herdr-aside

A focused Pi extension for opening independent side conversations in Herdr.

/aside forks the current persisted Pi session into a new Herdr location. The child starts with the current conversation context and then evolves independently. Every invocation creates a new fork; it never reuses or routes to an existing agent.

Install

pi install npm:@alexanderbianchi/herdr-aside

Until the npm package is published:

pi install git:github.com/alexanderbianchi/herdr-aside

Then run /reload in an existing Pi session.

Usage

/aside explain this RFC while the main agent keeps working
/aside h compare these APIs
/aside v --focus investigate this failure
/aside t draft an alternative design
/aside w explore this independently

The optional first argument controls where the fork opens:

Argument	Herdr location
h, horizontal	Horizontal divider; new pane below
v, vertical	Vertical divider; new pane to the right
t, tab	New tab in the current workspace
w, workspace	New workspace

Without a topology argument, /aside uses a horizontal split and treats all input as the prompt.

A prompted aside stays in the background by default. An aside without a prompt receives focus so you can type into it. Put --focus or --no-focus after the topology to override that behavior.

Requirements

• Pi running in interactive TUI mode
• Pi's current session must be persisted
• Pi must be running inside a Herdr-managed pane
• herdr must be available on PATH

The extension uses Herdr's agent start command and Pi's native --fork option. It does not provide general Herdr orchestration tools; @andrewjacop/pi-herdr is complementary and can be installed alongside it.

Development

npm install
npm run check
pi -ne -e ./src/index.ts