what would it take for this to be more than just hn blog fodder?
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We were thinking about it while writing it. I think one thing at least open source harnesses can do is push back on using some of these conveniences from the providers. For instance the moment we start compromising on the idea of portable sessions, then there will be less pressure (For instance people asked for OpenAI server side compaction or built-in native web_search support).
The real thing that will take this alive though is people pushing back a bit against some of these newfangled APIs. Now that there is real competition from the new generation of Chinese models which have much fewer of those restrictions, I think there might be a moment.
I recently moved entirely to Pi from Claude Code. There's a bit of more upfront work in that I am taking the time to customize it to the way I want it to work, but I
it is clear that it will benefit me in the end. It adds a level of intentionality to everything; all the building blocks I am adding to it in terms of templates, extensions, and skills are, obviously, things I want.
And I have been using Chinese models with it. It was not anything ideological. Those models are both excellent and cheap. Hard to beat that combo.
But on top of that, the sort of output I am getting in Pi in relation to what I got in CC is refreshing, in that nothing seems to be hidden from me.
And yeah, the ability to switch models mid-session is an interesting one, especially with branching; where I can branch to switch to a different model and still go back to the original branch with the original model.
What model(s) are you using?
Deepseek V4 and MiMo 2.5
I hadn’t really thought about it until I read this (and happen to be spending time reading Kimi’s reasoning), but I can imagine an issue in the future where I will want more than just git blame + the ticket + the PR. Attaching an entire session in full to the PR could be useful archeology. And agents can trivially take it all into context. Maybe that actually turns into a competitive advantage for the open models.
What are features that only work with session transparency / ownership?
e.g. - with model XYZ and their open reasoning token we are able to improve our skill ABC by 20% - cross checking between models improves results by 10% and is only possible with full context visibility
> What are features that only work with session transparency / ownership?
That's sort of the thing: very little (beyond switching models and providers). Obviously what you lose is a convenient way to run analytics over your own sessions if more and more information is not revealed to you, but before encrypted prompts that wasn't that much of an issue anyways.
But analytics is not a convenience. Just take audits.
> one thing at least open source harnesses can do is push back on using some of these conveniences from the providers.
uhh openai just did a whole thing with arc agi where they very clearly explained that you will lose a lot of performance if you do, this isnt just about convenience
> uhh openai just did a whole thing with arc agi where they very clearly explained that you will lose a lot of performance if you do, this isnt just about convenience
Which part are you referring to here? web_search coming from the provider hiding the tokens is just a convenience, there is no reason it can't be done with revealing information. Their compaction on the server might be amazing, but at least in principle it can be replicated on the client side as well and it could have been implemented in a way that reveals the new initial context.
Ouch, seems a bit harsh. They are building something, and with their track record we can be hopeful.