Pi is an open-source, minimal agent harness from Earendil Inc, built as a command-line coding agent that connects to 15+ model providers, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Azure, and Mistral. It favors small composable primitives, extensions, skills, and prompt templates, over baked-in features, so you can adapt it to your own workflow.

Can I run Pi from my phone?

Yes. Shellular gives Pi a dedicated mobile UI with slash commands, @ file mentions, permission approvals, and a model picker, plus a real terminal, file browsing, and Git on the same machine Pi runs on.

Does Shellular replace Pi's RPC or SDK modes?

No. Shellular is a way to reach the interactive terminal UI mode of Pi from your phone, not a replacement for its RPC protocol or SDK. If you already run Pi interactively at your desk, Shellular gives that same session a touch-friendly interface on mobile.

Can I switch models mid-session on my phone?

Yes. Pi supports switching models mid-session, normally with a shortcut like Ctrl+L. Shellular exposes that as a model picker in the mobile UI, so you can change providers without reaching for a keyboard.

Is running Pi from my phone secure?

Yes. Shellular sessions are end to end encrypted and connect to your own machine. The pairing key never leaves your phone, and every new device has to be approved by you.

How to Run Pi on Your Phone or Mobile (2026 Guide)

Q: Do I have to choose between Pi and other agents?

No. The same Shellular setup also runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor CLI, Grok Build, and GitHub Copilot CLI, so you can switch agents from one app.

Pi is the opposite of a bloated agent. It is an open-source, minimal harness that connects to 15+ model providers, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Azure, Mistral, and more, and deliberately leaves out things like built-in permission popups and MCP integration so you build exactly the workflow you want out of extensions, skills, and prompt templates. It runs as a terminal agent, which means the same portability question comes up: great in your terminal, awkward the moment you are away from your desk.

Shellular closes that gap. Pi keeps running on your own computer, your PC, your Mac, a Mac mini, or a VPS, so it keeps its tree-structured session history, your project's AGENTS.md or SYSTEM.md context, and every extension you have installed. Shellular gives that session a real, mobile-optimized UI on your phone, plus a terminal, files, Git, and a localhost browser alongside it.

A real Pi UI, on your phone

Pi's whole philosophy is small composable primitives instead of baked-in features. Shellular meets it there with a touch interface for the controls you actually use:

Slash commands. Type / and pick a command, no syntax to memorize.
@ file mentions. Tap @ to pull a real file from your repo into the prompt.
Permission approvals. Since Pi does not bake in its own popups, Shellular gives you a clean way to approve or deny what the agent wants to run, with a tap.
Model picker. Switch between Pi's 15+ supported providers mid-session, the mobile equivalent of its Ctrl+L shortcut.

The same setup also covers Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor CLI, Grok Build, and GitHub Copilot CLI, so any other agent you run alongside Pi comes with you too.

Getting set up

Install Shellular on iPhone or Android.
Run the Shellular companion on the same machine you run Pi on. The docs walk through it.
Scan the QR code to pair. The key never leaves your phone.
Open Pi in the app and start prompting.

Beyond the agent UI, you get a real terminal, your project files, Git, and a browser with DevTools, all one tap away. Since Pi's history is tree-structured, you can branch off an earlier point in the conversation from your phone just as easily as at your desk, and everything you do is there when you sit back down at your machine.

Why this beats a raw terminal mirror

You could SSH into your machine and run Pi in a mirrored terminal, but typing slash commands and file paths on a phone keyboard gets old fast. Because Pi deliberately skips built-in permission prompts and lets you build your own, a raw terminal mirror leaves you improvising a UI on the fly. Shellular gives you the buttons instead: slash commands, @ mentions, permissions, and a model switcher, all built for touch, with the full shell still one tap away for anything Pi's extensions do not cover.

Is it secure?

Yes. Sessions are end to end encrypted. Traffic passes through a relay server, but it is encrypted on your machine and only decrypted on your phone, so the relay just forwards bytes it cannot read. The encryption key is shared by QR code and never leaves your devices. See the security overview for how it works.

Bottom line

Pi is built to be adapted, not boxed in, and Shellular extends that same idea to mobile. You get a real Pi UI, with slash commands, @ mentions, permissions, and a model picker, plus the terminal, files, and Git behind it, all pointed at your own machine. Pair once and Pi is in your pocket.

Run other agents too? See Claude Code on your phone, OpenCode on your phone, and Grok Build on your phone.