pi-extension-smart-edit

A pi extension that overrides the built-in edit tool with whitespace-tolerant matching, designed for local/quantized LLMs.

smart-edit is a drop-in replacement for edit that makes local/quantized LLM coding more reliable.

TL;DR

With Qwen 3.6 int4 runs (10 vs 10), smart-edit improved edit success from 46% to 89% and task pass from 40% to 80% on my local benchmark*.

It also reduced average runtime from 707s to 492s (~30% faster) on that benchmark set.

For Qwen 3.6 nvfp4, the latest patched run improved task pass (10% → 20%) but has lower edit success and slower runtime by far in my use case (see table).

Problem

Local LLMs often fail exact-text edits because of tiny formatting drift (indentation, quotes, trailing spaces). This causes retry loops and wasted tokens.

Solution

smart-edit keeps edit precise, but more tolerant for local models:

1. Exact match (same behavior as built-in)
2. Normalized line match (whitespace/quote tolerant)

So you keep strict edits, but avoid brittle failures from tiny formatting drift.

It supports the current edit contract and keeps compatibility with older argument shapes, so resumed sessions continue to work.

Install

pi install /path/to/pi-extension-smart-edit

Or for quick local testing:

pi -e /path/to/pi-extension-smart-edit/src/index.ts

Usage

After loading the extension, use edit normally in pi. The model/tooling handles the argument shape automatically.

Benchmark summary

This benchmark runs the same medium coding task 10 times per model, then reports:

• edit success rate,
• end-to-end task pass rate (typecheck + tests + no timeout),
• runtime.

Results

| Model | Edit Success (without) | Edit Success (with) | Task Pass (without) | Task Pass (with) | Avg Time (without) | Avg Time (with) | | -------------- | ---------------------: | ------------------: | ------------------: | ---------------: | -----------------: | --------------: | | Qwen 3.5 int4 | 69% | 90% | 20% | 40% | 620s | 655s | | Qwen 3.5 nvfp4 | 98% | 86% | 20% | 20% | 651s | 814s | | Qwen 3.6 int4 | 46% | 89% 🔥 | 40% | 80% 🔥 | 707s | 492s 🔥 | | Qwen 3.6 nvfp4 | 74% | 72% | 10% | 20% | 706s | 839s |

• Benchmark code isn't shared. I may do it later once I open source the other repo that I'm developing with only local LLMs