The Pi Coding Agent community has a packaging problem: workflows that should be 20 lines of config become 200-line packages with unnecessary abstractions. This tutorial shows how to build minimal, single-purpose search workflows for Pi that compose well without over-engineering.
Prerequisites
- Pi Coding Agent installed (v0.73+)
- A Scavio API key
- Understanding of Pi workflow basics
Walkthrough
Step 1: The minimal search workflow pattern
A Pi workflow that does one thing: search and return results. No orchestration, no state machine.
# ~/.pi-agent/workflows/quick_search.yaml
name: quick_search
trigger: /search
steps:
- action: http_post
url: https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search
headers:
x-api-key: ${SCAVIO_API_KEY}
Content-Type: application/json
body:
platform: google
query: ${input}
output: results
- action: format
template: |
${results.organic[0:5].map(r => '- ' + r.title + ': ' + r.snippet).join('\n')}Step 2: Compose multiple minimal workflows
Build separate workflows for each platform, compose them when needed.
# ~/.pi-agent/workflows/reddit_search.yaml
name: reddit_search
trigger: /reddit
steps:
- action: http_post
url: https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search
headers:
x-api-key: ${SCAVIO_API_KEY}
Content-Type: application/json
body:
platform: reddit
query: ${input}
output: results
- action: format
template: |
${results.organic[0:5].map(r => '- [' + r.title + '](' + r.link + ') (score: ' + r.score + ')').join('\n')}
# Usage: /reddit python fastapi deployment tipsStep 3: Avoid the over-packaging trap
Compare minimal vs over-packaged approaches.
# OVER-PACKAGED (don't do this):
# - 50-line config with state machine
# - Custom error handling framework
# - Retry logic with exponential backoff
# - Result caching layer
# - Analytics tracking
# - Output formatters for 5 different formats
# Total: 200+ lines, hard to debug, breaks often
# MINIMAL (do this):
# - HTTP POST to search API
# - Format results
# - Done
# Total: 12 lines, easy to debug, rarely breaks
# If you need retries, add them as a SEPARATE composable workflow:
# ~/.pi-agent/workflows/retry_wrapper.yaml
name: retry_wrapper
steps:
- action: retry
max_attempts: 2
workflow: ${target_workflow}
input: ${input}Step 4: Multi-platform research as composition
Compose minimal workflows into a research workflow without a framework.
# ~/.pi-agent/workflows/research.yaml
name: research
trigger: /research
steps:
- action: parallel
workflows:
- quick_search: ${input}
- reddit_search: ${input}
output: all_results
- action: format
template: |
## Google Results
${all_results[0]}
## Reddit Discussions
${all_results[1]}
# Usage: /research best database for side projects 2026
# Runs Google + Reddit search in parallel, formats combined outputPython Example
Python
import requests, os
def pi_search(query: str, platform: str = 'google') -> str:
r = requests.post('https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search',
headers={'x-api-key': os.environ['SCAVIO_API_KEY'], 'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
json={'platform': platform, 'query': query}).json()
return '\n'.join(f"- {x['title']}: {x.get('snippet','')}" for x in r.get('organic',[])[:5])JavaScript Example
JavaScript
async function piSearch(query, platform = 'google') {
const r = await fetch('https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search', {
method: 'POST', headers: {'x-api-key': process.env.SCAVIO_API_KEY, 'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
body: JSON.stringify({platform, query})
});
return (await r.json()).organic?.slice(0,5).map(x => `- ${x.title}: ${x.snippet}`).join('\n');
}Expected Output
JSON
Minimal, composable Pi Coding Agent workflows that do one thing well (search one platform) and compose into multi-platform research without over-engineering.