Pi coding agent's config folder is out of place on Linux

Pi coding agent: config folder is out of place on Linux

Pi coding agent's config folder is out of place on Linux

A GitHub issue highlights that the Pi coding agent stores its config in $HOME on Linux, violating the XDG Base Directory Spec. Users request support for XDG_CONFIG_HOME or a fallback to $HOME/.pi. The maintainer acknowledges the issue but resists change due to migration concerns, suggesting PI_CONFIG_DIR as an escape hatch. However, users report that PI_CONFIG_DIR doesn't work as expected, and the discussion reveals a need for clearer configuration options.

It's really not clear what I have to do to get Pi to not pollute my home directory.
  1. Systemerror7A69

    This has been frustrating me for a while and is part of why I explore other coding agents.

    As many advantages as pi has in some areas, there are definitely areas where I believe the hype to be a bit overstated. While the config folder is, ultimately, not relevant for performance, how this was and is continued to handled is a bit frustrating for me.

    They have made it abundantly clear it's not going to change however so I'm looking at how other coding agents perform currently.

  2. joshka

    This feels like the sort of decision that well meaning folks that manage utilities can disagree on. It's frustrating every time it happens because it's usually a fairly reasonable perspective to ask for XDG / operating system specific support for folders to be respected. (e.g. macOS's ~/Library stuff).

    Posting a github issue like this though feels like an easy brigading target, so please don't do that.

  3. bArray

    404 on the page, main page: "Cannot retrieve latest commit at this time." [1]. GitHub are you okay?

    Edit: Known issue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49330597

    [1] https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/

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2026-08-17