pi-agent-view

A pi extension that hosts several real live sessions in one process. Exactly one owns the terminal; the rest keep running in the background. Switching is a terminal handoff — nothing is stopped, replaced, or lost.

Install

pi install npm:pi-agent-view

From git, if you prefer not to use npm:

pi install git:github.com/alisher-amantay/pi-agent-view

Restart pi (or /reload) after install.

Runtime model

pi process
  └─ agent-view multiplexer
      ├─ original : the InteractiveMode pi started with
      ├─ child A  : AgentSessionRuntime + InteractiveMode
      └─ child B  : AgentSessionRuntime + InteractiveMode

Each child is a full native InteractiveMode, so slash commands, model switching, and every other pi feature work normally inside it.

Switching away calls ui.stop() on that TUI only. The agent runtime behind it keeps streaming, and its output is waiting for you when you come back.

This is deliberately not ctx.newSession() / ctx.switchSession(). Those replace pi's single active runtime, which tears down whatever was running — the cause of vanishing chats and "session is still being saved" messages.

The live registry lives on globalThis. /reload re-evaluates the extension without restarting pi; the reloaded copy re-adopts the running registry by version brand rather than instanceof.

Statuses

| Group | Meaning | | --- | --- | | Working | Agent is streaming right now | | Unread | Finished while you were looking at another session | | Read | Seen and idle | | On disk | Transcript in this folder that is not live here; Enter brings it back with its full history |

Entry points

pi                  # auto-opens on an empty first session
pi --agents         # force-open

Inside any session:

| Input | Action | | --- | --- | | ← on an empty prompt | Open agent view | | /agents or /agent-view | Open agent view | | Ctrl+Shift+A | Open agent view |

Keys

| Key | Action | | --- | --- | | ↑ / ↓ | Move | | Enter | Switch to the selected session, or bring back a selected On disk one | | Enter with text | Start a new parallel session with that text as its name | | → | Open the selected session even while filter text is typed | | Ctrl+X | Stop selected child session (twice to confirm) | | Esc | Stay in the current session |

Typing filters the list.

Limits

• Sessions are in-process: quitting pi ends every live session. Their transcripts persist on disk and come back through the On disk group (or /resume).
• Nothing locks a transcript. Bringing back a session that another pi process has open gives it two writers.
• The original session can't be stopped from the view; use /quit.
• No path locking between sessions yet — two sessions editing the same files can conflict. Give parallel work non-overlapping scopes.

Set PI_AGENT_VIEW_SKIP_AUTO=1 to skip the startup launcher for one run.

Compatibility

Requires pi with the @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent and @earendil-works/pi-tui APIs (0.82+ is what this was built against).

License

MIT