pi-interrupt-steer

Interrupt a running Pi turn and send the editor text as one new user message.

Install

pi install npm:pi-interrupt-steer

External contract

The default shortcut is ctrl+alt+enter. While Pi is streaming, it aborts the current operation and waits up to five seconds for Pi to become idle before sending the editor text. Pi first restores queued steering messages, then queued follow-up messages, and appends the text already in the editor. Each part is separated by a blank line. Pi stores steering and follow-up messages in separate queues, so their original cross-type typing order is not preserved. The extension sends that combined text once, then treats a user message_start as acceptance only when the message text exactly matches what it sent. For string content it compares the string; for content parts it compares their text joined together. Other user messages are ignored while it waits up to 60 seconds. It clears the editor only if it still contains the submitted text. A prompt rewritten by another extension can still be sent, but the original editor text stays and the timeout warning appears. While waiting for Pi to become idle or start a matching message, repeated shortcut presses show an info notice and do not abort or send again. If Pi does not start a matching message within 60 seconds, the text stays in the editor and the warning says to check the transcript before sending it again; an input handler may have handled the prompt without starting a message.

When Pi is idle, the shortcut sends the editor text without aborting. With an empty editor and no queued session messages, it leaves the run alone and shows a notification. During compaction, the shortcut cannot see Pi's separate compaction queue, so an empty-editor press with no session messages visible to the shortcut does not interrupt Pi; Pi delivers its compaction queue after compaction. For idle sends as well, the extension clears the editor only after a matching user message_start and only if the editor still contains the submitted text.

The terminal must send ctrl+alt+enter distinctly for this shortcut to fire. A terminal without the kitty keyboard protocol may send the legacy ESC CR sequence instead. Pi interprets that as alt+enter: the editor text is queued as a follow-up, the current response finishes first, and the run is not interrupted.

Settings

Set key in pi-interrupt-steer.json in the Pi agent settings directory, or use PI_INTERRUPT_STEER_KEY:

| setting | default | environment variable | purpose | |---|---|---|---| | key | ctrl+alt+enter | PI_INTERRUPT_STEER_KEY | Shortcut with one or more modifiers and a letter, digit, or named key. |

For example:

{
  "key": "ctrl+shift+x"
}

Valid modifiers are ctrl, alt, shift, and super. Valid named keys are enter, escape, tab, space, backspace, delete, up, down, left, right, home, and end.

If the contract is unmet

An invalid key uses ctrl+alt+enter and shows one warning. If Pi does not emit a matching user message_start within 60 seconds after the send, the text remains in the editor and the extension warns you to check the transcript before sending it again. If the editor changes while Pi is processing the message, the extension leaves the current text there when it differs from the submitted text.