Using Pi

This page collects day-to-day usage details that do not fit on the quickstart page.

Interactive Mode

The interface has four main areas:

• Startup header - shortcuts, loaded context files, prompt templates, skills, and extensions
• Messages - user messages, assistant responses, tool calls, tool results, notifications, errors, and extension UI
• Editor - where you type; border color indicates the current thinking level
• Footer - working directory, session name, token/cache usage, cost, context usage, and current model

The editor can be replaced temporarily by built-in UI such as /settings or by custom extension UI.

Editor Features

Feature	How
File reference	Type @ to fuzzy-search project files
Path completion	Press Tab to complete paths
Multi-line input	Shift+Enter, or Ctrl+Enter on Windows Terminal
Images	Paste with Ctrl+V, Alt+V on Windows, or drag into the terminal
Shell command	!command runs and sends output to the model
Hidden shell command	!!command runs without sending output to the model
External editor	Ctrl+G opens $VISUAL or $EDITOR

See Keybindings for all shortcuts and customization.

Slash Commands

Type / in the editor to open command completion. Extensions can register custom commands, skills are available as /skill:name, and prompt templates expand via /templatename.

Command	Description
/login, /logout	Manage OAuth or API-key credentials
/model	Switch models
/scoped-models	Enable/disable models for Ctrl+P cycling
/settings	Thinking level, theme, message delivery, transport
/resume	Pick from previous sessions
/new	Start a new session
/name <name>	Set session display name
/session	Show session file, ID, messages, tokens, and cost
/tree	Jump to any point in the session and continue from there
/fork	Create a new session from a previous user message
/clone	Duplicate the current active branch into a new session
/compact [prompt]	Manually compact context, optionally with custom instructions
/copy	Copy last assistant message to clipboard
/export [file]	Export session to HTML
/share	Upload as private GitHub gist with shareable HTML link
/reload	Reload keybindings, extensions, skills, prompts, and context files
/hotkeys	Show all keyboard shortcuts
/changelog	Display version history
/quit	Quit pi

Message Queue

You can submit messages while the agent is still working:

• Enter queues a steering message, delivered after the current assistant turn finishes executing its tool calls.
• Alt+Enter queues a follow-up message, delivered after the agent finishes all work.
• Escape aborts and restores queued messages to the editor.
• Alt+Up retrieves queued messages back to the editor.

On Windows Terminal, Alt+Enter is fullscreen by default. Remap it as described in Terminal setup if you want pi to receive the shortcut.

Configure delivery in Settings with steeringMode and followUpMode.

Sessions

Sessions are saved automatically to ~/.pi/agent/sessions/, organized by working directory.

pi -c                  # Continue most recent session
pi -r                  # Browse and select a session
pi --no-session        # Ephemeral mode; do not save
pi --session <path|id> # Use a specific session file or session ID
pi --fork <path|id>    # Fork a session into a new session file

Useful session commands:

• /session shows the current session file and ID.
• /tree navigates the in-file session tree and can summarize abandoned branches.
• /fork creates a new session from an earlier user message.
• /clone duplicates the current active branch into a new session file.
• /compact summarizes older messages to free context.

See Sessions and Compaction for details.

Context Files

Pi loads AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md at startup from:

• ~/.pi/agent/AGENTS.md for global instructions
• parent directories, walking up from the current working directory
• the current directory

Use context files for project conventions, commands, safety rules, and preferences. Disable loading with --no-context-files or -nc.

System Prompt Files

Replace the default system prompt with:

• .pi/SYSTEM.md for a project
• ~/.pi/agent/SYSTEM.md globally

Append to the default prompt without replacing it with APPEND_SYSTEM.md in either location.

Exporting and Sharing Sessions

Use /export [file] to write a session to HTML.

Use /share to upload a private GitHub gist with a shareable HTML link.

If you use pi for open source work and want to publish sessions for model, prompt, tool, and evaluation research, see badlogic/pi-share-hf. It publishes sessions to Hugging Face datasets.

CLI Reference

pi [options] [@files...] [messages...]

