crates/colibri-client/src/lib.rs

@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ impl DaemonClient {
             model: model.into(),
             session_id,
             system_prompt,
+            local_args: None,
         })
         .await
     }

crates/colibri-daemon/src/lib.rs

@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ pub enum HerdrCommand {
         model: String,
         session_id: Option<String>,
         system_prompt: Option<String>,
+        /// Extra args passed to the agent binary (used by Local provider
+        /// to pass argv without a wrapper script).
+        #[serde(default)]
+        local_args: Option<Vec<String>>,
     },
     #[serde(rename = "kill-agent")]
     KillAgent { agent_id: String },

crates/colibri-daemon/src/socket.rs

@@ -151,7 +151,18 @@ async fn dispatch(cmd: HerdrCommand, state: &SharedState) -> HerdrResponse {
             model,
             session_id,
             system_prompt,
-        } => cmd_spawn_agent(state, provider, model, session_id, system_prompt).await,
+            local_args,
+        } => {
+            cmd_spawn_agent(
+                state,
+                provider,
+                model,
+                session_id,
+                system_prompt,
+                local_args,
+            )
+            .await
+        }
         HerdrCommand::KillAgent { agent_id } => cmd_kill_agent(state, agent_id).await,
         HerdrCommand::GetSession { session_id } => cmd_get_session(state, session_id).await,
         HerdrCommand::CompactSession { session_id } => cmd_compact_session(state, session_id).await,
@@ -287,6 +298,7 @@ async fn cmd_spawn_agent(
     model: String,
     session_id: Option<String>,
     system_prompt: Option<String>,
+    local_args: Option<Vec<String>>,
 ) -> HerdrResponse {
     let provider = match provider_str.to_lowercase().as_str() {
         "deepseek" => Provider::DeepSeek,
@@ -297,9 +309,11 @@ async fn cmd_spawn_agent(
     };
 
     let (binary, args) = if provider == Provider::Local {
-        // Local provider is the no-network smoke/test path: the socket `model`
-        // field is treated as the executable path and no Pi CLI flags are added.
-        (model.clone(), Vec::new())
+        // Local provider: model is the executable path.
+        // local_args (if provided) are passed as argv — enables real Pi spawn
+        // without a wrapper script (e.g. pi --mode json --no-tools -p 'task').
+        let args = local_args.unwrap_or_default();
+        (model.clone(), args)
     } else {
         (
             std::env::var("COLIBRI_AGENT_BINARY").unwrap_or_else(|_| "hermes-agent".to_string()),