Product

A GUI for the Pi Coding Agent

PiLot Studio is the Pi coding agent's visual interface for VS Code: every session, model, package, and tool the CLI exposes — rendered as panels, trees, and buttons you can click. It is the Pi coding agent UI for people who would rather build software than maintain terminal rituals.

The Pi coding agent GUI inside VS Code: chat with the Pi agent, editor, and provider controls side by side

What the interface gives you

AI chat in your editor

Interactive conversations with the Pi coding agent in a native VS Code panel. Markdown, code blocks with Apply to Editor, Preview Diff and Open in Editor, tables, and Mermaid diagrams.

Session tree & history

Branch, fork, rename, and revisit sessions in a conversation tree. Search chat with Ctrl+F, edit your last message, and export sessions when you are done.

Multi-provider, BYOK

Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Quick model cycling, adjustable thinking levels, and OAuth login for supported providers.

Offline voice dictation

Talk to your coding agent with built-in whisper.cpp speech-to-text. One-time model download, then fully offline — your audio never leaves your device.

Packages & skills manager

Browse, install, disable, and remove Pi community packages, skills, and prompt templates from the GUI — no terminal required.

Editor-aware context

Auto-attaches your editor selection, diagnostics, and git status. Type @ to mention files, drag-and-drop images, or right-click to add files to chat.

Per-session tool control

Enable, disable, or restrict what the agent can do with tool presets (default, review, none, custom) — including read-only review sessions.

MCP server management

Manage MCP servers from a dedicated tab: connection state, tools, project overrides, and codemode, deferred, direct, or hidden exposure — with OAuth sign-in and codemode settings, no JSON editing.

Live system prompt inspector

Open the System Prompt tab to see exactly what the model receives for the active session — SYSTEM.md, settings overrides, and extension modifications included — with copy-to-clipboard, word wrap, and automatic updates when a new run starts.

Git integration

Draft commit messages from staged changes with one click, see the current branch in the footer, and preview proposed diffs before applying them.

Built for working without the terminal

The goal of the Pi coding agent GUI is simple: use Pi in VS Code without ever needing the terminal. Concretely, that means:

  • Onboarding that detects or installs the pi binary for you.
  • Providers, OAuth logins, and API keys managed from the Preferences tab — including custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints.
  • SYSTEM.md and APPEND_SYSTEM.md prompt files creatable and openable from the GUI.
  • A System Prompt tab that shows the live, final prompt the model receives — SYSTEM.md, settings overrides, and extension modifications included — with copy-to-clipboard and word wrap. Refreshes automatically on every new run.
  • An MCP tab (press 0) for servers from Pi's global mcp.json and trusted project files — connection state, tools, project overrides, exposure, and OAuth sign-in.
  • MCP & Codemode settings that show each effective value's source (Project, Global, or Default) and control codemode mode, inline tool budget, and automatic activation.
  • Project trust for project-local .pi settings, MCP servers, packages, and extensions, with decisions shared with the Pi CLI through trust.json.
  • A Light Mode toggle for running lean local models via llama.cpp.
  • Diagnostics log, update checks, and native-addon rebuilds as buttons, not shell commands.

Compare it with the raw CLI in the Pi coding agent guide, or install it in five minutes.