@zerosnow/pi-shimmer

Gentle per-character color sweep for pi's working message (vibes).

pi-shimmer transparently wraps ctx.ui.setWorkingMessage to intercept plain-text messages set by other extensions (like pi-powerline-footer's AI-generated vibes) and applies a moving highlight-band animation across the text.

Inspired by the shimmer implementation in @dustydonkey/pi-spinner.

Features

• Transparent monkey-patch — no changes needed in other extensions
• 6 built-in color presets + auto (follows theme accent)
• Idle-aware — pauses shimmer when the agent is waiting (no flicker)
• Lightweight — configurable interval, per-character ANSI RGB coloring

Install

pi install npm:@zerosnow/pi-shimmer

Usage

The extension activates automatically on session start. Configure it via the /shimmer command, or by editing your settings files:

• Global (all projects): ~/.pi/agent/settings.json (pi's standard location)
• Project (overrides global): .pi/settings.json in your project root

Commands

/shimmer                    Show current preset (and where it takes effect)
/shimmer <preset>           Switch preset (auto|gold|silver|rose|neon|rainbow|off)
/shimmer speed <ms>         Set animation interval (default 200, min 50)
/shimmer band <width>       Set highlight band width (default 4, range 1-10)

Append `--global` (or `-g`) anywhere to save to the **global** settings file
instead of the current project, e.g.:

/shimmer --global gold /shimmer speed 150 -g /shimmer band 3 --global

Without the flag, config is written to the current project's `.pi/settings.json`
(which overrides global). If the project file can't be written, the command
reports an error instead of silently dropping the change.

Settings

// ~/.pi/agent/settings.json (global) or .pi/settings.json (per-project)
{
  "workingVibeShimmer": "auto"              // string shorthand
  // or full object:
  "workingVibeShimmer": {
    "preset": "gold",
    "speed": 150,
    "bandWidth": 3
  }
}

Config is merged like pi settings: project overrides global, global overrides defaults. Fields are merged individually, so you can override just one field (e.g. project sets only "preset" while the global speed/bandWidth remain).

⚠️ Global config lives in ~/.pi/agent/settings.json (pi's standard location), not ~/.pi/settings.json. The latter is not read by pi.

Presets

| Preset | Base | Shimmer | |---------|-----------------------|--------------------| | auto | theme accent | lightened accent | | gold | dark gold (184,134,11)| bright gold | | silver| grey (128,128,128) | light silver | | rose | muted rose | warm rose | | neon | teal (10,138,138) | cyan (0,255,255) | | rainbow | rolling neon marquee | seven rainbow hues | | off | — (disabled) | — |

License

MIT