pi-sticky-usermessage

Sticky header that shows your last user message above the editor in Pi coding agent. Features persistence, smart formatting, and sensitive data filtering.

What it does

After you send a prompt, a persistent bar above the input editor shows your message with rich metadata. Perfect for keeping context visible during long tool-execution sequences.

▎ 14:32 · ● new </>
  Fix the auth middleware to handle expired tokens properly
  and add a retry with exponential backoff to the client

Features

✨ Core

• Persistent Configuration: Settings saved across sessions
• Smart Truncation: Word-boundary aware, respects max lines
• Syntax Awareness: Highlights file paths, URLs, functions, errors
• Overflow Indicator: Shows … +N more lines when message exceeds display

🎨 Customization

• Timestamp Display: Show when the message was sent
• Message Type Indicators: ● new, → follow-up, ✎ edit
• Code Block Detection: Shows </> marker when code is present
• Custom Prefix Symbol: Change the ▎ to any character
• Theme-Aware Colors: Uses your active Pi theme colors

🔒 Privacy & Security

• Sensitive Data Filtering: Automatically redacts emails, API keys, passwords, IPs
• Custom Patterns: Add your own regex patterns for redaction
• Toggle Filtering: Enable/disable per your needs

Install

pi install pi-sticky-usermessage

Or test locally:

pi -e ./src/index.ts

Usage

The header is on by default after installation.

Commands

| Command | Effect | |---------|--------| | /sticky | Show current status (ON / OFF) | | /sticky on | Enable the sticky header | | /sticky off | Disable and clear the header | | /sticky show | Show detailed configuration | | /sticky reset | Reset to default settings | | /sticky config <key>=<value> ... | Update configuration | | /sticky-lines <number> | Set max lines (1-20) | | /sticky-width <number> | Set max width (20-200) |

Configuration Examples

# Change multiple settings at once
/sticky config maxLines=5 showTimestamp=false smartTruncation=true

# Customize colors
/sticky config timestampColor=yellow metadataColor=cyan

# Change prefix symbol
/sticky config prefixSymbol="→"

# Disable sensitive data filtering
/sticky config filterSensitive=false

Configuration Options

| Key | Default | Description | |-----|---------|-------------| | enabled | true | Start enabled | | maxLines | 3 | Maximum message lines to display (1-20) | | maxWidth | 120 | Characters per line before ellipsis (20-200) | | showTimestamp | true | Show message timestamp | | showMessageType | true | Show message type indicator | | smartTruncation | true | Apply smart syntax highlighting | | codeBlockIndicator | true | Show </> for code blocks | | prefixSymbol | "▎" | Prefix character for header | | truncateAtWordBoundary | true | Truncate at word boundaries | | filterSensitive | true | Filter sensitive data | | customPatterns | undefined | Custom regex patterns for redaction | | timestampColor | "dim" | Theme color for timestamps | | metadataColor | "muted" | Theme color for metadata |

Sensitive Data Filtering

The extension automatically detects and redacts:

• Email addresses: [email protected] → [email]
• IP addresses: 192.168.1.1 → [ip]
• Phone numbers: (555) 123-4567 → [phone]
• API keys: sk-abc123... → [key]
• Bearer tokens: Bearer xyz → Bearer [token]
• Passwords: password: secret123 → password [redacted]
• API keys: api_key: abc123 → api_key [redacted]
• Secrets: secret: xyz → secret [redacted]

Custom Patterns

Add custom regex patterns via the API or by modifying the config in code:

config.customPatterns = [
  "\\b[A-Z]{2}-\\d{4}\\b",  // Ticket numbers like AB-1234
  "\\b\\d{4}-\\d{4}-\\d{4}-\\d{4}\\b",  // Credit card format
];

Syntax Highlighting

When smartTruncation is enabled, the extension highlights:

• File paths: src/components/Button.tsx (accent color)
• URLs: https://example.com (cyan color)
• Function calls: fetchData() (yellow color)
• Errors/warnings: Error: failed (error color)

Theme Colors

The extension uses these Pi theme color names:

| Color | Usage | |-------|-------| | accent | Code block markers, file paths | | muted | Metadata, message type | | dim | Timestamps, overflow indicator | | cyan | URLs | | yellow | Function calls | | error | Error/warning patterns |

Technical Details

Persistence

Configuration and last message metadata are persisted using pi.appendEntry():

pi.appendEntry("sticky-config", {
  config: { ... },
  lastMetadata: { ... }
});

State is automatically restored on session_start.

Event Capture

Messages are captured from the before_agent_start event, which fires for every prompt that reaches the agent.

Troubleshooting

Widget not showing

• Check if enabled: /sticky
• Verify UI is available (not in print mode)
• Check for errors in Pi logs

Settings not persisting

• Ensure session is saved (Pi auto-saves)
• Check file permissions for Pi data directory
• Try /sticky reset then reconfigure

Sensitive data not filtered

• Verify filterSensitive: true via /sticky show
• Check if custom patterns are needed
• Test with known patterns (email, API key)

Text not truncating correctly

• Check maxWidth setting via /sticky show
• Verify truncateAtWordBoundary is set as desired
• Try adjusting maxLines for better fit

License

MIT