533
    GitHub stars
    1,616
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    nicobailon
    Works with
    Pi; also runs as an MCP server for other agents
  3. pi-mcp-adapter

    The most downloaded package in Pi's catalog. It puts every MCP server behind one small proxy tool of about 200 tokens and starts a server only when the model calls it. Pi has had MCP support of its own since version 0.99, so this is now an upgrade and not a requirement: the adapter stops idle servers after ten minutes, keeps sign-in tokens in your OS keychain and imports configs from Cursor, Claude Code and Codex. Installing it switches Pi's built-in MCP off.

    Install
    pi install npm:pi-mcp-adapter
    Downloads last month
    1,606,843
    GitHub stars
    1,585
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    nicobailon
    Works with
    Pi only
  4. rpiv-ask-user-question

    When the model would otherwise guess, Postgres or SQLite, rewrite or patch, this makes it ask. Questions arrive as a tabbed dialog with single and multiple choice, previews and a review step before the answers go back. It needs no API key and makes no extra model calls. It is one piece of the larger rpiv suite but installs alone.

    Install
    pi install npm:@juicesharp/rpiv-ask-user-question
    Downloads last month
    306,198
    GitHub stars
    886 (rpiv-mono repo)
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    juicesharp
    Works with
    Pi only
  5. Plannotator

    Pi has no plan mode. Plannotator adds one, where destructive commands are blocked and writes are limited to the plan file, and then opens the plan in your browser so you can highlight, comment and send the notes back to the agent. It reviews diffs the same way. It isn't Pi-only: the same tool plugs into Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and OpenCode.

    Install
    pi install npm:@plannotator/pi-extension
    Downloads last month
    129,998
    GitHub stars
    9,322
    License
    MIT or Apache-2.0
    Maintainer
    backnotprop
    Works with
    Pi, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and others
  6. pi-lens

    Every time Pi writes or edits a file, pi-lens runs the language server, linters and type checkers and puts the results into the tool output, so the agent sees its own mistakes and fixes them in the same turn. It can also autofix with tools such as Biome, Ruff and ESLint. It does a lot on every edit; turn it off for a session with pi --no-lens.

    Install
    pi install npm:pi-lens
    Downloads last month
    112,830
    GitHub stars
    466
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    apmantza
    Works with
    Pi only
  7. rpiv-todo

    A todo list the model keeps for itself, pinned above the editor so you can always see what it thinks it is working on. The list survives /reload and conversation compaction, and tasks can block one another. Composio's reviewer calls it the replacement for Claude Code's task tracking.

    Install
    pi install npm:@juicesharp/rpiv-todo
    Downloads last month
    207,529
    GitHub stars
    886 (rpiv-mono repo)
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    juicesharp
    Works with
    Pi only
  8. pi-permission-system

    Out of the box, Pi lets the agent run anything. This adds allow, ask and deny rules for tools, bash commands, MCP servers and skills, with wildcard patterns such as "rm -rf *: deny", and blocks reads of files like .env and ~/.ssh across every tool at once. It is a fork that has moved a long way from the original by MasuRii, so configs from one won't fit the other.

    Install
    pi install npm:@gotgenes/pi-permission-system
    Downloads last month
    64,974
    GitHub stars
    255 (pi-packages repo)
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    gotgenes
    Works with
    Pi only
  9. context-mode

    Long sessions fill the context window with old tool output. context-mode runs bulky commands in a sandbox and passes back only a summary, and it logs edits and decisions to SQLite so the agent can pick up after compaction. The 98% saving is the maintainer's own figure. It runs on other agents too, and its license is Elastic 2.0, not an open-source one like the rest of this list.

    Install
    pi install npm:context-mode
    Downloads last month
    103,613
    GitHub stars
    26,243
    License
    Elastic 2.0
    Maintainer
    mksglu
    Works with
    Pi, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and others
  10. pi-claude-bridge

    Lets you use a Claude subscription inside Pi by routing the model through Claude Code's Agent SDK, with every tool call still shown in Pi. It can also add an AskClaude tool, so a cheaper model can hand a hard question to Claude. The catch is billing: the README notes Anthropic announced and then withdrew a change to how Agent SDK tools are charged, so check before relying on it.

    Install
    pi install npm:pi-claude-bridge
    Downloads last month
    80,593
    GitHub stars
    611
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    elidickinson
    Works with
    Pi 0.86.1 or newer
  11. pi-autoresearch

    Give it something you can measure, such as test runtime, bundle size or a Lighthouse score, and it loops: try a change, benchmark it, keep it if the number improved, revert if not. A live widget and dashboard show each experiment. It was inspired by Karpathy's autoresearch. It only helps when the goal has a number attached.

    Install
    pi install npm:pi-autoresearch
    Downloads last month
    6,099
    GitHub stars
    8,162
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    davebcn87
    Works with
    Pi only
  12. pi-btw

    Adds /btw, a side conversation you can open while the main agent is still working. The side thread is a real Pi session with its own tools and stays out of the main agent's context unless you choose to inject it or a summary of it. /btw:ask gives you a read-only version. There is a second /btw extension in the rpiv suite, so check which one you are installing.

    Install
    pi install npm:pi-btw
    Downloads last month
    38,503
    GitHub stars
    207
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    dbachelder
    Works with
    Pi 0.85.1 and newer
  13. pi-simplify

    One command, /simplify. It finds the files you've changed, using git diff, and has the agent review them for clarity and redundancy, following the conventions in your AGENTS.md, without changing what the code does. It is small and hasn't had a release since July 2026.

    Install
    pi install npm:pi-simplify
    Downloads last month
    46,026
    GitHub stars
    151 (pi-extensions repo)
    License
    MIT
    Maintainer
    MattDevy
    Works with
    Pi only

How to choose

Pi is deliberately bare: no sub-agents, no plan mode, no permission prompts. You add what you miss with one command, pi install npm:<package>. If you are starting out, three cover most of the gap with Claude Code: pi-subagents for delegation, pi-web-access for search, and rpiv-ask-user-question so the model asks before it guesses. Add Plannotator if you want plan mode, and pi-permission-system if you don't want the agent free to run anything.

Two things have changed that older guides miss. Pi has had MCP support built in since version 0.99, so pi-mcp-adapter is now an upgrade and no longer a requirement. And several popular names have lookalikes: npm has at least four other packages named pi-mcp-adapter under other people's scopes, and more than one /btw extension, so install by the exact name shown here.

Extensions run with the same access to your machine that Pi has. Pi's catalog lists more than 5,000 packages, so read the source of anything that touches your shell or credentials, and pin versions you depend on.

Ordered by how many independent users and reviewers recommend each one (Kay Rhodes's setup guide, Composio's tested top ten, developers on Hacker News and Pi's own GitHub discussions), then by npm downloads and GitHub stars. Downloads count automated installs too, so treat them as a rough signal.

Numbers checked October 10, 2026.

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