Pi-Bolt
The Pi coding agent, compiled ahead of time to native code.
One executable for Linux x86-64, 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, uses a quarter to a third of its CPU over a session, and handles long answers and large files six to seventy-five times more cheaply.
AMD EPYC 7B13, Linux. Pi-Bolt 0.8.5 against Pi 1.1.0 as released on stock Bun 1.4.2 and Node 24; medians of interleaved runs, lower is better. See Benchmarks.
Note
Pi-Bolt is an independent fork of Pi, not affiliated with Pi's authors or with Oven.
Install
curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | shOn 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.
The installer verifies the release signature and offers three optional extensions by OpenSec:
| Extension | What it does |
|---|---|
opensec-pi-subagents |
Specialized agents in separate sessions, parallel workflows and scheduled jobs |
opensec-pi-todo |
A todo list for the model, shown as a live panel above the editor |
opensec-pi-fff |
pi-fff's fast fuzzy find, grep and @-mentions, at full speed on the default build |
JIT build, for heavy plugins
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 curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | PIBOLT_VARIANT=x64-jit sh # Linux
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.
Manual download
Download a build from the latest release, check it against
SHA256SUMS, unpack it and run ./pi (on Windows, pi-bolt.exe).
| Download | For |
|---|---|
pi-bolt-linux-x64.tar.xz |
Linux, CPUs with AVX2 (Intel Haswell, AMD Zen and later) |
pi-bolt-linux-x64-baseline.tar.xz |
Linux, any x86-64 CPU |
pi-bolt-darwin-arm64.tar.xz |
macOS, Apple silicon |
pi-bolt-win32-x64.zip |
Windows x64; compiled code on CPUs with AVX2, bytecode on others |
-jit builds are for heavy use of plugins loaded at run time; the runtime archive is for compiling plugins in.
Requirements
- Linux x86-64 with glibc 2.17 or later (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, RHEL/Rocky 8+, Amazon Linux 2). musl is not supported.
- 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.
- Linux and Windows on ARM64 are not available yet.
Pi-Bolt installs next to Pi as pi-bolt, so both can stay installed. Running the installer again updates, reinstalls or
uninstalls it.
Benchmarks
Pi-Bolt 0.8.5 against Pi 1.1.0 as released, on stock Bun 1.4.2 and on Node, against two other fast Pi builds, PiG 0.4.1, the Go port of Pi (based on Pi 1.0.3), and oh-my-pi 18.8.7, a fork of Pi on Bun, and against OpenCode 2.0. Runs are interleaved on the same machine; medians, lower is better.
Linux x86-64 (AMD EPYC 7B13)
| Benchmark | Pi-Bolt | PiG | oh-my-pi | OpenCode 2.0 | Pi on Bun | Pi on Node 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writing a 200 KB file through a tool call | 0.6 s | 77.5 s | 3.3 s | 2.4 s | 24.0 s | 32.5 s |
| CPU, streaming a 60,000-character answer | 2.6 s | 16.7 s | 2.2 s | 8.6 s | 40.2 s | 38.7 s |
| Memory after a 4.2M-token session | 134 MB | 349 MB | – | 273 MB¹ | 253 MB | 536 MB |
| Memory of a session in tmux | 22 MB | 48 MB | 334 MB | –² | 84 MB | 185 MB |
| CPU, interactive session (5 prompts) | 193 ms | 2,458 ms | 2,800 ms | 8,593 ms | 746 ms | 1,093 ms |
CPU, one prompt (pi -p) |
61 ms | 227 ms | 1,524 ms | 2,220 ms | 283 ms | 550 ms |
Peak memory, one prompt (pi -p) |
123 MB | 55 MB | 505 MB | 346 MB | 147 MB | 135 MB |
| Ready to type | 38 ms | 31 ms | 890 ms | 1,687 ms | 116 ms | 296 ms |
macOS (Apple M5)
| Benchmark | Pi-Bolt | PiG | oh-my-pi | OpenCode 2.0 | Pi on Bun | Pi on Node 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writing a 200 KB file through a tool call | 0.4 s | 56.8 s | 2.5 s | 1.7 s | 22.6 s | 28.1 s |
