I heavily use the Pi harness with DeepSeek-v4-pro directly from the DeepSeek API almost exclusively and I have have barely ever felt the need for something different. I have some OpenRouter credits and API key ready to go if DeepSeek fails me, and that almost never happens. It's also unbelievably cheap - so cheap, in fact, that I have started using it even for trivial tasks. I use it for coding, code review, managing my systems in general, and even regular-old-questions. Pi is minimal in many regards including system prompt, tools, and UI, and I found this quality much more preferable than what the other harnesses provide. Currently I use only two extensions to extend Pi's capabilities: a web search tool and a page fetch tool. I might look into getting more as the need arises.

I used to be a heavy Claude Code user but I ended my subscription around the time this Fable nonsense started, as I really don't like the direction Anthropic is taking. I now spend less, get more done, have a better time doing it, and feel better about it.

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