pi-compaction-i18n

Make pi's compaction and branch summaries speak your language.

pi-compaction-i18n is a Pi extension that overrides the default English-only /compact and /tree branch summaries with fully localized output in 11 languages — auto-detected from your system locale.

✨ What it does

| Feature | Default pi | With this extension | |---|---|---| | /compact summary headings | ## Goal, ## Progress… (English) | ## 目标, ## 进展… (your language) | | /tree branch summary | English only | Localized | | Language detection | N/A | Auto from PI_LOCALE > LC_ALL > LANG | | Supported languages | English only | 11 languages |

🌍 Supported languages

| Locale | Language | Headings example | |---|---|---| | zh-CN, zh_* | 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese) | ## 目标 / ## 进展 / ## 下一步 | | zh-TW, zh-HK, zh-MO | 繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese) | ## 目標 / ## 進展 / ## 下一步 | | ja-* | 日本語 (Japanese) | ## 目標 / ## 進捗 / ## 次のステップ | | ko-* | 한국어 (Korean) | ## 목표 / ## 진행 상황 / ## 다음 단계 | | de-* | Deutsch (German) | ## Ziel / ## Fortschritt / ## Nächste Schritte | | fr-* | Français (French) | ## Objectif / ## Progression / ## Étapes suivantes | | es-* | Español (Spanish) | ## Objetivo / ## Progreso / ## Próximos pasos | | pt-* | Português (Portuguese) | ## Objetivo / ## Progresso / ## Próximos passos | | ru-* | Русский (Russian) | ## Цель / ## Прогресс / ## Следующие шаги | | ar-* | العربية (Arabic) | ## الهدف / ## التقدم / ## الخطوات التالية | | other | English | ## Goal / ## Progress / ## Next Steps |

📦 Install

pi install npm:pi-compaction-i18n

Works out of the box. No configuration needed — uses your current session's model by default.

⚙️ Configuration

Config file is auto-generated on first use at ~/.pi/agent/pi-compaction-i18n.json:

{
  "locale": "auto",
  "model": ""
}

| Field | Type | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | locale | string | "auto" | Force a locale (e.g. "zh-CN"). Set to "auto" for auto-detection from environment | | model | string | (session model) | Override the LLM model for summaries (provider/modelId). Empty = use current session's active model |

Note: Compaction summaries benefit from strong models (they need deep context understanding). The default behavior of using your session model is recommended in most cases. Only override if you have a specific reason.

🚀 Usage

Check status

After installing, open any Pi session and run:

/compaction-i18n-status

Example output on a Chinese system:

pi-compaction-i18n: enabled
Detected locale: zh-CN
Summary language: zh-Hans
Instruction: Write the entire summary in Simplified Chinese (简体中文). All headings and body content must be in Simplified Chinese.

Trigger localized summaries

• Compaction: Type /compact or let auto-compaction trigger naturally
• Branch summary: Use /tree to navigate between branches with summarization enabled

Both will now produce fully localized markdown summaries.

🔧 How it works

1. Locale detection: Reads PI_LOCALE → LC_ALL → LANG environment variables (e.g., zh_CN.UTF-8 → zh-CN). Can be overridden via config.
2. Language mapping: Maps locale code to one of 11 supported languages
3. Template generation: Builds a compaction/branch-summary prompt with localized section headings and a language instruction prepended
4. Event interception: Registers handlers for session_before_compact and session_before_tree events via Pi's extension API
5. LLM call: Uses complete() from @earendil-works/pi-ai to generate the summary with the localized prompt. Uses session's active model by default, or a configured override.

Event precedence

For session_before_compact and session_before_tree events, the last handler that returns a non-null result wins. If you have multiple extensions that override compaction, ensure only one is active at a time.

🧪 Development

# Clone & test
git clone https://github.com/ssdiwu/pi-compaction-i18n.git
cd pi-compaction-i18n
npm install
npm test

# Install locally into pi for testing
pi install .

🔗 Related

• pi-autoname — AI-powered session naming (sibling project)

📄 License

MIT © ssdiwu