pi-rnd

Scientific-method orchestration extension for PI Coding Agent.

Ports the R&D framework methodology (pre-registration, information-barrier verification, multi-judge consensus, KISS/FP discipline, reality auditing) onto the PI runtime. Ships 11 slash commands, 11 subagent definitions, 35 methodology skills, 6 gates, and 4 lifecycle hooks.

Requirements

• Node ≥ 20
• @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent (official PI runtime) installed and working

Subagent functionality is built into pi-rnd directly via PI's public SDK (createAgentSession) — no external subagent extension is required.

Develop

pi -e ./src/index.ts

PI loads .ts directly via jiti — no build needed for development. Then in the pi session:

/rnd-doctor
/rnd-start <task description>

Install (built)

npm install
npm run build
pi install ./

Subagent files in agents/ are NOT auto-discovered from npm packages. Copy them into .pi/agents/ (project-local, primary) or ~/.pi/agent/agents/ (global) before running /rnd-start:

mkdir -p .pi/agents
cp agents/*.md .pi/agents/

Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | /rnd-start <task> | Full plan → discover → design → build → audit → verify → iterate → cleanup → polish → integrate pipeline | | /rnd-doctor | Health and discovery diagnostics | | /rnd-status | Show the current state of the R&D pipeline for the active project | | /rnd-history | List past R&D pipeline sessions for this project with SHIP/NO-SHIP verdicts | | /rnd-scan | Scan the project for facts (package manager, env, CI, external URLs) and write project-facts.md | | /rnd-brainstorm <idea> | Brainstorm a vague idea into a focused plan; writes brainstorm.md | | /rnd-resume | Identify the most recent incomplete R&D session and the wave to resume at | | /rnd-audit [--scope=src/] | Audit the project tree for issues; writes a timestamped report to $RND_DIR/audits/ | | /rnd-review [--against=<ref>] | Run a pre-PR code review via git diff against a base ref; writes a timestamped review report | | /rnd-debug <bug> [--apply] | Debug a reported bug — spawns rnd-debugger, writes a diagnosis report, halts before modifying code | | /rnd-roadmap [--list\|--next\|--check Mn] | List, navigate, and mark milestones in roadmap.md |

CLI flags

7 registered flags control pipeline behavior. See docs/UX-DEGRADATIONS.md for the full list (--rnd-iteration-cap, --rnd-skip-failing, --rnd-reality-audit, and others).

What /rnd-doctor checks

1. ~/.pi/agent/ (or $PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR) is writable
2. $RND_DIR is writable
3. Native subagent module responds to subagents:rpc:ping within 2 s
4. Each of the 11 subagent .md files is discoverable
5. Each of the 35 skill directories is discoverable
6. Gate registry has registered seed gates (gates: N)
7. A no-op general-purpose subagent round-trips within 30 s

Documentation

• docs/PI-API.md — verified reference for PI's extension API surface.
• docs/PORTING.md — Claude Code → PI translation reference (frontmatter, vocabulary, install locations, hook model).
• docs/UX-DEGRADATIONS.md — canonical CLI flags that replace Claude Code's multi-option prompts (--tier, --amend, --design, --iteration-cap, etc.).
• docs/UNPORTABLE.md — inventory of Claude Code features with no PI surface (multi-option UI, output styles, lifecycle hooks).

License

MIT.