pi-tool-renderer

Compact renderers for Pi tools. Optional tool_batch composite tool. Optional rich diff UI for edits, writes, and bash patches.

Highlights

• Compact one-line tool rows for read, bash, grep, find, ls; file paths in compact rows use OSC 8 file:// hyperlinks when the terminal supports them.
• Delayed live bash tails avoid fast-command output flashes; long-running commands show/preserve the last few lines flush-left so copied output has no gutter characters.
• tool_batch runs multiple independent read/search/list/diagnostic bash calls and renders one combined result.
• Optional rich Shiki diffs for edit/write with side-by-side previews, hunk counts, and inline word highlights.
• Compact user-message cards with a green border and red π marker.
• Compaction summaries and skill invocations render with the same compact chrome.
• Generic renderers for OpenAI-style tools (web_search, webfetch, Agent, Task*) and MCP tools.
• apply_patch call/result preview when the tool is present.

Defaults leave edit/write on Pi's built-in renderers. Enable Render edits/writes compactly to opt in.

Install

Via npm:

pi install npm:@vanillagreen/pi-tool-renderer

Via vstack:

cargo install --git https://github.com/vanillagreencom/vstack.git vstack
vstack add vanillagreencom/vstack --pi-extension pi-tool-renderer --harness pi -y

Restart Pi after installation.

tool_batch

{
  "calls": [
    { "tool": "read", "path": "README.md" },
    { "tool": "grep", "pattern": "registerCommand", "path": "pi-extensions" }
  ]
}

Accepts read, grep, find, ls, and diagnostic bash. Per-call arguments can be flat or wrapped in args.

Prefer it for independent inspection calls. Don't use it for mutating commands, order-dependent commands, streaming output, or anything you want to inspect separately.

If the combined output would exceed Pi's normal tool-result budget, child outputs are capped to fit (head + tail preserved). Use separate calls or read offset/limit for the full budget per call.

Settings

Open /extensions:settings; settings appear under the Tool Renderer tab.

Project settings in .pi/settings.json apply only after Pi marks the workspace trusted; before trust, vstack Pi extensions read user/global settings only.

Glyph style: each package exposes glyphStyle (unicode default, ascii for terminal-safe chrome). @vanillagreen/pi-tool-renderer.globalGlyphStyleOverride=ascii forces ASCII chrome across vstack Pi extensions while leaving tool/model/user content unchanged.

General

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Enable compact renderers | Override built-in read/bash/search renderers. | | Tree connector style | unicode or ascii. | | Stack separate native tool calls | Legacy renderer for consecutive native tool calls. Prefer tool_batch. | | Stack child display | rows, headline, or anchor-list when stacking is on. |

Batch tool

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Register tool_batch | Add the composite tool. | | Batch max calls | Max calls per tool_batch invocation. | | Batch per-call timeout (ms) | Max time any one child call may run before tool_batch reports that child as timed out. |

Messages

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Compact user messages | Green border + red π marker instead of filled background; preserves Pi's prompt-zone markers around the full framed card. | | User message trailing blank line | Extra blank line after user messages. | | Compact compaction summaries | Compact bullet style instead of Pi's padded box. | | Compact skill invocation messages | Compact /skill:name rows. | | Align assistant messages | Remove Pi's one-column left padding from assistant text. | | Styled markdown code blocks | Render fenced code blocks with syntax highlighting and background, flush-left with no copy gutter/prefix. |

Read / Search / Bash output

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Read output mode | preview, summary, or hidden. | | Search output mode | preview, count, or hidden. | | Bash output mode | opencode, preview, summary, or hidden. | | Live bash output delay (ms) | Wait this long before showing a running bash output tail. | | Live bash tail lines | Tail lines shown for long-running bash output and kept after completion. | | Expanded read/search/bash preview lines | Per-tool expand-time line caps. | | Command preview characters | Max command chars in collapsed bash rows. | | Collapsed bash preview lines | Tail lines shown when bashOutputMode=preview. |

Bash diffs

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Render bash diffs | Detect diff output from read-only bash and render rich diff UI. Off by default. | | Render git diff command diffs | Show rich diff UI for explicit git diff commands. Off by default. |

Mutation (edit/write)

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Render edits/writes compactly | Override Pi's built-in edit/write renderers. Off by default. | | Split diff view | Side-by-side rich diffs on wide terminals. | | Collapsed / expanded diff preview lines | Line budgets for collapsed and expanded rows. | | Edit/write call preview | Show safe call-phase diff previews before execution completes. | | Edit/write call preview lines | Line budget for call-phase previews. | | Syntax-highlight diffs | Use Shiki when a language can be detected. | | Inline word diff highlights | Highlight changed words in paired removed/added lines. | | Diff line backgrounds | Fill added/removed lines with success/error backgrounds. | | Show diff hunk metadata | Include hunk counts and truncation hints. |

Generic tools

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Generic external tool renderers | Render web_search, webfetch, Agent, Task* and similar. | | Render apply_patch | Install apply_patch call/result renderers without changing execution. | | apply_patch call preview | Parse arguments and render diff previews during the call phase. | | apply_patch preview lines | Line budget for collapsed apply_patch diffs. | | MCP output mode | preview, summary, or hidden. | | MCP preview lines | Line budget for MCP/generic tool previews. |

Chrome

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Global tool chrome | off, transparent, or outlines (muted horizontal rules above/below), including tools that render their own shell. | | Guard terminal right margin | Render one column short to avoid auto-wrap flashes in tmux. | | Animate pending tool status | Blink pending bullets. Off for stable streaming. | | Working indicator | default, pulse, or hidden. |

Safety

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Max renderer line width | Hard cap for single rendered lines. |

Notes

This package mostly changes rendering, not tool execution. tool_batch is one tool result, so it caps combined child output if needed; individual built-in tools still apply their own truncation first.