StickyBar

Input bar extension for pi coding agent.

Preview

Features

• Fixed editor - prompt is always visible
• Two configurable status rows with model, git state and more, check table below
• Last-prompt preview under the input prompt line
• Themed working vibes: generated realtime based on your input or loaded from a local file, with optional rainbow animation.

Installation

pi install npm:pi-stickybar

Restart pi after installation or call /reload.

Configuration

The extension has opiniated defaults, but it also configurable via settings.json

Put settings under a single stickybar object. Pi reads global settings first, then project settings, so .pi/settings.json overrides ~/.pi/agent/settings.json.

Full configuration example:

{
  "stickybar": {
    "fixedEditor": true,
    "mouseScroll": true,
    "showLastPrompt": true,

    "top": [
      "git",
      "context_pct",
      "token_in",
      "token_out",
      "cost",
      "time_spent"
    ],

    "bottom": [
      "model",
      "thinking",
      "path",
      "extension_statuses"
    ],

    "options": {
      "path": { "mode": "basename", "maxLength": 32 },
      "git": {
        "polling": "full",
        "showBranch": true,
        "showStaged": true,
        "showUnstaged": true,
        "showUntracked": true
      },
      "time": { "format": "24h", "showSeconds": false }
    },

    "vibe": {
      "theme": "evil corporation",
      "mode": "generate",
      "model": "openai-codex/gpt-5.4-mini",
      "rainbow": true,
      "fallback": "Working",
      "refreshInterval": 30,
      "prompt": "Generate a {theme} loading message for: {task}. {exclude}",
      "maxLength": 65
    }
  }
}

Status items

top and bottom are ordered arrays. An item can appear only once, and unknown IDs are ignored.

| Item | Description | Example | | --- | --- | --- | | model | Current model in use | gpt-5.4-mini | | thinking | Reasoning/thinking level | medium | | path | Current file path (see options) | src/index.ts | | git | Git branch + working-tree state | main ⇡3 ✗2 ?1 | | context_pct | Context window usage percentage | 45% | | context_total | Total context tokens used | 12,450 tok | | token_in | Input tokens for current turn | 3,200 | | token_out | Output tokens for current turn | 840 | | token_total | Total tokens (in + out) | 4,040 | | cost | Estimated cost of current session | $0.012 | | time_spent | Elapsed time for current turn | 3s | | time | Current clock time | 14:35 | | session | Session identifier or name | sess-abc123 | | hostname | Machine hostname | my-laptop | | cache_read | Cache read hits | 128 | | cache_write | Cache write hits | 35 | | extension_statuses | All published extension statuses | ci: passing · deploy: ready |

Path options

Configure how file paths are displayed via options.path:

| Option | Values | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | mode | basename, abbreviated, full | How the path is rendered. basename shows only the filename (index.ts). abbreviated keeps the full path but truncates from the start with … when it exceeds maxLength. full always shows the complete absolute path. | | maxLength | number (default: 32) | Maximum length for abbreviated mode. Longer paths are truncated from the beginning and prefixed with …. |

Git polling options

Configure git status detail via options.git:

| Option | Values | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | polling | full, branch, off | How much git info to gather. full polls for branch name plus staged, unstaged, and untracked counts. branch shows only the current branch name without scanning working-tree changes. off skips local polling entirely and relies on whatever branch info pi provides. | | showBranch | boolean (default: true) | Include the branch name in the segment. | | showStaged | boolean (default: true) | Show the count of staged changes (⇡). | | showUnstaged | boolean (default: true) | Show the count of unstaged changes (✗). | | showUntracked | boolean (default: true) | Show the count of untracked files (?). |

Custom status items

Use custom:<id> in a row and declare the matching item in customItems:

{
  "stickybar": {
    "top": ["model", "path", "custom:ci", "git"],
    "bottom": ["context_pct", "extension_statuses"],
    "customItems": [
      {
        "id": "ci",
        "statusKey": "ci-status",
        "prefix": "CI",
        "hideWhenMissing": true,
        "excludeFromExtensionStatuses": true
      }
    ]
  }
}

Extensions publish a value with:

ctx.ui.setStatus("ci-status", "passing");

Working vibes

Manage vibes from pi with /stickybar vibe:

/stickybar                    Show current status
/stickybar vibe               Show vibe status
/stickybar vibe pirate        Enable a theme
/stickybar vibe off           Disable vibes
/stickybar vibe rainbow on    Enable rainbow animation
/stickybar vibe mode file     Use ~/.pi/agent/vibes/<theme>.txt
/stickybar vibe model provider/model
/stickybar vibe generate evil cat corporation 100

generate mode requests a short message from the configured model while Pi is working. file mode rotates through messages in ~/.pi/agent/vibes/<theme>.txt and does not make a model request.

This project is a rework of pi-powerline-footer with simplified approach to customization and limited feature list.