Repository navigation
What PiCode Is
PiCode is a distribution of the editor, not a plugin for it. It takes the MIT-licensed VS Code source, builds it the way VSCodium builds it (minus the Microsoft branding and telemetry), and integrates an agent — Pi — as the editor's own chat participant, with Gentle AI as the workflow harness on top.
You download PiCode, open it, and the agentic environment is already
there: the editor's chat says @pi, the model is connected from
settings with your subscription or an API key, your skills and memory
live inside PiCode's own profile, and nothing you do touches a Microsoft
service. It is portable — the whole state is a data/ folder beside the
executable — and it is free and complete: the paid part of the plan is
cloud sync of that folder, never a feature lock.
| Extension-based setups | PiCode | |
|---|---|---|
| Agent surface | a webview bolted on | the editor's own Chat, with @pi
|
| Runtime | whatever is on PATH
|
Pi pinned, updated from inside |
| Configuration | spread across profiles | one data/ profile |
| Copilot | disabled but still shipped | product keys deleted from the build |
| The core | you cannot touch it | you compile it from source |
- Not a new editor. Everything unrelated to the agent stays stock VS Code behaviour. PiCode changes identity, removes what it promises to remove, and adds the agent layer.
- Not a reimplementation of Pi or Gentle AI. Provider OAuth, the model catalog, skills, memory — Pi and Gentle AI already ship them. The work is showing them in the editor's own surfaces, and that rule is enforced (why).
- Not a cloud product. It works fully offline against your own provider keys. Cloud profile sync is a paid service on top; the local product is never trimmed to sell it.
- Host — the agent that executes: Pi. PiCode has an internal one and can optionally connect to an external one.
- Harness — the layer that organizes work above the host: Gentle AI.
- Pin — the exact upstream version PiCode is built and verified against.
-
Delta — the data file that describes PiCode's identity,
distribution/product-delta.json.
The full list is in the Glossary.
Next: Getting PiCode · Architecture