| CPU, streaming a 60,000-character answer | 6.5 s | 16.5 s | 5.1 s | 13.6 s | 37.9 s | 37.6 s |
| Memory after a 4.2M-token session | 38 MB | 330 MB | – | 260 MB¹ | 92 MB | 1,581 MB |
| Memory of a session in tmux | 24 MB | 55 MB | 330 MB | –² | 65 MB | 162 MB |
| CPU, interactive session (5 prompts) | 139 ms | 2,367 ms | 2,374 ms | 6,493 ms | 561 ms | 937 ms |
CPU, one prompt (pi -p) |
49 ms | 230 ms | 1,030 ms | 1,548 ms | 221 ms | 512 ms |
Peak memory, one prompt (pi -p) |
70 MB | 50 MB | 419 MB | 379 MB | 120 MB | 138 MB |
| Ready to type | 41 ms | 39 ms | 612 ms | 1,489 ms | 100 ms | 348 ms |
PiG starts a little sooner and its single-prompt process is smaller; oh-my-pi streams a long answer with a little less CPU.
Pi-Bolt uses the least CPU in sessions and per prompt, the least memory over a session, and writes large files fastest.
oh-my-pi compacts a long conversation on its own, so the long session does not compare it (–). OpenCode 2.0.27 (@opencode/cli)
runs with its own server in the same process tree (--standalone), in a separate run next to Pi-Bolt on the same machines.
¹ The process started, without OpenCode's server process: its memory is higher. ² OpenCode did not finish its answers in tmux.
Windows x64 (Intel Core i5-1335U laptop; Pi-Bolt 0.8.5, Pi 1.1.0 as released)
| Benchmark | Pi-Bolt | Pi on Bun 1.4.2 | Pi on Node 24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing a 200 KB file through a tool call | 0.5 s | 38.1 s | 26.6 s |
| CPU, streaming a 60,000-character answer | 6.9 s | 41.1 s | 32.6 s |
| Memory after a 4.2M-token session | 122 MB | 248 MB | 413 MB |
| Memory of a session in a terminal (ConPTY) | 32 MB | 97 MB | 60 MB |
| CPU, interactive session (5 prompts) | 278 ms | 805 ms | 1,125 ms |
CPU, one prompt (pi -p) |
92 ms | 329 ms | 544 ms |
| Ready to type | 105 ms | 177 ms | 311 ms |
More charts: time, CPU and memory on Linux
Method, raw data and the macOS and Windows charts: docs/BENCHMARKS.md. (Memory on Windows is the private working set.)
Plugins
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 the executable, where they run as machine code:
scripts/build-pi.sh --plugins my-plugins/plugins.ts --out out/pi-bolt-plugins
See docs/PLUGINS.md.
Pi and Pi-Bolt side by side
Pi-Bolt uses Pi's agent directory (~/.pi/agent), so your Pi setup works in it as it is. Packages you install with pi-bolt
go to Pi-Bolt's own list, piBolt.packages, and Pi keeps using packages, so each can load different packages:
{
"packages": ["npm:@juicesharp/rpiv-todo"],
"piBolt": { "packages": ["npm:opensec-pi-todo"] }
}Without piBolt.packages, Pi-Bolt loads packages. See Configuration.
Herdr
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.
How it works
- Bun bundles Pi and compiles it to JavaScriptCore bytecode.
- 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.
- A prebuilt heap holds Pi's modules already loaded, and is mapped from the executable at launch.
- 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/.
Documentation
| Architecture | What the executable contains, how it is built, what happens at launch |
| Building | Building the runtime and Pi from source, training profiles, tests |
| Benchmarks | Method, results and raw data |
| Plugins | Porting Pi extensions and writing them for AOT |
| Troubleshooting | Diagnostics, environment variables, known limitations |
| Releasing | CI, releases, signing |
Development
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.
Star history
License
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.