Claude Code is notably better than Pi, although I wish them the best of luck in their efforts. As https://c-daniele.github.io/en/posts/2026-05-18-coding-harne... notes, "Pi's lightness comes from a default setup that does not survive contact with reality."
The same post on Claude Code: "Even though the System Prompt and tool descriptions are clearly more verbose, most of the extra tokens encode product features and rational design choices: a memory system, scheduled tasks, sub-agents, plan mode, worktree support. Whether those features are worth paying for depends on your needs. Calling the prompt 'bloated' without looking at the whole picture feels wrong to me."