Pi vs Verdent

Pi 76

Harness reading of the framework line, scored on what an agent or pipeline driving it has to supply. Four default tools (read, bash, edit, write) and a short system prompt. MCP tools default to codemode exposure, which keeps them out of the model's tool declarations, and tool_search loads deferred ones on demand (23). Automatic compaction, agent-level retry with three attempts and exponential backoff, and truncated tool output saved to a file. We found no turn or step limit in the CLI or settings reference (13). --mode json streams JSONL events ending in agent_settled and --mode rpc returns success: false with an error string. Print mode exits nonzero on a failed response, JSON mode doesn't (16). Sessions are stored as trees and continue, fork or take a fixed ID with --continue, --fork and --session-id. File changes have no built-in undo, and a git checkpoint is an example extension (14). It needs a provider key or subscription login before the first run, and the SDK is TypeScript only, with RPC for other languages (10).

Verdent 35

Harness reading. MCP servers per project or globally, subagents, skills and rules, but no per-tool disabling or deferred loading found (10). No output-size, turn-limit or budget controls for a run were found beyond credit balances (5). No exit codes or error format, since there is no headless mode (3). Parallel workers in git worktrees and a review column make runs reviewable and reversible, with no resume by ID documented (10). No CLI, API or SDK. A pipeline can only reach Manager through a paired Telegram, Slack or Feishu bot (7). 10+5+3+10+7 = 35.

Pi 60

No payment protocol in the repository or docs (0). Read with the self-hosted rule. Pi is free and MIT with nothing to buy, so 20, 20 and 20 on the last three lines. Model costs go to whichever provider the owner configures. Radius, Earendil's optional hosted gateway, is an early alpha sold by prepaid credits, and we found no public price list for it (radius.earendil.com/pricing returns 404 on 23 October 2026).

Verdent 20

Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Verdent subscription the agent needs. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices from $5 a month, top-up prices and the credit value of about $0.059 are public without a login (20). Free Mode and the free trial ended on 29 October 2026, so there is no free tier (0). A person signs up in a browser (0). 0+20+0+0 = 20.

Pi 75

Read as a local package. @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent 1.4.0 on npm (still the latest on 1 November 2026) with Node.js 22.19 or newer stated, install scripts for macOS, Linux and Windows, Nix and standalone binaries (20). A public CI workflow builds, checks and tests on every push to main and runs an MCP client conformance job. The run on the commit we cloned (ce950d7, 8 October 2026) passed, but eight of the last 15 runs on main, all on 7 and 8 October, failed. Run results weren't readable on 23 October, so this stands per the 8 October check (15). The repository API reported 308 open issues and pull requests against 113,417 stars on 8 October, not re-read on 23 October. Issues from new contributors are closed automatically and reviewed daily by maintainers, per CONTRIBUTING.md, so the open count understates what is reported, and we couldn't sample reply times (16). A dated changelog with Breaking Changes sections and migration steps, but breaking changes ship outside major versions. The Azure provider rename shipped in patch release 1.0.3 on 5 October 2026, minor release 1.2.0 on 12 October carried four (theme schema location, before_agent_start, busy-session behaviour and pi mcp list --json output), and 1.3.0 required /v1 on kimi-coding base URL overrides under Changed. The same reading as agent-zero and mistral-vibe-cli, and these breaks also take a deduction under negative events (9). 1.4.0 on 21 October 2026, with 1.0.0 dated 1 October 2026 (15).

Verdent 43

Local-package reading, as for the other closed-source harnesses. The desktop app installs from verdent.ai with macOS 11 or later and 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 stated, and the extension from the editor marketplaces, but not from a package registry (15). No public CI or test suite, since the source isn't published (0). No public issue tracker, every task runs through Verdent's servers, and no status page was found, so there is no readable record (5). A dated changelog by version, with the end of Free Mode called out in v2.18.0, but no breaking-change sections (8). 2.18.0, generally available (15). 15+0+5+8+15 = 43.

Pi 84

Harness reading, as for the other harnesses. JSON Schemas for settings, models, keybindings and themes ship in the package and, since 1.2.0 on 12 October 2026, at pi.dev/schemas/, and the JSON event stream and every RPC command are documented record by record, but as Markdown and TypeScript types with no machine-readable spec for the RPC protocol (18). pi.dev/llms.txt returns 404. Each docs page answers Accept: text/markdown with Markdown, and the docs ship inside the npm package (8). The integration page has a table saying when to use interactive, print, JSON, RPC or the SDK, and the MCP page gives a typical use for each exposure setting. 1.4.0 adds a Models Configuration reference generated from the models.json schema (17). Enumerated modes, thinking levels and exposure values, typed settings with defaults (13). A Python RPC client, a typed TypeScript client and about 75 example extensions, with command errors and parse errors shown as records (13). A dated changelog in the repository and at pi.dev/changelog with an RSS feed (15).

