pi-alibaba-models

The complete pi extension for Alibaba's model lineup — Qwen 3.7 Max, Qwen 3.7 Plus (both 1M context), Qwen 3.6 Max, Qwen 3.6 Plus, DeepSeek V4 Pro, Kimi K2.6, GLM-5, MiniMax M2.5, and the rest of the catalog. Native thinking-level support, both Anthropic- and OpenAI-shaped APIs, both International and China endpoints, both Coding Plan subscriptions and pay-per-token Cloud keys.

Features

• Dual Provider Support: Both the subscription-based Model Studio Coding Plan and the pay-per-token Alibaba Cloud (DashScope) — registered side by side, switch per chat from the model picker.
• Both API Shapes: Anthropic-compatible (/v1/messages) by default; OpenAI-compatible (/compatible-mode/v1) auto-selected for DeepSeek and selectable per-Cloud via /alibaba.
• Both Regions: International (dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com, Singapore plan host) and China (dashscope.aliyuncs.com + region-specific plan hosts) — switch with /alibaba, no re-login needed.
• Native Reasoning: First-class thinking-level support for every reasoning-capable model (Qwen 3.7 Max/Plus, Qwen 3.6 Max/Plus, DeepSeek V4, Kimi K2.6, GLM-5, MiniMax M2.5).
• Vision Capable: Image input automatically enabled for VL models and Qwen 3.x Plus variants.
• Live Catalog: Pulls the real /v1/models from DashScope on every login + the canonical Qwen-Code plan template. New models appear as Alibaba ships them — no extension update needed.

How to Use (Quickstart)

1. Install the extension (see below).
2. Restart pi to load the extension.
3. Type /login in your pi chat input.
4. Select your provider based on your account type:
   • Choose Plans > Alibaba Model Studio Coding Plan if you have a subscription (your token likely starts with sk-sp- or sk-tok-).
   • Choose Use an API key > Alibaba Cloud (API Key) if you use the pay-as-you-go DashScope service (your token likely starts with sk-).
5. Paste your token when prompted.
6. Open the model picker, select a model (e.g., Qwen 3.7 Max, Qwen 3.7 Plus, Qwen 3.6 Max, or DeepSeek V4 Pro), and start chatting!

Install

# recommended
pi install pi-alibaba-models

# explicit npm form (fallback if the bare name doesn't resolve)
pi install npm:pi-alibaba-models

# or from GitHub
pi install git:github.com/Fornace/pi-alibaba-models

# or from a local checkout (development)
git clone https://github.com/Fornace/pi-alibaba-models
cd pi-alibaba-models && pi install .

After install, restart pi. The extension registers two providers and a slash command on every boot.

Uninstall

pi remove only removes the package entry from settings.json["packages"] — it does not clean extension-private state (auth entries, config, model cache, enabled-model lists). For a clean uninstall:

1. /alibaba  →  "Reset all"      (wipes config, both auth entries, plan-models cache, alibaba-* enabledModels)
2. pi remove pi-alibaba-models

If you've already run pi remove and want to clean leftovers manually:

rm -f ~/.pi/agent/alibaba-config.json ~/.pi/agent/alibaba-plan-models.cache.json
# then edit ~/.pi/agent/auth.json and remove the "alibaba-plan" / "alibaba-cloud" entries
# then edit ~/.pi/agent/settings.json and drop any "alibaba-*/..." or "dashscope/..." entries from enabledModels

Two providers

| Provider id | Section in /login | Auth shape | Use it for | |----------------|-------------------------|------------|--------------------------------------------| | alibaba-plan | Plans | OAuth (paste token) | Model Studio Coding Plan subscription | | alibaba-cloud| API Keys (via OAuth UI) | OAuth (paste API key) | Pay-per-token DashScope API |

Both are registered as oauth-shaped providers so they appear in /login and live in ~/.pi/agent/auth.json under their respective keys. The Plan provider stores the chosen endpoints in the refresh field as JSON; the Cloud provider stores its domain in ~/.pi/agent/alibaba-config.json.

Cloud without /login: the Cloud provider also reads the DASHSCOPE_API_KEY environment variable. If it's set, the extension fetches your live model catalog from it on startup — no /login needed. With no credential at all (no /login, no env var) the Cloud provider still shows up in /login → Use an API key via a single placeholder model, so you can sign in; your real catalog replaces it the moment a key is present.

Endpoints

Plan (default Singapore / Global):

• Anthropic-compat: https://token-plan.ap-southeast-1.maas.aliyuncs.com/apps/anthropic (pi appends /v1/messages)
• OpenAI-compat: https://token-plan.ap-southeast-1.maas.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1

Cloud (default International):

• Anthropic-compat: https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/apps/anthropic
• OpenAI-compat: https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1

Key prefix reference

| Prefix | Provider | Where to obtain | |-------------|----------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------| | sk-sp- | alibaba-plan | Model Studio Coding Plan console — Singapore / Global | | sk-tok- | alibaba-plan | Model Studio Coding Plan console — alternate token format | | sk-(other)| alibaba-cloud| DashScope API Keys console (per-token billing) |

Consoles:

• International / Singapore Coding Plan: https://modelstudio-intl.console.alibabacloud.com/
• China Coding Plan: https://bailian.console.aliyun.com/
• DashScope (per-token): https://dashscope.console.aliyun.com/ or https://dashscope-intl.console.aliyun.com/

The login flow validates the prefix and offers to redirect you to the correct provider if you paste the wrong type.

