Pieces for Developers vs Poolside AI

Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, and ratings

Analysis reviewed Live tool data as of 2026-10-09
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At a glance

DimensionPieces for DevelopersPoolside AI
PricingFree (individual), paid tiers availableContact sales (enterprise)
Target UserIndividual developers and teamsEnterprise teams in regulated industries
Key FeatureAutomatic OS-level memory capture every 2 secondsAgentic coding models with long context (up to 1M)
DeploymentDesktop app (on-device by default)On-prem, VPC, workstation (air-gapped)
IntegrationsChrome, VS Code, JetBrains, GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor, etc.OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway
Latest UpdateAgentic LTM for meeting prep (May 2026)Laguna S 2.1 (July 2026) with improved reasoning

If you're an enterprise building high-stakes software in finance or defense and need custom AI agents that run inside your security boundary, Poolside is the only choice. For most developers—especially those juggling many tools and wanting to recall past context effortlessly—Pieces offers immediate value with a free tier and no vendor lock-in. Poolside solves governance at scale; Pieces solves daily forgetfulness.

Pieces for Developers
Pieces for Developers

Pieces for Developers captures your focused app every 2 seconds, building an on-device AI memory layer you can query or pipe into any

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Poolside AI
Poolside AI

Open-weight agentic coding models — Laguna XS 2.1 (33B) and Laguna S 2.1 (118B) — built for code that cannot leave your security boundary.

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Pricing
Freemium
Contact Sales
Plans
$0 (card required)
$18.99 per user/month · billed monthly
$22.99 per user/month · billed monthly
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Popularity
6.3k views
7.1k views
Skill Level
Intermediate
Advanced
API Available
Platforms
Desktop
DesktopCLIAPIWeb
Categories
📝 Notes & Knowledge Management💻 Code & Development👥 Meeting Assistants & Notetakers
💻 Code & Development🛠️ Autonomous Coding Agents⚛️ Foundation Models & LLM APIs🛡️ AI Governance & Guardrails
Features
Automatic capture of the focused app every 2 seconds
Natural-language recall scoped by time, topic, person, or tool
Chronological timeline of research, chats, emails, notes, and meetings
Opt-in clipboard capture of what you copy and paste
Opt-in audio capture from meetings and conversation apps (Feb 2026)
Single-click summaries for standups, morning briefs, meeting prep, and day recaps
Scheduled daily and weekly summaries (March 2026)
Agentic Long-Term Memory that proactively surfaces past context (May 2026)
Meeting Prep built on agentic Long-Term Memory (May 2026)
Rebuilt local LLM engine for on-device processing (March 2026)
Pieces MCP Server carries full history into MCP-ready assistants
Switch between Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and local models per question
Memories saved on-device by default
Granular privacy controls: pause, disable per app/site, delete by source or capture method
macOS and Windows desktop app
Laguna S 2.1 open-weight model: 118B params, 8B active, 1M context
Laguna XS 2.1 open-weight model: 33B params, 3B active, 256K context
Laguna XS 2.1 sized to run on-device for lightweight scenarios
Laguna S 2.1 positioned for frontier-class long-horizon reasoning
Single-agent and multi-agent orchestration with planning and tool use
Sandboxed agent execution environments for running generated code safely
Desktop app and CLI for agentic coding sessions
VS Code and Visual Studio extensions (per Poolside blog)
macOS desktop assistant (per Poolside blog)
Model selection, tool grouping, and project management in the client
Always-ask approval mode before edits are accepted
Data connectors to repositories, databases, and warehouses
Role-based access control for both human users and agents
End-to-end trace observability for agent runs
Governance and auditability built for regulated environments
Integrations
Chrome
Arc
Safari
Gmail
Outlook
Slack
Microsoft Teams
Google Chat
Discord
Google Meet
Zoom
Google Docs
Notion
Figma
VS Code
OpenRouter
Vercel AI Gateway

What real users say: Pieces for Developers vs Poolside AI

Not marketing copy and not our opinion — a structured sweep of public discussion (reviews, forums, communities and video comments), showing what people praise and what they complain about for each tool.

Pieces for Developers

59 mentions across 3 sources · 58% positive — mixed (averaged across 3 sources)

YouTube, Product Hunt, Lemmy

What users praise

  • • Automatic capture creates a searchable memory without manual logging.
  • • MCP server integration feeds context into Claude, Cursor, Codex, and more.
  • • Privacy-first design with on-device storage and granular controls.
  • • Audio capture for meetings transcribes and stores call decisions.

What frustrates them

  • • Constant capture may raise privacy concerns for sensitive work.
  • • Performance overhead from capturing every 2 seconds could be an issue.
  • • Primarily desktop; mobile capture is missing for on-the-go users.
  • • Learning curve to configure privacy controls and integrations.

Researched Aug 24, 2026

Poolside AI

40 mentions across 4 sources · 48% positive — mixed (averaged across 4 sources)

Hacker News, YouTube, Bluesky, Lemmy

What users praise

  • • Open-weight models with strong SWE-bench scores (72.5%).
  • • On-prem, VPC, and air-gapped deployment for high security.
  • • 256K context length supports long-horizon reasoning tasks.
  • • Multi-agent orchestration with sandboxed execution environments.

What frustrates them

  • • Community feedback is scarce; limited real-world user reviews.
  • • Platform is still in research preview as of April 2026.
  • • Pricing is opaque; only 'contact us' with no published tiers.
  • • Trademark dispute with Poolside FM creates name confusion.

Researched Jul 17, 2026

Who should pick which

  • Enterprise lead developer in regulated industry
    Pick: Poolside AI

    Needs custom models, on-prem deployment, and audit trails for compliance.

  • Solo developer working across multiple projects
    Pick: Pieces for Developers

    Benefits from automatic capture of code and chats to recall context without manual notes.

  • Team onboarding new members frequently
    Pick: Pieces for Developers

    Agentic LTM and scheduled summaries help new hires get up to speed on past decisions.

  • AI agent developer needing long-horizon planning
    Pick: Poolside AI

    Laguna models with up to 1M context and multi-agent orchestration support complex tasks.

  • Security-conscious researcher
    Pick: Pieces for Developers

    On-device memory with privacy controls and air-gapped option suits sensitive research.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pieces for Developers vs Poolside AI: which should you choose?

If you're an enterprise building high-stakes software in finance or defense and need custom AI agents that run inside your security boundary, Poolside is the only choice. For most developers—especially those juggling many tools and wanting to recall past context effortlessly—Pieces offers immediate value with a free tier and no vendor lock-in. Poolside solves governance at scale; Pieces solves daily forgetfulness.

Can Poolside AI be used by a solo developer?

Unlikely; it targets enterprises with custom deployment and sales-led pricing.

Does Pieces for Developers work offline?

Yes, the LTM-2.5 engine runs on-device, so captures and searches work without internet.

Which tool supports on-prem deployment?

Poolside AI offers on-prem, VPC, and workstation deployment; Pieces is a desktop app with on-device storage.

How does Pieces capture audio?

Opt-in audio capture for Zoom, Google Meet, Teams transcribes and indexes conversations.

Does Poolside offer a free trial?

No; pricing is contact-based with no self-service option.

Can Pieces integrate with Claude or Cursor?

Yes, via the MCP Server, it feeds context into Claude, Cursor, Copilot, and others.

What is the context length of Poolside models?

Laguna XS.2 and M.1 support 256K; Laguna S 2.1 supports 1M context.

Is Pieces free for teams?

The free tier is for individuals; team features require a paid plan (pricing not specified).

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Last reviewed: July 30, 2026