@aemonculaba/pi-search

Web search + fetch extension for pi with an agent-first browse workflow:

1. web_search(query) → list of results (title, URL, snippet)
2. web_fetch(url) → clean Markdown content + links found on page

This avoids DDG scraping/rate limits by using OpenAI/Codex native web search.

Tools

web_search

Uses OpenAI web_search tool (Codex OAuth or OpenAI API key) and returns raw results.

web_fetch

Fetches and extracts page content via:

• Readability + Turndown (default)
• Playwright + Readability fallback for JS-heavy pages
• Raw text fallback for non-HTML responses

Also returns links found on the page for follow-up crawling.

Auth priority

1. openai-codex (/login subscription)
2. openai API key
3. OPENAI_API_KEY env var

Local dev (no symlink)

npm install
npx playwright install chromium
pi install /absolute/path/to/pi-search

Then in pi run /reload.

To update while developing, just edit files and run /reload again.

Install from npm in pi

pi install npm:@aemonculaba/pi-search
# or pin a version
pi install npm:@aemonculaba/pi-search@0.2.0

Release / test install flow

1. Validate package locally:

npm ci
npm test
npm run pack:check
npm run release:dry-run

2. Publish a dev tag (for npm-based testing before latest):

npm version prerelease --preid=dev
npm publish --tag dev

Then test in pi:

pi remove npm:@aemonculaba/pi-search || true
pi install npm:@aemonculaba/pi-search@dev

3. Publish stable (tag + push):

git tag v0.2.0
git push origin v0.2.0

GitHub Action will publish to npm via Trusted Publishing (OIDC), no NPM_TOKEN needed.

4. Test official install in pi:

pi remove npm:@aemonculaba/pi-search || true
pi install npm:@aemonculaba/pi-search@0.2.0

CI/CD

• CI workflow: install, test, package dry-check on push/PR
• Release workflow: publish to npm on v* tags (or manual dispatch) using npm Trusted Publishing

Policy (baked into extension)

This package includes a web-tool policy that enforces web_search + web_fetch for web access.

When enabled (default):

• injects guidance into the system prompt each turn
• blocks known alternate web-search/web-fetch tools
• optionally blocks bash-based web fetching (curl, wget, raw URLs, etc.)

Config

Variable	Description
WEBSEARCH_PROVIDER	Force provider (openai)
WEBSEARCH_MODEL	Override model (default gpt-5.2 for codex)
OPENAI_API_KEY	API key fallback
PI_SEARCH_ENFORCE_WEB_POLICY	Enable/disable embedded policy (true by default)
PI_SEARCH_BLOCK_BASH_WEB	Block bash web-fetch patterns (true by default)
PI_SEARCH_EXTRA_BLOCKED_TOOLS	CSV list of extra tool names to block
PI_SEARCH_ALLOWED_WEB_TOOLS	CSV list of blocked tools to allow

Managing pi extensions and migrating across servers

See docs/PI_AGENT_OPERATIONS.md for a practical playbook:

• package-based extension management
• version pinning for reproducibility
• project-local .pi/settings.json strategy
• migration checklist for new servers