Region table

| Region | Plan host | Cloud host | |---------------|---------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------| | International | token-plan.ap-southeast-1.maas.aliyuncs.com | dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com | | China | (region-specific host, paste via "Custom") | dashscope.aliyuncs.com | | Custom | paste both base URLs at login | paste domain at login |

Studio plan models — dynamic source

The plan model list is fetched from the canonical Qwen Code template:

https://github.com/QwenLM/qwen-code/blob/main/packages/cli/src/constants/codingPlan.ts

Cached at ~/.pi/agent/alibaba-plan-models.cache.json for 4 hours. The live API is always the source of truth; on a failed fetch the extension falls back to the last-known-good on-disk cache (and, if there's no cache either, registers an empty list rather than crashing). Force a refresh from /alibaba → Refresh model lists.

deepseek-v3.2 (and any plan-served models the upstream template omits) is merged in via a small allow-list so the picker reflects what the endpoint actually serves. The Cloud provider mirrors the live /v1/models response — V4 Pro/Flash, Qwen 3.7 Max/Plus, Qwen 3.6 Max/Plus, Kimi K2.6, GLM-5, MiniMax M2.5 etc. all surface automatically as Alibaba ships them.

Limitations & Known Issues

• DeepSeek Compatibility: The Anthropic-compatible path on the Alibaba Plan host often hangs or times out for DeepSeek models. To resolve this seamlessly, this extension automatically forces any model ID containing deepseek to use the OpenAI-completions endpoint instead.
• Model Availability (404s): The model picker displays the universally advertised catalog. However, if your specific Alibaba Cloud account or Model Studio subscription tier does not include access to a specific model, the API will return a model_not_found error only when you actually attempt to send a message.
• API Wrapper Quirks: Alibaba's native Anthropic compatibility layer can occasionally be strict or quirky with complex parallel tool calls. If you experience systemic parsing errors on DashScope, you can use the /alibaba command to switch your Cloud API format to "OpenAI".
• Dynamic Caching: Model lists are cached for 4 hours. If a new model drops and you don't see it, run /alibaba -> Refresh model lists.
• Inferred Context Windows: The /v1/models API returns only ids and names, so context windows are inferred from the model id. If a brand-new model shows the wrong size, fix it yourself with /alibaba → Context Window — Override (per model, or * for all) — no extension update needed.

/alibaba command reference

| Choice | What it does | |------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Status | Print Plan/Cloud login state, active endpoints, model count, cache age | | Refresh model lists | Force-refetch Plan + Cloud catalogs and reload the extension | | Re-login Plan | Wipe alibaba-plan from auth.json and reload (then run /login) | | Re-login Cloud | Wipe alibaba-cloud from auth.json and reload (then run /login) | | Plan — Change Endpoints | Override OpenAI / Anthropic base URLs | | Cloud — Change Domain | International / China / Custom domain | | Cloud — Change API Format | Switch between Anthropic-compat and OpenAI-compat | | Context Window — Override | Set the context-window shown on a model's card (per model, or * for all) | | Reset all | Wipe all Alibaba state (config, both auth entries, plan-models cache) |

Troubleshooting

• Model picker shows "No matching models" → run /login, pick the right Alibaba entry, paste your key. Models register only after a successful login (Cloud fetches its real model list at boot from the live key).
• sk-sp- accidentally pasted into the Cloud slot → run /alibaba → Re-login Cloud, then /login → Alibaba Model Studio Coding Plan and paste it there. (The login validators will also catch this and offer to redirect you.)
• DeepSeek hangs / times out → make sure you're on the latest version of this extension; it forces DeepSeek to OpenAI-compat. If you customised plan endpoints, verify the OpenAI URL ends in /compatible-mode/v1.
• Plan picker shows models that 404 at request time → your subscription tier may not include every advertised model. The picker shows whatever upstream advertises; the API tells you "model_not_found" only when you actually call it.
• /alibaba command doesn't appear → pi list should show pi-alibaba-models (or whatever source you installed from) under "User packages". If absent, run pi install pi-alibaba-models again and restart pi.

Files

| Path | Purpose | |-------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------| | ~/.pi/agent/auth.json | Both provider credentials (0600) | | ~/.pi/agent/alibaba-config.json | Endpoint / domain / format config | | ~/.pi/agent/alibaba-plan-models.cache.json | 48 h plan-models cache | | ~/.pi/agent/alibaba-cloud-models.cache.json | 48 h cloud-models cache |

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By Francesco Frapporti at Fornace.

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