Pi coding agent implements native Model Context Protocol support

The coding agent Pi has released version 0.99.0, introducing native support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) after previously resisting the standard due to high context costs.

Research into MCP implementation reveals a significant “context tax.” For example, a Playwright MCP server can consume approximately 13,700 tokens to describe its tools, while some reports suggest that multiple MCP servers can consume up to 72% of a 200,000-token context window before an agent performs any useful work. This overhead occurs because clients typically load full schema definitions for every connected tool at the start of a session.

To mitigate this, Pi utilizes a method where it does not include all tool definitions in the initial prompt. Instead, it uses Codemode to identify necessary tools as needed, calling them via JavaScript and returning only the relevant output to the model. This approach aims to preserve the available context window for actual task execution.