Package Commands

pi install <source> [-l]     # Install package, -l for project-local
pi remove <source> [-l]      # Remove package
pi uninstall <source> [-l]   # Alias for remove
pi update [source|self|pi]   # Update pi and packages; skips pinned packages
pi update --extensions       # Update packages only
pi update --self             # Update pi only
pi update --extension <src>  # Update one package
pi list                      # List installed packages
pi config                    # Enable/disable package resources

See Pi Packages for package sources and security notes.

Modes

Flag	Description
default	Interactive mode
-p, --print	Print response and exit
--mode json	Output all events as JSON lines; see JSON mode
--mode rpc	RPC mode over stdin/stdout; see RPC mode
--export <in> [out]	Export a session to HTML

In print mode, pi also reads piped stdin and merges it into the initial prompt:

cat README.md | pi -p "Summarize this text"

Model Options

Option	Description
--provider <name>	Provider, such as anthropic, openai, or google
--model <pattern>	Model pattern or ID; supports provider/id and optional :<thinking>
--api-key <key>	API key, overriding environment variables
--thinking <level>	off, minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh
--models <patterns>	Comma-separated patterns for Ctrl+P cycling
--list-models [search]	List available models

Session Options

Option	Description
-c, --continue	Continue the most recent session
-r, --resume	Browse and select a session
--session <path|id>	Use a specific session file or partial UUID
--fork <path|id>	Fork a session file or partial UUID into a new session
--session-dir <dir>	Custom session storage directory
--no-session	Ephemeral mode; do not save

Tool Options

Option	Description
--tools <list>, -t <list>	Allowlist specific built-in, extension, and custom tools
--no-builtin-tools, -nbt	Disable built-in tools but keep extension/custom tools enabled
--no-tools, -nt	Disable all tools

Built-in tools: read, bash, edit, write, grep, find, ls.

Resource Options

Option	Description
-e, --extension <source>	Load an extension from path, npm, or git; repeatable
--no-extensions	Disable extension discovery
--skill <path>	Load a skill; repeatable
--no-skills	Disable skill discovery
--prompt-template <path>	Load a prompt template; repeatable
--no-prompt-templates	Disable prompt template discovery
--theme <path>	Load a theme; repeatable
--no-themes	Disable theme discovery
--no-context-files, -nc	Disable AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md discovery

Combine --no-* with explicit flags to load exactly what you need, ignoring settings. Example:

pi --no-extensions -e ./my-extension.ts

Other Options

Option	Description
--system-prompt <text>	Replace default prompt; context files and skills are still appended
--append-system-prompt <text>	Append to system prompt
--verbose	Force verbose startup
-h, --help	Show help
-v, --version	Show version

File Arguments

Prefix files with @ to include them in the message:

pi @prompt.md "Answer this"
pi -p @screenshot.png "What's in this image?"
pi @code.ts @test.ts "Review these files"

Examples

# Interactive with initial prompt
pi "List all .ts files in src/"

# Non-interactive
pi -p "Summarize this codebase"

# Non-interactive with piped stdin
cat README.md | pi -p "Summarize this text"

# Different model
pi --provider openai --model gpt-4o "Help me refactor"

# Model with provider prefix
pi --model openai/gpt-4o "Help me refactor"

# Model with thinking level shorthand
pi --model sonnet:high "Solve this complex problem"

# Limit model cycling
pi --models "claude-*,gpt-4o"

# Read-only mode
pi --tools read,grep,find,ls -p "Review the code"

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR	Override config directory; default is ~/.pi/agent
PI_PACKAGE_DIR	Override package directory, useful for Nix/Guix store paths
PI_SKIP_VERSION_CHECK	Skip version check at startup
PI_TELEMETRY	Override install telemetry: 1/true/yes or 0/false/no
PI_CACHE_RETENTION	Set to long for extended prompt cache where supported
VISUAL, EDITOR	External editor for Ctrl+G

Design Principles

Pi keeps the core small and pushes workflow-specific behavior into extensions, skills, prompt templates, and packages.

It intentionally does not include built-in MCP, sub-agents, permission popups, plan mode, to-dos, or background bash. You can build or install those workflows as extensions or packages, or use external tools such as containers and tmux.

For the full rationale, read the blog post.