Apex Code

A provider-agnostic agentic coding harness, forked from Pi. Apex Code combines Pi's provider and terminal foundations with permissions, OS sandboxing, scalable context, a broader tool surface, delegation, durable execution, evidence, and cost visibility.

Install

Apex Code is pre-alpha and has published no stable version, so latest names the newest verified prerelease and a plain install resolves it. It requires Node.js 22.19 or newer. It installs the same way with npm, pnpm, Yarn, or Bun — all resolve it from the same npm registry:

npm install --global apex-code      # npm
pnpm add --global apex-code         # pnpm
yarn global add apex-code           # Yarn
bun add --global apex-code          # Bun

apex-code --version
apex-code

Apex Code does not operate a separate shell/curl installer or a standalone binary release channel — a package manager install is the only distribution channel. Update it the same way:

npm install --global apex-code
# or, from an existing installation:
apex-code update --self

First run

Configure a model provider interactively with /login <provider>, or use apex-code auth check --provider <provider> to verify credentials. Run apex-code --help for flags and apex-code --mode rpc for process integration.

Inside a session, /config is a searchable index for settings, models, provider authentication, and project trust. Resource, extension, and MCP-adapter changes remain in the dedicated apex-code config manager so their scope and trust behavior stay explicit.

Sessions, settings, credentials, extensions, prompts, and other state live under ~/.apex-code/agent/ by default. Project-local resources live under .apex-code/.

Safety and capabilities

Every tool has a declared contract and passes through the permission gate. On Linux and macOS, every command that can start a session runs inside the OS sandbox: the workspace is the only writable location, the invoking account's home directory is hidden, and egress goes through an allowlist proxy that permits the built-in model-provider hosts by default and reports anything it refuses. Add hosts with network.allowedHosts in global settings.json. Windows is a required build/test portability target, but its sandbox backend remains unsupported. Built-in capabilities include file/search tools, shell execution, web tools, user questions, planning, and bounded subagent delegation.

Network and privacy

Apex Code sends no install or update telemetry to this project. At startup it may make a single version request to the npm registry for apex-code; set APEX_CODE_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK=1 to disable it. APEX_CODE_OFFLINE=1 disables startup network operations. Model requests go to the provider you configure. Optional OTLP traces are exported only when you explicitly configure your own collector.

Bundled model catalogs work without a hosted catalog. A remote overlay is contacted only when APEX_CODE_MODEL_CATALOG_URL names one. /share asks before uploading the complete HTML session to a secret (unlisted, not private) GitHub Gist; it returns the Gist URL and adds a preview link only when APEX_CODE_SHARE_VIEWER_URL names a viewer.

Environment compatibility

Canonical runtime controls use the APEX_CODE_* prefix, including APEX_CODE_OFFLINE, APEX_CODE_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK, APEX_CODE_PACKAGE_DIR, APEX_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL, APEX_CODE_MODEL_CATALOG_URL, and APEX_CODE_SHARE_VIEWER_URL. Temporary PI_* aliases remain for compatibility through the pre-1.0 line and will be removed no earlier than Apex Code 1.0.0 and 2027-02-16. Canonical values win when both forms are set.

Extension callback variable names, the package manifest pi key, and imports from @earendil-works/pi-ai / @earendil-works/pi-tui are retained compatibility and upstream vocabulary, not executable or product branding.

Documentation

• docs/ — CLI, extension, provider, theme, and integration reference
• containerization.md — container usage
• CHANGELOG.md — current Apex Code changes and upstream history
• Source repository

Support and security

Apex Code is currently maintained by one person on a best-effort basis; see the support policy for response targets, the supported-version line, and platform support. Report vulnerabilities privately per SECURITY.md.

Relationship to Pi

Apex Code forks pi-coding-agent and pi-agent-core, while consuming pi-ai and pi-tui as upstream dependencies. Historical Pi links, API vocabulary, and attribution remain where compatibility requires them.

License

MIT. See the source repository's LICENSE and NOTICE files.