permission-selector

Numbered approval options + Tab-to-comment for pi's extension select dialogs — the UI behind ctx.ui.select, which is what pi-auto-permissions uses for its command approval prompts.

What it does

Numbered options + digit hotkeys (all extension select dialogs)

Options render as 1. Allow, 2. Block, … and pressing 1–9 selects that option instantly. Existing ↑↓/j/k navigation and Enter/Esc behavior is untouched. Options beyond the ninth are un-numbered (arrow-only). ctx.ui.confirm (Yes/No) dialogs share the same component and get numbering for free.

Tab-to-comment (approval prompts only)

With an option highlighted, press Tab to pin it and type a note inline:

→ 1. Allow, after this command runs, we should check the logs▌
  2. Block
  enter submit · esc discard note · tab back

• Enter submits: the calling extension receives the original option string ("Allow"/"Block" — required because pi-auto-permissions does an exact string compare), and the note is sent to the agent verbatim as a steering user message (pi.sendUserMessage(note, { deliverAs: "steer" })).
• Esc discards the note and returns to normal navigation (Esc again cancels the dialog as usual).
• Tab toggles back to navigation, preserving the typed text.
• While typing, digits are literal text and arrow keys are inert.
• Pasting works (bracketed paste, including multi-chunk pastes); pasted newlines/tabs are flattened to spaces since the note is a single line.
• Key handling is encoding-aware via pi-tui's matchesKey, so terminals using the Kitty keyboard protocol (Esc = \x1b[27u, CSI-u printables) work the same as legacy encodings.
• An empty/whitespace note submits the option without sending anything.

This works for both directions: Allow + note runs the command and steers the next model turn ("check the logs after"); Block + note blocks with the normal reason plus your steer ("do X instead").

Scope and configuration

• Approval prompts are detected by title regex. Default: /needs approval/i (matches pi-auto-permissions' "<label> — Auto Permissions needs approval"). Override with the PI_PERMISSION_SELECTOR_MATCH env var (compiled case-insensitive; invalid patterns fall back to the default).
• When auto-permissions is disabled, pi core shows no approval prompts (it is YOLO by default), so this extension has nothing to enhance — by design.
• Non-TUI modes (rpc/print/json) never instantiate the component; the patch is inert there.

Known coupling

This extension monkey-patches ExtensionSelectorComponent.prototype (updateList/handleInput) from @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent, relying on pi's extension loader aliasing that package to the running instance. If a future pi version changes the component shape, the patch refuses to apply, the selectors stay stock, and a warning notification is shown at session start — it never crashes.