pi-compact-transcript

A compact transcript extension for pi.

| With the extension | Without the extension| |---|---| | | |

What it does:

• Collapses every tool call/result into a dimmed one-line preview with a status diamond: blinking gray ◆ while running, green on success, red on failure. Durations show at a second or longer.
• Consecutive uses of the same tool coalesce into a single row, e.g. ◆ 4× read src/foo.ts {12 lines · 8s}. Failed tools always get their own visible row.
• Each agent run ends with a one-line summary, e.g. Read 6 files, edited 2, ran 3 commands, 1 failed · 42s.
• Suppresses Thinking... markers when thinking is hidden.
• Works with custom/external tools from other extensions; unknown tools preview their most meaningful string argument (command, code, query, path, url, ...) instead of raw JSON.
• Expanded tool output still uses pi's original renderer, so pi's normal tool expansion works when details matter.

Install

pi install npm:pi-compact-transcript

Or from GitHub:

pi install git:github.com/avhagedorn/pi-compact-transcript

Or try it for one run:

pi -e git:github.com/avhagedorn/pi-compact-transcript

Reload or restart pi after installing:

/reload

Recommended settings

Works best with hidden thinking and no output padding — set in ~/.pi/agent/settings.json or via /settings:

{
  "hideThinkingBlock": true,
  "outputPad": 0
}

Thinking suppression only applies when hideThinkingBlock is on; with it off, pi renders thinking traces normally.

Commands

/compact-transcript          # toggle on/off
/compact-transcript on|off   # set explicitly
/compact-transcript status   # show current state

Toggling re-renders the visible transcript immediately — no reload needed. Pre-0.5 mode names (balanced, aggressive, debug, disabled) are accepted as legacy aliases for on/off.

Notes

This extension changes display only — tool execution is still handled by pi and any other extensions that registered or override tools.

Compact rendering uses pi's public exported TUI components where available. Burst compaction and thinking suppression rely on pi's current TUI internals; if a future pi release changes those, the affected rows fall back to pi's normal rendering.