pi-toolview

Compact tool output display for pi.

Replaces pi's verbose built-in tool rendering with one-line summaries, expandable on demand (ctrl+o). Execution is fully delegated to the originals, so the LLM still sees complete output.

Before / after

Default pi shows full tool output inline — every line of bash, every file read, full diffs, etc.

With pi-toolview:

$ npm test
✓ · 42 lines · 12.3s

read src/app.ts (offset=100, limit=50)
85 lines (truncated from 200)

edit src/utils.ts (3 changes)
+12 / -4 in parseConfig

write dist/output.js (156 lines · 4.2 KB)
Written

grep /TODO/ in src --glob=*.ts
7 matches

find *.test.ts in src
23 results

ls packages
12 entries

$ rm nonexistent
✗ exit 1 · 2 lines · 0.0s

Press ctrl+o to expand all and see actual output, diffs, or search matches.

Install

pi install /path/to/pi-extensions/packages/pi-toolview

Features

| Feature | Example | |---------|---------| | Smart paths | src/utils.ts inside project, ~/code/file.ts under HOME, absolute otherwise | | Bash timing | ✓ · 42 lines · 12.3s — measured via render state, same as built-in | | Write file size | (156 lines · 4.2 KB) — catch accidental huge writes | | Error emphasis | ✗ exit 1 in red, based on the tool's isError flag | | Edit context hint | +12 / -4 in parseConfig — enclosing function from diff | | Per-tool control | /toolview bash full — that tool shows full output |

Commands

| Command | Effect | |---------|--------| | /toolview | Show current status | | /toolview compact | All tools compact (summaries) | | /toolview full | All tools full output | | /toolview <tool> | Toggle one tool (e.g. /toolview bash) | | /toolview <tool> compact | One tool compact | | /toolview <tool> full | One tool full output |

on/off are accepted as aliases for compact/full.

Tools: bash, read, edit, write, grep, find, ls

State persists in ~/.pi/agent/toolview.json.

Tools

| Tool | Collapsed | Expanded (ctrl+o) | |------|-----------|-------------------| | bash | ✓ / ✗ exit N + lines + timing | First 30 lines | | read | Line count + truncation | First 20 lines | | edit | +N / -N + function hint | Full diff (40 lines) | | write | Written | N/A | | grep | Match count (0 = muted) | First 20 matches | | find | Result count | First 20 paths | | ls | Entry count | First 20 entries |

Partial override

Want to keep some tools at default? Use /toolview bash full to show full output for just bash. Or copy index.ts and delete the pi.registerTool() block for any tool.

How it works

• Re-registers each built-in tool with the same name (pi uses the last registration)
• execute() delegates to the original create*Tool(cwd) factory, behavior is identical
• Bash timing uses the same context.state mechanism the built-in renderer uses
• renderShell: "self" drops the default padded Box for a tighter look; the success/error/pending background color is re-applied manually. Pi hardcodes one blank line above every tool block, so a single separator remains.
• When a tool is toggled off, its full result content is drawn through the same pill row. The native per-tool renderers are built for the Box shell and lose their background in the tight self frame, so they are not delegated to.
• /toolview toggles re-render already-drawn blocks immediately, no /reload needed
• Only renderCall() and renderResult() are custom (TUI display only)
• The LLM still receives full, unmodified result.content
• When set to full via /toolview, the complete output is drawn through the same pill row (not through the native renderer, see above)
• State reconstruction from session history works normally

License

MIT