How do you use Pi without running out of usage
TLDR
How tf do people use this as a daily driver without smashing caps? I love this tool but I feel like I’m throwing money at the wall.
I have come from using 2 Claude Code subscriptions (1 personal & 1 with work) and a Cursor subscription.
I love Pi and the idea behind it. Being able to completely control the harness. After the recent regressions of Claude Code I was looking for alternative (didn’t want to fall in the same trap with allowing someone to control my harness).
I started using Pi and loved it at first. I have a Z.ai coding plan, however I’m constantly hit the 5 hour cap.
Then I decided to try the Codex Pro plan and hit the 5 hour cap after one hour of intense coding.
I had set reasoning effort from medium, then have tried low. It helped a bit but not amazingly.
Other things I’ve tried are Semble & Caveman mode for less token usage.
However I’m starting to wonder, have I not optimised my setup enough, is this normal?
Is this only viable with a local or high end coding plan.
How do you guys use this as a main driver and what advice do you have?
I’ve been trying the packages (however the page keeps timing out for me lol, so I can’t use it).
I’ve been playing with my system prompt and trying to keep it short & concise to reduce tokens. I removed all MCPs.
It’s started to make me question if I’m missing some kind of caching and optimisations most harnesses have built in.