Verdent 55

Framework reading for a harness. No schema for settings or output, only mcp.json examples in the standard mcpServers shape (5). Every current docs page has a Markdown twin at the same path with .md, though no llms.txt (10). The docs say when to use Agent Mode or Plan Mode and what Plan Mode can't do, but the Agent Mode page lists the actions that need approval only as "certain tool executions" and "destructive operations" (12). Modes and BYOA agent types are enumerated, permissions are not (5). Examples on the MCP, BYOA and messaging pages, and a recovery page, with no error codes (8). Version numbers and a dated public changelog (15). The archived 1.0 docs are still served beside the current ones. 5+10+12+5+8+15 = 55.

Pi 61

Harness reading of the framework checklist, used for the harnesses in this category. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. An anonymous install and update ping to pi.dev/api/report-install (version and User-Agent, per the source), attribution headers to some providers, a latest-version request and model catalogue refreshes are on by default, each with an opt-out (PI_TELEMETRY=0, PI_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK, PI_OFFLINE). Since 1.4.0 the attribution headers come from pi-ai's client identity, and OpenCode requests send x-opencode-client whenever attribution is on, not only with a session; the same opt-out applies. Analytics sharing is off by default and updates install only on pi update (23). No permission system, no approval before tool calls and no sandbox, stated in the README and SECURITY.md. Project trust gates a repository's .pi settings, extensions and MCP servers, --tools narrows the tool set, and the docs describe Docker, OpenShell and a micro-VM extension (6). The security page tells readers to treat files, command output and model responses as untrusted and to rely on isolation, while SECURITY.md puts prompt injection out of scope and context files such as AGENTS.md load whatever the trust decision (7). Sessions are JSONL files on disk with HTML export, MCP server logs go to ~/.pi/agent/mcp.log, and the JSON stream records each tool call (11). SECURITY.md gives security@earendil.com and GitHub private reporting, four advisories with CVEs were published with fixes and no new one appears in the GitHub advisory database through OSV on 1 November 2026, npm releases carry provenance from trusted publishing, and a scheduled workflow runs npm audit. Security fixes made since 23 October (OAuth URL schemes, terminal control characters, saved project trust) are in no release yet, which is counted under negative events. No security.txt and no bounty found (14).

Verdent 33

Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). Conversation history and tool results go to Verdent's US servers and on to Azure, Bedrock or Vertex, with zero data retention stated for Vertex and Bedrock only. Event logging to log.verdent.ai has no documented opt-out. BYOA keys stay on the machine (10). Plan Mode is read-only, Agent Mode asks before destructive commands and edits outside scope, and workers are isolated by git worktree, but there is no sandbox or network control and the approval list isn't enumerated (9). No prompt-injection guidance found, while web search and fetch results enter the context (2). Usage history in the dashboard, no audit log found (5). A security page with a disclosure address and a five-day acknowledgement, SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 42001 being pursued rather than held, no security.txt and no bug bounty (7). 10+9+2+5+7 = 33.

Pi 87

v1.4.0 on 21 October 2026, still the latest on npm on 1 November (30). The changelog dates 23 releases in the 90 days from 3 August, 0.84.0 on 6 August to 1.4.0 on 21 October 2026 (20). Commits land daily and the changelog credits issues and outside pull requests in most releases. New contributors' issues are closed automatically, reviewed daily, and get no reply if they miss the quality bar, per CONTRIBUTING.md. Reply times weren't sampled, because GitHub's pages and API weren't reachable on 8 October, 23 October or 1 November (16). npm, the pi.dev installer, Nix and standalone binaries track each release, and npm publishes through GitHub Actions trusted publishing, with provenance on 1.4.0 (14). Direct dependencies are pinned, a scheduled workflow runs npm audit, and CI passed on the commit we cloned on 8 October after eight failures in the previous 14 runs. CI results weren't readable on 23 October or 1 November (7).

Verdent 61

Closed service. v2.18.0 on 29 October 2026, eight days before this check (30). More than three dated releases in the 90 days from 8 August, among them 2.10.0 to 2.18.0 (20). A dated public changelog, a support address, Discord and a subreddit, with no public tracker to read reply times (8). No official SDK or MCP server to keep current (0). No public packages or CI to judge (3). 30+20+8+0+3 = 61.