@blazer2k/pi-ui-enhancements

Visual polish and compact tool rendering for pi.

Current version: 0.1.0

Overview

This extension adds visual improvements to pi's TUI:

• Configurable ASCII art header at session start, rendered via figlet or the bundled Greek pi fonts.
• Rounded border around the editor showing cwd, git branch, model, token usage, and context percentage.
• Shimmer animation on the "Working" label with elapsed duration and an interrupt hint.
• Compact tree-drawing summaries for tool output instead of verbose raw output. Paths are hyperlinked when your terminal supports it. Third-party tools get wrapped too (see below).
• Optional capitalization for custom tool call labels, enabled by default.

Installation

pi install npm:@blazer2k/pi-ui-enhancements

Or install locally for development:

git clone https://github.com/blazer2k/pi-blz.git
cd pi-blz
npm install
pi -e ./packages/pi-ui-enhancements/src/index.ts

Configuration

Run /ui in pi to open the settings menu.

Available Settings

| Setting | Description | | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Enable ASCII header | Show ASCII art header at session start | | Header font | Font for ASCII art header (19 figlet fonts + 2 bundled, default: Greek) | | Header color | Theme color of ASCII header (text, accent, dim) | | Header alignment | Horizontal alignment (left, center, right) | | Show version | Display pi version below ASCII header | | Show interrupt hint | Show "esc to interrupt" next to the working indicator | | Show run duration | Show elapsed time while working, toast on completion | | Patched built-in tools | Which built-in tool renderers to replace (essential or all) | | Patch custom tools | Apply compact rendering to third-party tools | | Capitalize tool names | Capitalize custom tool call labels (default: true, e.g. search → Search) | | Max call width | Maximum width for tool call and output lines | | Max expanded entries | Maximum lines when expanding tool output (-1 for unlimited), doesn't apply to bash | | Editor border color | How the editor border is colored (thinking, dim, muted) | | Show thinking level | Display thinking level in editor footer | | Show cache tokens | Display cache read/write token counts | | Show cost | Display total session cost in editor footer | | Show git branch | Display current git branch in editor header |

Built-in Tool Patches

The patchedBuiltInTools setting has two modes:

• essential (default): read, write, edit, bash
• all: adds ls, find, grep

Changes here require /reload since tool renderers are registered at load time. Everything else applies immediately.

Third-Party Tool Monkey-Patching

By default, the extension monkey-patches ExtensionRunner.prototype.getAllRegisteredTools to intercept third-party tool definitions and wrap their output in the same compact format. Built-in tools and tools with renderShell: "self" are left alone.

Custom tool call labels are capitalized by default while preserving the tool's own renderCall() layout when possible. For example, mcp becomes Mcp.

If you prefer third-party tools to render natively, disable patchCustomTools in the settings menu. If you prefer lowercase custom tool labels, disable capitalizeToolNames.

Persistence

Settings are saved to ~/.pi/agent/ui-settings.json and restored on each session. Override the path with PI_UI_ENHANCEMENTS_CONFIG_PATH.

License

MIT