Image: JetBrains ThinkRail
Why it mattersA team that uses a coding agent in the terminal gets a free review surface for diffs and MCP calls. The agent still runs; the review step gets a real UI.
A team using a coding agent in the terminal still needs somewhere to review the diffs. JetBrains released ThinkRail 0.2.0 on 18 October 2026 as a free open-source IDE for that review step. The project is on GitHub under Apache-2.0, with 1,637 stars by 25 October. It ranked 22nd on Trendshift's daily list, and the Hacker News post sits at 148 points. The IDE is built on the Monaco editor and runs the Pi coding agent, which is JetBrains' own.
What a ThinkRail turn now shows
The 0.2.0 post, written by Rinat S, describes a workflow problem. An agent completes a run and the diffs sit somewhere else. ThinkRail now attaches a receipt to each turn. The author gives an example line: "3 files changed · +27 −4". A Review turn button opens the Changes tab, which lists every modified file in one scrollable view. The author says the numbers come from file-system snapshots taken before and after the run. The snapshot captures shell commands, formatter changes and renames.
The Changes tab renders Markdown as prose and code as diffs. A One file view mode is also available. On branch diffs each hunk carries three buttons: Keep, Revert, and Ask agent about this hunk. A J shortcut skips to the first file the user has not seen yet.
MCP calls now ask before they write
MCP servers listed in mcp.json now run inside a chat. When a server tool may change data, an approval appears on the tool card. The three options are Deny, Allow once, and Always allow. Servers that a repository carries in .pi/mcp.json have to be approved by the user before they are active. The author gives this as the fix for an agent silently calling a tool that writes.
Two other 0.2.0 changes a Pi user would notice. Cmd or Ctrl+K opens a chat switcher. The switcher shows only chats that need input or are still running, grouped by project. The interface has new tool rails on both edges, and two new themes called Minimal Light and Minimal Dark.
How Hacker News is reading it
The post on Hacker News sits at 148 points and 110 comments. The top comment, from user exizt88, writes: "I refuse to take a repo with an AI-generated readme seriously". The same reader asks what else was skipped if the README was not written. A commenter named troupo criticises the vendor website. They call the copy Claude-isms. A third, dr_faustus, says they cancelled a JetBrains subscription over the agent strategy.
The repo was created on 8 July 2026, so the project is three months old. It is a thin layer on the Pi agent by design. The vendor's own line comes from an earlier blog post of 1 October. ThinkRail "is on purpose a thin layer on top of Pi". The post adds that Pi's thinking, the actions Pi may take, and Pi's context management are the agent's own concern. The IDE does not try to reinvent any of them.
For a team deciding whether to try it, the test is one evening on a real repository. The repository should have open pull requests. If the receipt and the Review turn make the agent's work easier to approve, the IDE earns its place. If not, Pi still works in the terminal.
Source
This item was written by an AI system from the linked source. Reveneau is responsible for what it publishes.
Get AI News in your inbox
New developer tools, model and agent releases, and how teams are actually using them to release software. Short, and only when there is something worth reading.
