pi-turtle-rlm

Recursive language model runtime for Pi — a persistent JS workspace inside the agent, with structured child calls via llmQuery, prompt modes, and session stats.

Turtles all the way down — each turtle is an llmQuery call, each shell is globalThis, base case maxDepth, or just run out of tokens.

Install

Recommended — Pi package manager (see Pi packages):

pi install npm:pi-turtle-rlm

Pin a version:

pi install npm:[email protected]

From git:

pi install git:github.com/jpstrikesback/pi-rlm

From a local clone (contributors or vendoring):

git clone https://github.com/jpstrikesback/pi-rlm.git
cd pi-rlm
npm install
npm run build
pi install ./
# or one-off during development: pi -e ./index.ts

Project-local Pi config (.pi/settings.json or pi install -l):

{
	"packages": ["npm:pi-turtle-rlm"]
}

After install, start Pi as usual from your repo; the extension loads from Pi’s package resolution. Use /reload after upgrading the package.

Quick start

1. Turn RLM on: /rlm
2. Same command takes subcommands:
   • /rlm balanced | /rlm coordinator | /rlm aggressive — prompt mode
   • /rlm inspect — runtime globals
   • /rlm reset — clear runtime

When RLM is on you get a pink RLM MODE widget (with mode label) and footer stats: depth, rlm_exec count, child queries / turns, runtime variable count, and non-RLM tool calls (“leaf” count).

Why RLM?

Large refactors need more room for context than a single chat transcript. This extension gives the model a persistent workspace to keep intermediate state, recurse with llmQuery, and avoid re-deriving the same context over and over.

Tools

• rlm_exec — run JS in the persistent runtime
• rlm_inspect — inspect runtime globals
• rlm_reset — clear the runtime

Inside rlm_exec you can use:

• inspectGlobals()
• final(value)
• await llmQuery(request)

Use in an extension

import rlmExtension from "pi-turtle-rlm";

export default rlmExtension;

Or configure defaults:

import { createRlmExtension } from "pi-turtle-rlm";

export default createRlmExtension({
	maxDepth: 3,
	promptMode: "coordinator",
});

Safety

The worker uses node:vm with several globals stripped. It is not a security sandbox — treat it like running code in your user account.

Advanced runtime usage

Inside rlm_exec, the runtime also exposes llmQuery(...) for recursive child calls.

await llmQuery({
	prompt: "Analyze the auth module",
	state: { files: globalThis.authFiles },
	tools: "read-only",
	budget: "medium",
});

Inspiration

This project is inspired in part by AxLLM’s RLM ideas.

Development

git clone https://github.com/jpstrikesback/pi-rlm.git
cd pi-rlm
npm install
npm test
npm run build
npm run smoke

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE.