Pi-Bolt

The Pi coding agent, compiled ahead of time to native code.
One executable for Linux x86-64 and ARM64, macOS on Apple silicon and Windows x64. No JIT, no Node.js or Bun required.

Pi-Bolt is the Pi you already use, with the same commands, sessions, settings, providers and extensions. Every function is compiled to machine code when the executable is built, so nothing is parsed or JIT-compiled at launch. It starts two to three times sooner than Pi on Bun and uses about a third of its CPU over a session; against Pi on Node it streams long answers and writes large files 18 to 100 times more cheaply.

_{GitHub's Linux x86-64 runner, one CPU. Pi-Bolt 0.9.2 against Pi 1.2.0 on stock Bun 1.4.2 and Node 24; lower is better. See Benchmarks.}

curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | sh

The same command installs Pi-Bolt on Linux x86-64 and ARM64, on macOS, and on Android in Termux. On Arch Linux there is also a community package in the AUR, pi-bolt-avx2-bin-release-git (the x86-64 AVX2 build, signature checked): paru -S pi-bolt-avx2-bin-release-git.

On Windows, in PowerShell:

irm https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.ps1 | iex

or in Command Prompt:

powershell -c "irm https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.ps1 | iex"

or npm install -g --allow-scripts=pi-bolt pi-bolt, or bun add -g --trust pi-bolt. Then run pi-bolt in your project. Your Pi configuration in ~/.pi/agent is used as is; new to Pi? Run /login to connect a provider. pi-bolt update installs the latest release, pi-bolt update --rollback puts back the build it replaced, and pi-bolt update --channel beta takes pre-releases too.

The installer verifies the release signature and offers three optional extensions by OpenSec:

The default build has no JIT: Pi's own code is compiled machine code, and an extension loaded at run time is interpreted. Light extensions don't notice. For extensions that do heavy work (search, parsing) or use bun:ffi, install the JIT build. Pi itself stays compiled, so it is within about 5% of the default.

curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | PIBOLT_VARIANT=arm64-jit sh   # macOS, Linux ARM64, Termux
curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | PIBOLT_VARIANT=x64-jit sh     # Linux x86-64

On Windows, run $env:PIBOLT_VARIANT = "x64-jit" before the PowerShell command. With npm, keep PIBOLT_VARIANT set in your shell profile; it is read on every run. pi-bolt --version then ends in JIT on, and pi-bolt update keeps the build you chose.

On the default build, an extension that needs the JIT (it calls into a native library through bun:ffi) fails with a line that names the extension and gives the command that switches to the JIT build.

In Termux from F-Droid or GitHub (the Google Play version has no glibc packages), run the same curl ... | sh command. Pi-Bolt is a glibc program and Android's libc is not glibc, so the installer first installs Termux's glibc (pkg install glibc-repo && pkg install glibc, after asking), sets it as the executable's loader, and links pi-bolt into $PREFIX/bin. pi-bolt is a small launcher that starts Pi-Bolt in Android's time zone and without Termux's LD_PRELOAD (a library of Android's libc, which glibc cannot load); the programs Pi-Bolt starts get it back. The installer copies Termux's resolv.conf and hosts to $PREFIX/glibc/etc, where Termux's glibc reads them.

• Linux x86-64 or ARM64 with glibc 2.17 or later (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, RHEL/Rocky 8+, Amazon Linux 2, Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit). musl is not supported.
• Android 7 or later on 64-bit ARM, in Termux.
• macOS 13 or later on Apple silicon. Install with the installer or npm (Troubleshooting).
• Windows 10 (1809) or later, or Windows 11, on x64. Install with the installer or npm; for problems, see Troubleshooting: Windows.
• Windows on ARM64 runs the x64 build, in Windows 11's x64 emulation.

Pi-Bolt installs next to Pi as pi-bolt, so both can stay installed. Running the installer again updates, reinstalls or uninstalls it.

Pi-Bolt 0.9.2 against Pi 1.2.0 on stock Bun 1.4.2 and on Node 24, on GitHub's Linux x86-64 runner, one CPU each; lower is better.

Against 0.8.5, 0.9.2 streams long answers and large files with 16–37% less CPU, and starts with up to a quarter less memory. Linux ARM64, macOS, Windows, other Pi builds (PiG, oh-my-pi, OpenCode) and the method: docs/BENCHMARKS.md.

