PI-Desktop is a local-first desktop workspace for AI coding agents, built with Electron, a Rust host core, and the pi Agent Harness. It lets users open local projects, connect cloud or local models through providers such as OpenAI-compatible APIs, manage projects and long-running sessions, and review file changes and command output.
Its architecture separates the React renderer, Electron desktop orchestration, Rust-managed permissions, filesystem access, SQLite persistence and secrets, and a pi Agent sidecar responsible for the agent loop, model interaction, and streaming. Agent, Plan, and Goal modes provide different approval boundaries; agents can read and edit files, run commands, and delegate exploration, implementation, research, testing, or review to background Subagents.
The workspace supports MCP servers, Skills, installable Plugins, model and provider switching, session imports, notifications, context checkpoints, and a plugin marketplace. Conversations are stored locally as JSONL with a SQLite index, settings and logs remain on the machine, credentials use the operating-system keychain, and model requests go directly to the configured provider or endpoint. Plugin processes are permission-gated and isolated from the renderer, but plugins remain user-trusted code rather than a complete operating-system sandbox. It is an early-preview cross-platform application distributed for macOS, Windows, and Linux under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0.