percho

Minimalist desktop GUI for the Pi coding agent — the same engine as the Pi CLI, in a clean visual interface. Multi-session chat, visual tool approvals, and custom themes.

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Demo

percho chat page

Chat

Chat page demo

Custom background & dark theme

Chat with custom background image in dark theme

Settings — providers & models

Settings page demo

Settings — appearance (theme & background)

Appearance settings

Why percho?

percho embeds the official Pi SDK (@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent) in the Electron main process. It is not a fork and not a reimplementation — it runs the same engine as the Pi CLI and inherits Pi's native strengths:

Extensibility — TypeScript extensions, skills, and prompt templates installed for the Pi CLI work here too, including project-local ones (with a trust prompt before loading). Adapt Pi to your workflows, no forking required.
Shared configuration — same ~/.pi/agent/ directory as the CLI: sessions, auth, and model settings carry over. Start a session in the terminal, continue it in the GUI.
Providers — subscriptions (Claude Pro/Max, ChatGPT Plus/Pro Codex, GitHub Copilot) and API keys for Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, Bedrock, and more.

And for those who prefer a GUI over a TUI:

Minimalist by design — a clean, uncluttered interface that stays true to Pi's aesthetic
Visual permission gates — approve or deny each tool call from a dock, backed by a per-tool rule engine
Multi-session sidebar, per-session composer drafts, follow-up queue with undo
Streaming markdown rendering, image previews, message copy
Agent-initiated image display — a built-in show_image tool lets the agent deliberately show you images inline (single or grouped), without turning every tool result into noise
Custom background image with adjustable overlay dimming, light/dark/system themes

Download

Prebuilt installers are published on the Releases page.

Platform	Download
macOS (Apple Silicon)	`percho-mac-arm64.dmg`
macOS (Intel)	`percho-mac-x64.dmg`
Windows	`percho-windows-x64.exe`

Builds are ad-hoc signed (no Developer ID certificate). On macOS, the first launch after a download may show "Apple cannot verify Percho is free from malware" — that's Gatekeeper blocking an un-notarized app. To open it:

System Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll to the bottom → click Open Anyway next to the Percho entry, then confirm with your password or Touch ID (recommended).

Or in Terminal: xattr -cr "/Applications/Percho.app".

Only the first launch of each downloaded version needs this — later updates install automatically in-app and skip Gatekeeper entirely. On Windows, click "More info" → "Run anyway" when SmartScreen appears.

Configuration

API keys are never stored in this repo or written into the app bundle. ~/.pi/agent/models.json references environment variables (e.g. $AI_OPS_API_KEY) and keys stay in your shell environment. If you already use the Pi CLI, your existing setup just works.

Development

Prerequisites: Node.js >= 22.19.

npm install
npm run dev

npm workspaces monorepo, three packages: packages/shared (IPC contracts), packages/backend (the only place that imports the Pi SDK), packages/desktop (Electron + React 19 + Tailwind 4 + Zustand). Common commands: npm run typecheck / test / lint / build / dist.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide. If you are in China and the Electron binary download stalls, set ELECTRON_MIRROR=https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/electron/ first.

Disclaimer

percho is a community project. It is not built by or affiliated with the Pi team (earendil-works).

License

MIT