Pi extensions work unchanged. The default build has no JIT, so an extension loaded at run time is interpreted; compile the ones you use every day into Pi-Bolt, where they run as machine code:

pi-bolt compile

It compiles the extensions installed on this machine into your Pi-Bolt (Linux and macOS) with the release's own compiler, and pi-bolt update compiles them into each new release. See docs/PLUGINS.md.

Pi-Bolt's grep and find tools are on by default and search in-process, following .gitignore, with nothing to install. With opensec-pi-fff or @ff-labs/pi-fff loaded, FFF's search tools are used instead.

Pi-Bolt uses Pi's agent directory (~/.pi/agent) and shared packages list. Ordinary pi-bolt install and pi-bolt remove update that shared list, just as Pi does, and drop Pi-Bolt's own entry for that package, so both load what the shared list declares. Add --pi-bolt to change only Pi-Bolt's overrides. Using fictional package names:

pi-bolt install --pi-bolt npm:@example/bolt-tools
pi-bolt remove --pi-bolt npm:@example/shared-tools

piBolt.packages extends the shared list. A -source entry excludes an inherited package from Pi-Bolt without changing Pi:

{
  "packages": ["npm:@juicesharp/rpiv-todo"],
  "piBolt": { "packages": ["-npm:@juicesharp/rpiv-todo", "npm:opensec-pi-todo"] }
}

Other shared packages remain inherited. A piBolt.packages list copied from packages by Pi-Bolt before 0.9.1 is converted once into exclusions and differing entries, so Pi-Bolt keeps loading what it did. See Configuration.

In a Herdr pane, Pi-Bolt shows up as pi-bolt (idle, working or blocked), and a Herdr restart reopens the same conversation in the same pane. There is nothing to install; "-builtin:herdr" in the extensions setting turns it off. Restoring a session needs Herdr 0.9.2 or later.

To start other agents in Herdr panes from Pi-Bolt, install pi-herdr: pi-bolt install npm:@andrewjacop/pi-herdr.

pi-bolt --acp speaks the Agent Client Protocol, so Pi-Bolt runs in the agent panel of Zed, JetBrains IDEs, VS Code (through an ACP extension), Neovim and other ACP editors, with your Pi settings, extensions, skills and sessions. In Zed's settings.json:

"agent_servers": {
  "Pi-Bolt": { "type": "custom", "command": "/full/path/to/pi-bolt", "args": ["--acp"], "env": {} }
}

Other editors, and what the editor gets: docs/ACP.md.

pi-bolt --mcp is a Model Context Protocol server, so other agents give Pi-Bolt a task with its prompt tool and continue the session in later calls. In Claude Code:

claude mcp add pi-bolt -- /full/path/to/pi-bolt --mcp

Other clients, and what the tools do: docs/MCP.md.

pi-bolt doctor prints a report of your installation, in plain text to paste into an issue: the build and how it was installed, whether the release's signature verifies, which extensions are compiled in, run at run time or fail to load, how Pi's packages and piBolt.packages differ, the Herdr and editor setup, and the problems it finds, such as another pi-bolt earlier on your PATH. It prints no keys or tokens, and shows your home folder as ~. pi-bolt doctor --offline leaves out the release signature and the check for a newer version.

1. Bun bundles Pi and compiles it to JavaScriptCore bytecode.
2. An ahead-of-time compiler turns every function into optimized x86-64 or ARM64 machine code, through B3, the back end of JavaScriptCore's top-tier JIT.
3. A prebuilt heap holds Pi's modules already loaded, and is mapped from the executable at launch.
4. A training profile orders the code so that startup touches as few pages as possible.

The compiler builds on oven-sh/WebKit#743. Pi-Bolt ports it to x86-64 and macOS and adds its own code generation and runtime work (docs/ARCHITECTURE.md). packages/ is the Pi release named in sources.json with Pi-Bolt's changes on top; the engine changes are in patches/.

git clone https://github.com/opensec-git/Pi-Bolt.git && cd Pi-Bolt
scripts/fetch-runtime.sh            # the released Pi-Bolt runtime (or build it: docs/BUILDING.md)
scripts/prepare-pi.sh               # builds the Pi in this repository
scripts/build-pi.sh                 # out/pi-bolt/pi
tests/aot/run.sh                    # engine tests

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Report security issues privately, as described in SECURITY.md.

MIT. Release executables include Bun (MIT), JavaScriptCore (LGPL-2.0 and BSD), ICU (Unicode License) and Pi (MIT); see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Built on Pi by Mario Zechner and contributors, and Bun by Oven.