pi-infobar - Pi extension

High-contrast two-row info bar for the Pi coding agent.

This extension replaces Pi's default footer with a cleaner info bar layout inspired by a Starship-style prompt. It keeps the most important information visually dominant and avoids low-value activity labels like status, idle, or ready.

Install

pi install npm:pi-infobar

Try it without installing permanently:

pi -e npm:pi-infobar

Layout

Line 1 — navigation + model state

Left:

• current working folder, rendered first and styled as the primary segment;
• linked worktree name with 󰙅, when the current folder is a Git worktree;
• git branch, when available, with Starship-style git status inline (~ modified blue, ✘ untracked red, + staged green, - deleted red, ⇡/⇣ ahead/behind).

The path segment stays as the normal path. Linked worktrees get a separate green worktree segment using the worktree root folder name.

Right:

• active model in light blue;
• thinking level with effort-specific color;
• context percentage with a stepped color ramp from transparent/green through yellow, orange, and red by 60%.

A subtle separator sits between the two information rows.

Line 2

Left: Codex subscription usage

Right: token usage and cost

• ↑ tokens sent;
• ↓ tokens received;
• dark-green $ estimated cost.

Commands

/pi-infobar            toggle the info bar
/pi-infobar on         enable
/pi-infobar off        disable
/pi-infobar toggle     toggle
/codex-status          show Codex usage and rate-limit windows
/codex-status --refresh  refresh Codex usage
/codex-status --no-statusline  show report without updating footer
/codex-status --clear-statusline  clear Codex usage from footer

You can start Pi with the info bar disabled:

PI_INFOBAR=0 pi

Implementation Details

Structure

pi-infobar/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts          ← Entry point: extension lifecycle only (~80 lines)
│   ├── types.ts          ← All shared interfaces & type aliases (~45 lines)
│   ├── theme.ts          ← COLOR palette + contextColor/thinkingColor/codexAccent (~75 lines)
│   ├── ansi.ts           ← Low-level ANSI helpers: ansi(), stripAnsi(), hexToRgb(), readableTextOn() (~55 lines)
│   ├── chips.ts          ← Chip factory + renderChip/renderChips/renderSegmentedChip (~85 lines)
│   ├── format.ts         ← Pure data formatters: formatCount, formatCost, shortenModel, etc. (~80 lines)
│   ├── git.ts            ← Git snapshot, cache, parsing, status formatting (~175 lines)
│   ├── codex-usage/      ← Codex subscription usage queries, reports, cache, and statusline manager
│   └── renderers.ts      ← Footer line renderers: renderPrimaryLine, renderUsageLine, etc. (~140 lines)
├── index.ts              ← Re-export barrel: `export { default } from "./src/index.js"` (~1 line)
├── package.json          ← Updated "files" list & tsconfig include
└── tsconfig.json         ← Updated include glob

Code Overview

• The COLOR constant object
• contextColor() — percent → color mapping
• thinkingColor() — thinking level → color mapping
• codexAccent() — raw status string → accent color
• codexPercentColor() — codex percent → color

Low-level terminal rendering primitives:

• ansi() — apply fg/bg/bold SGR codes
• stripAnsi() — strip ANSI escape sequences
• hexToRgb() — hex string → RGB
• rgbCode() — RGB → SGR color code
• readableTextOn() — pick readable text color for a background

The chip UI component system:

• chip() factory
• renderChip(), renderChips()
• renderSegmentedChip()

Pure data formatting functions:

• formatCount(), formatCost()
• shortenModel(), modelName()
• formatThinking()
• formatWorkingPath(), smartPathTruncate()
• shorten(), simplifyStatusText()
• formatCodexValue(), codexValueSegments()
• getTokenTotals()

All git integration, fully self-contained:

• gitCache, GIT_CACHE_TTL_MS, GIT_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MS
• getGitSnapshot(), execGit(), getLinkedWorktreeName()
• parseGitStatus(), parseStatusBranch()
• formatGitStatus(), formatGitStatusPart(), isDirty()

Footer line renderers that compose chips, git, and formatting:

• renderPrimaryLine(), renderUsageLine(), renderSeparatorLine()
• fitLeftRight()
• renderPathCluster(), renderPathChip(), renderFittedPathChip()
• renderBranchChip(), renderWorktreeChip()
• renderCodexStatus()

The main extension entry point — only lifecycle & event wiring:

• piInfobar() default export
• installFooter(), refresh()
• Event handlers: session_start, session_tree, session_shutdown, model_select, agent_end, turn_end, thinking_level_select
• Command handlers: pi-infobar, codex-status