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A lot of harnesses compress the context when it becomes massive, Pi doesn't do that out of the box (EDIT: that's wrong, as pointed out below). It can be both go

A lot of harnesses compress the context when it becomes massive, Pi doesn't do that out of the box (EDIT: that's wrong, as pointed out below). It can be both good and bad. Also since it doesn't have a lot of tools out of the box, the context is not polluted with external tool call descriptions that the agent has to be aware of. Basically, it doesn't handle the context "better", it barely does anything special to it, which can actually be better for cost efficiency.

the_duke 2mo ago
That's not true, pi auto-compacts when getting close to the context window limit?
rahimnathwani 2mo ago
Pi has auto compaction enabled by default: https://pi.dev/docs/latest/compaction https://pi.dev/docs/latest/compaction
- TheRoque 2mo ago
  Ok my bad. I remember hearing that it was a criticism of common harnesses and that the creator of Pi wanted more control over that feature, so I assumed it wasn't enabled by default. Thank for pointing it out !
  - rahimnathwani 2mo ago
    It was introduced in late 2025: https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/issues/92 https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/issues/92
- alfiedotwtf 2mo ago
  It’s failed every single time I’ve tried, and yes I’ve tried all the auto-compaction extensions :( So unless it’s been fixed or someone knows a work around, Pi is DOA - I’ve found that on a MULTI tool call (ie one prompt firing off multiple tool calls until it prompts you again) that’s close to hitting the auto-compaction limit (default compactor or extension) it will either keep going until your context spills over and you OOM, or it interrupts itself to compact but then loses the context. From reading issue after issue on GitHub, I think it’s because Pi doesn’t let extension writers (nor the built-in compactor) hook in between each tool call and so the only place to check if it can compact is when it finishes a request and is about to wait for the next prompt - too late by then

the_duke 2mo ago

That's not true, pi auto-compacts when getting close to the context window limit?

rahimnathwani 2mo ago

Pi has auto compaction enabled by default: https://pi.dev/docs/latest/compaction https://pi.dev/docs/latest/compaction

TheRoque 2mo ago
Ok my bad. I remember hearing that it was a criticism of common harnesses and that the creator of Pi wanted more control over that feature, so I assumed it wasn't enabled by default. Thank for pointing it out !
- rahimnathwani 2mo ago
  It was introduced in late 2025: https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/issues/92 https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/issues/92
alfiedotwtf 2mo ago
It’s failed every single time I’ve tried, and yes I’ve tried all the auto-compaction extensions :( So unless it’s been fixed or someone knows a work around, Pi is DOA - I’ve found that on a MULTI tool call (ie one prompt firing off multiple tool calls until it prompts you again) that’s close to hitting the auto-compaction limit (default compactor or extension) it will either keep going until your context spills over and you OOM, or it interrupts itself to compact but then loses the context. From reading issue after issue on GitHub, I think it’s because Pi doesn’t let extension writers (nor the built-in compactor) hook in between each tool call and so the only place to check if it can compact is when it finishes a request and is about to wait for the next prompt - too late by then