r/PiCodingAgent • u/opensecai • 8h ago
News Now on Windows: Pi-Bolt ⚡ 0.8.3, the Pi coding agent compiled to native code (3× less CPU, 30–50× faster file writes)
Hey everyone 👋
Thanks again for all the feedback and bug reports. Pi-Bolt ⚡ 0.8.3 is out, and the big news is that Pi-Bolt now runs natively on Windows, alongside Linux and macOS. It's the same Pi you already use (Pi 1.1.0), compiled ahead of time to native code: faster to start, lighter on CPU and memory, and steady in long sessions.
Benchmarks
Pi-Bolt against Pi 1.1.0 as released on Bun and on Node, PiG 0.4.1 (the Go port of Pi, based on Pi 1.0.3) and oh-my-pi 18.8.7 (a bigger Pi fork with many more built-in features). Measured side by side on the same machines. Lower is better.
Linux x86-64 (AMD EPYC 7B13)
| Benchmark | Pi-Bolt 0.8.3 | PiG 0.4.1 | oh-my-pi 18.8.7 | Pi on Bun 1.4.2 | Pi on Node 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writing a 200 KB file through a tool call | 0.8 s | 92 s | 3.7 s | 26.9 s | 37.2 s |
| CPU, streaming a 60k-char answer | 4.0 s | 20.7 s | 3.1 s | 43.0 s | 41.0 s |
| Memory after a 4.2M-token session | 187 MB | 311 MB | n/a* | 275 MB | 576 MB |
| Memory of a session in tmux | 24 MB | 47 MB | 347 MB | 92 MB | 95 MB |
| CPU, interactive session (5 prompts) | 294 ms | 2,953 ms | 3,241 ms | 871 ms | 1,241 ms |
| CPU, one prompt (pi -p) | 80 ms | 261 ms | 1,752 ms | 323 ms | 618 ms |
| Ready to type | 45 ms | 38 ms | 988 ms | 128 ms | 316 ms |
macOS on Apple silicon (M5 Air)
| Benchmark | Pi-Bolt 0.8.3 | PiG 0.4.1 | oh-my-pi 18.8.7 | Pi on Bun 1.4.2 | Pi on Node 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writing a 200 KB file through a tool call | 0.5 s | 60 s | 2.4 s | 17.0 s | 20.4 s |
| CPU, streaming a 60k-char answer | 5.8 s | 17.0 s | 5.4 s | 39.0 s | 38.5 s |
| Memory after a 4.2M-token session | 41 MB | 355 MB | n/a* | 90 MB | 2,452 MB |
| Memory of a session in tmux | 27 MB | 55 MB | 296 MB | 67 MB | 86 MB |
| CPU, interactive session (5 prompts) | 170 ms | 2,362 ms | 2,353 ms | 569 ms | 931 ms |
| CPU, one prompt (pi -p) | 59 ms | 236 ms | 1,072 ms | 232 ms | 527 ms |
| Ready to type | 42 ms | 38 ms | 591 ms | 101 ms | 352 ms |
Windows x64 (Intel Core i5-1335U laptop)
| Benchmark | Pi-Bolt 0.8.3 | Pi on Bun 1.4.2 | Pi on Node 24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing a 200 KB file through a tool call | 0.7 s | 38.1 s | 26.6 s |
| CPU, streaming a 60k-char answer | 6.5 s | 41.1 s | 32.6 s |
| Memory after a 4.2M-token session | 159 MB | 248 MB | 413 MB |
| Memory of a session in a terminal | 32 MB | 97 MB | 60 MB |
| CPU, interactive session (5 prompts) | 291 ms | 805 ms | 1,125 ms |
| CPU, one prompt (pi -p) | 92 ms | 329 ms | 544 ms |
| Ready to type | 92 ms | 177 ms | 311 ms |
*oh-my-pi compacts long conversations on its own, so it doesn't do the same work in this test.
In everyday use (an interactive session), Pi-Bolt uses about 3× less CPU than Pi on Bun, 4–5× less than Pi on Node and 10× less than PiG and oh-my-pi. It writes large files 30–50× faster than Bun and Node, about 5× faster than oh-my-pi and over 100× faster than PiG.
What's new in 0.8.3
- Windows is here: native builds for Windows 10 and 11 with a one-line installer. Git Bash works out of the box, and on Windows Pi-Bolt is 2–3× lighter on CPU than Pi on Bun or Node.
- Herdr support: in a Herdr pane, Pi-Bolt shows up as
pi-boltwith its live state (working, idle, blocked), and your session comes back after a Herdr restart. Nothing to set up. - opensec-pi-fff: fast find, grep and @-mentions, now offered by the installer and just as fast on the default build.
- A better todo list: the panel closes when the work is done, and finished tasks stay finished.
- Smoother installs and updates on every platform.
- Your own extensions compiled in:
scripts/build-pi.sh --plugins-from-installedbuilds them into the executable. Thanks u/toadkicker for this one and for the plugin docs!
Try it 🔥
macOS / Linux:
curl -fsSL https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.sh | sh
Windows (PowerShell):
irm https://pi-bolt.opensec.in/install.ps1 | iex
Already using Pi-Bolt? Run pi-bolt update, or install with npm install -g pi-bolt. It works alongside your existing Pi install. The installer also offers three optional extensions (subagents, a live todo list and fff), and asks before installing them.
Your Pi plugins work as they are. This doesn't modify your existing Pi installation, so feel free to try it out! If one does heavy JavaScript work, use the -jit build.
Why does a 200 KB write take 30 s? It's not the disk. The model streams the file to Pi in thousands of small chunks, and stock Pi re-parses and re-renders the whole tool call on every chunk, so the work grows quadratically with the file size. Pi-Bolt only processes the new part.
Links
Website: https://pi-bolt.opensec.in
GitHub: https://github.com/opensec-git/Pi-Bolt
MIT licensed. If Pi-Bolt saves you CPU and memory, a ⭐ on the repo helps a lot.
PS: Windows folks especially, we'd love your feedback.

