{"slug": "an-agentic-ide-that-follows-pi-s-philosophy", "title": "An agentic IDE that follows Pi's philosophy", "summary": "ThinkRail released an agentic IDE that embeds the Pi coding agent as a library inside its own process, sharing Pi's hidden `~/.pi` folder so users can switch between ThinkRail and Pi's native CLI without losing configuration, provider and model lists, or chat history. ThinkRail positions itself as a thin GUI layer over Pi, bundling extensions including `pi-web-access`, `pi-visualize`, `pi-spec-graph`, `pi-thinkrail-workflow` and `pi-todos`, and also discovers skills in `~/.claude`, `~/.codex`, `~/.copilot` and `~/.gemini` folders. Native desktop apps are packaged with Electrobun and run identically to the CLI `thinkrail` app, with installation packages available for macOS and Windows.", "body_md": "## ThinkRail - Pi compatibility\n\nThinkRail comes with its own Pi coding agent, embedded as a library. Pi runs inside ThinkRail’s own process.\nIf you have Pi installed separately, both share Pi’s hidden folder, `~/.pi`. This allows ThinkRail to access\nPi’s configuration and extensions. For example, ThinkRail gains access to Pi’s list of providers and models,\nand to the chats’ history. If until now you have worked in Pi’s native CLI, you can switch to ThinkRail without\nlosing any of your work. (The same goes the other way: you can run a session in ThinkRail and later switch\nto the Pi CLI, if you want.)\n\nThinkRail is on purpose a thin layer on top of Pi; nothing about how the agent thinks, what it is allowed to do, or how it manages context is ThinkRail’s to reinvent. That is Pi’s job, and always will be. ThinkRail’s job, in turn, is to add a simple, readable GUI and just a handful of well-designed features that we believe to be valuable, all without compromising Pi’s philosophy.\n\nSimilarly, Pi’s skills and extensions are automatically recognized and usable from ThinkRail. There are, however, a few caveats:\n\n1. ThinkRail will run a given skill or extension on its own embedded Pi, which might be different from your native Pi installation. In some cases, this may lead to the skill or extension not working correctly.\n2. Extensions that alter Pi’s visual interface do not work in ThinkRail. For example, Pi themes are meant for Pi’s terminal UI, while ThinkRail uses its own theme system. However, extensions that add engine-side behavior (such as tools, event hooks, slash commands, and even simple dialogs) should work in ThinkRail.\n3. ThinkRail comes with a number of bundled extensions: `pi-web-access` ,`pi-visualize` ,`pi-spec-graph` ,`pi-thinkrail-workflow` ,`pi-todos` , and a few others. On top of that, it looks for other skills in folders such as`.claude/` and`.gemini/` , if you have them. If two extensions register the same tool name, Pi keeps both loaded, reports a conflict, and the load order decides which one is used.\n\n## The Skills window\n\nSome skills are project-dependent. ThinkRail discovers them in the `~/.pi`, `~/.claude`, `~/.codex`, `~/.copilot`, and\n`~/.gemini`, but also - in the case of Pi, Claude, and Gemini - in their counterparts in the specific project you are working on.\nTherefore, when you open ThinkRail, you first need to choose your project, and the workspace within it, because the list\nof the project’s skills may differ depending on the workspace. Then, click the “Skills” button in the top-right corner\nof the main view. When you click it, you will see a window with a list of available skills. The list is divided\ninto two parts: first, a list of skills bundled with ThinkRail (some of which I mentioned in the previous chapter),\nand then skills coming from Pi, other AI agents, and those defined in the project.\n\nFor the same reason, if you switch to the current project from another one, the list of skills may change. Also, ThinkRail may detect that changes were made to the skill descriptions in the folders it is monitoring. In both cases, you will see a “Skills changes on disk” popup and a “Reload” button that you can use to refresh the list.\n\n## Desktop apps\n\nThe minimalist approach to software development pays off in many ways. One of them is that we were able to ship native\ndesktop apps with relative ease. They are packaged with Electrobun, and otherwise they run identically to\nthe CLI `thinkrail` app that opens in your browser. The difference is purely a matter of how you like to work:\nare you a person who prefers a desktop icon you can click and a distinct window for your ThinkRail app?\nOr is the terminal the first thing you open after starting your laptop, so that you would rather start ThinkRail\nby typing a command? In any case, before you make the decision, try out the desktop app.\nGo to [**our main webpage**](https://jb.gg/osk2n7) and choose an installation package for your operating system: macOS, Windows, or Linux (Ubuntu) - or simply use the widget at the bottom of this blog post.\n\nBy the way, find us on social media platforms: [**X/Twitter**](https://x.com/ThinkRailAI), [** YouTube**](https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkRailAI), and [** TikTok**](https://www.tiktok.com/@thinkrail).\nYou can also browse [**our GitHub repository**](https://github.com/JetBrains/thinkrail),\ntake [**our survey**](https://forms.gle/es1ksqAax6hnDWCP8), and join [** our Discord server**](https://discord.gg/Wybu9ceWkY)\nto say “hi!” and let us know what you think. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.\n\nHappy developing!\n\n*ThinkRail is backed by JetBrains, leveraging their expertise in building developer tools that are both powerful\nand intuitive.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-agentic-ide-that-follows-pi-s-philosophy", "canonical_source": "https://thinkrail.ai/blog/thinkrail-pi-skills-and-desktop-apps/", "published_at": "2026-10-01 00:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-24 09:10:59.985232+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-tools", "developer-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": ["ThinkRail", "Pi", "Electrobun", "pi-web-access", "pi-visualize", "pi-spec-graph", "pi-thinkrail-workflow", "pi-todos"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-agentic-ide-that-follows-pi-s-philosophy", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-agentic-ide-that-follows-pi-s-philosophy.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-agentic-ide-that-follows-pi-s-philosophy.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/an-agentic-ide-that-follows-pi-s-philosophy.jsonld"}}