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An owner without developer skills can export the agent and restore it working on a runtime or host the provider does not operate, within minutes of asking and without provider approval. Running the runtime on the owner's own machine counts as not provider-operated.

All agent state lives in documented local locations (~/.pi/agent for settings, auth, instructions, extensions and sessions; project .pi folders), so a copy is available instantly without provider approval. However, no export/import pair or documented 'copy this folder' procedure covers the whole agent: /export and /import handle single sessions only. Restoring on another machine means installing Pi and copying directories by hand (optionally setting PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR). That is one shortfall: restore is not a single documented action. Sources

Export is immediate (the agent is one .adf file; copying it and using Open is documented), but restoring a working agent on another machine takes several documented steps: import the owner seed phrase to unlock sealed keys, re-add a model provider key (app-level keys are not in the file), re-register app-level MCP servers, then review and accept the file. One shortfall (restore is not a single action). Sources

The export contains everything that defines the agent: configuration, instructions, memory, action history, logic, schedules and triggers, files, any identity, and credentials or a way to re-link each integration without any provider-registered client or broker. Derived data (embeddings, indexes, summaries) is accompanied by the source it was derived from.

In the default configuration everything that defines the agent is on the owner's disk: settings, models.json, auth.json credentials, SYSTEM.md/AGENTS.md instructions, skills, extensions, prompt templates, MCP config and full session trees including tool calls and compaction summaries stored with their source entries. Pi has no built-in schedules and no identity, so those classes are treated as met (G11). Integrations are re-linked with the owner's own API keys, OAuth tokens or MCP sign-in; no Earendil-registered client or broker is needed by default. Sources

The spec places config, instructions, memory, loops, timers, triggers, lambdas, files, messages, audit, logs, sealed identity keys and per-agent credentials in the .adf file; the project holds nothing. Items outside the file (app-level provider keys, app-scoped MCP credentials, WhatsApp session directory, runtime settings) can be re-linked by the owner without any ADF-registered client (MCP OAuth uses dynamic client registration; subscriptions use OpenAI/xAI client ids). A customised global base prompt is an app setting and does not travel; recorded, not counted, because the default install uses the shipped prompt. Sources

With a non-provider model configured per P4, the exported agent runs indefinitely without any service, account, licence or payment controlled by the original provider, and the owner holds a perpetual, irrevocable right to run it. No provider action, inaction or disappearance can disable or degrade it.

The runtime is MIT-licensed, with no licence key, account or payment. The provider network calls in source (version check, install ping, model-catalog refresh) fail silently and are disabled by --offline or PI_OFFLINE. The bundled catalog and cached catalog data are used offline. This is a desk assessment; a blocked-network run was not performed. Sources

The runtime is MIT-licensed with no licence check, account or ADF-run relay; the only ADF-project endpoints (GitHub update check, MCP registry, skill catalog, online docs) are optional, have off switches or bundled fallbacks, and are not needed to start or act. Mesh uses LAN, tailnet or owner-chosen addresses. Desk grade; a provider-blocked run is required at certification. Sources

The owner can choose any model that meets a documented minimum, including a local open-weight model, without provider involvement, and every capability of the agent (tools, triggers, messaging, memory, automation) keeps working. A swap may lower reasoning quality but never removes a capability.

Tools run in the Pi runtime, not in a hosted model feature. The owner chooses among many providers and can point Pi at the llama.cpp router (first-party /llama integration, documented to need --jinja for tool calling) or at Ollama, LM Studio or vLLM through models.json, without provider involvement. Classifier calls in codemode also work with llama.cpp chat models. No capability tied to one vendor's models was found. Sources

Tool calling is the documented minimum and local open-weight models (Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, llama.cpp) are first-class provider options; triggers, timers, lambdas and middleware run in the runtime. However, video input is implemented by injecting OpenAI-format video_url parts and is documented only for hosted providers (OpenRouter, Gemini), and no test against a local model is published, so under G12 at least one capability is not shown to survive a local model. Sources

Whatever the P2 export contains stays obtainable, current to the moment of termination, after account suspension or ban, a lapsed subscription, a price change, an acquisition, or the provider shutting down.

All agent state is local-first on the owner's device by default, so there is no account whose termination or shutdown could cut off access. Sources

State is local-first: the agent is a SQLite file on the owner's disk with no ADF account or hosted copy, so no termination, ban or shutdown by the project can remove access to it. Sources