pi-fancy-editor

A pi coding agent extension that replaces the input editor with a compact status-border editor and matching footer. It uses the active pi theme only — no bundled theme, no custom color tokens, no separate theme setup. Because apparently one editor border can still need a package. Naturally.

Install

Install from npm:

pi install npm:@furbyhaxx/pi-fancy-editor

Install from GitHub:

pi install git:https://github.com/furbyhaxx/pi-fancy-editor

Or clone the repo and install from the local checkout:

git clone https://github.com/furbyhaxx/pi-fancy-editor
pi install path/to/cloned/repo

Or load directly without installing:

pi -e path/to/cloned/repo/extensions/fancy-editor/index.ts

What it changes

• Top editor border shows working state and context usage.
• Bottom editor border shows active model and thinking level.
• Bash input (!command) switches the border to pi's bashMode theme color and labels the editor as Shell Exec.
• Footer shows cwd, optional git branch, session title, and extension statuses.
• Narrow terminals automatically collapse cwd/session placement.
• Multi-line paste handling keeps pasted newlines inside the editor instead of accidentally submitting half a paste. Revolutionary stuff.

Wireframe

Wide terminal:

╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ chat output                                                                │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
─ ⠋ Working.. ───────────────────────────── ctx ▪▪▪▪▫▫▫▫▫▫ 43% (34.2K/80K) ─
> refactor the auth module and run tests
─ anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5:medium ────────────────────────────────────────
~/work/example (main)                                             ✎ auth cleanup

Narrow terminal:

─ ⠋ ───────────── ▪▪▫▫▫ 43% (34.2K/80K) ─
> fix the flaky test
─ claude-sonnet-4-5:medium ──────────────
~/w/example (main)
✎ auth cleanup

Bash mode:

─ Shell Exec ─────────────────────────────── ctx ▪▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫ 8% (6.1K/80K) ─
> !cargo test
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Configuration

Configuration lives in pi's regular settings.json files:

• Global: ${PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR:-~/.pi/agent}/settings.json
• Project: .pi/settings.json

The extension deep-merges both scopes the same way pi does: project settings win over global settings. PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR is respected for the global file.

Minimal default configuration:

{
  "editorPaddingX": 0,
  "fancyEditor": {
    "enabled": true,
    "workingMessage": "Working..",
    "contextBar": {
      "width": 10,
      "normalColor": "success",
      "normalPercent": 50,
      "warningColor": "warning",
      "warningPercent": 75,
      "criticalColor": "error",
      "criticalPercent": 95,
      "prefix": "ctx"
    },
    "showSessionId": false,
    "footer": {
      "enabled": true,
      "showCwd": true,
      "showGitBranch": true,
      "showSessionName": true,
      "sessionNameOwnLine": true,
      "showExtensionStatuses": true
    }
  }
}

Options

Setting	Default	Description
editorPaddingX	0	Native pi editor padding setting, reused by this editor.
fancyEditor.enabled	true	Enable or disable the editor replacement.
fancyEditor.workingMessage	"Working.."	Text shown while pi is streaming on wide terminals.
fancyEditor.contextBar.width	10	Width of the context usage bar (1-30).
fancyEditor.contextBar.normalColor	"success"	Color used through normalPercent; built-in theme token or #rrggbb.
fancyEditor.contextBar.normalPercent	50	Percent where the gradient starts. Below this, normalColor is used unchanged.
fancyEditor.contextBar.warningColor	"warning"	Midpoint color for the context gradient; built-in theme token or #rrggbb.
fancyEditor.contextBar.warningPercent	75	Percent where the gradient reaches pure warning color.
fancyEditor.contextBar.criticalColor	"error"	Critical color for the context gradient; built-in theme token or #rrggbb.
fancyEditor.contextBar.criticalPercent	95	Percent where the gradient reaches pure critical color.
fancyEditor.contextBar.prefix	"ctx"	Prefix shown before the context usage bar on wide terminals.
fancyEditor.showSessionId	false	Add a short session id next to the session title.
fancyEditor.footer.enabled	true	Replace pi's footer with the compact footer.
fancyEditor.footer.showCwd	true	Show current cwd in the footer.
fancyEditor.footer.showGitBranch	true	Append the current git branch to cwd.
fancyEditor.footer.showSessionName	true	Show the current session title in the footer.
fancyEditor.footer.sessionNameOwnLine	true	Put the session title on its own first footer line, above cwd.
fancyEditor.footer.showExtensionStatuses	true	Include statuses published by extensions via ctx.ui.setStatus().

The extension uses built-in pi theme tokens such as success, warning, error, muted, dim, text, borderMuted, and bashMode; context bar colors may also be hex colors. Change the active pi theme with pi's normal theme setting or /settings; this editor follows it.

The context bar color stays at normalColor through normalPercent, then is generated in 5% increments from normalColor → warningColor → criticalColor. The same gradient is applied to filled bar segments, the percent value, and the currently used token count.

Build and test

Pi loads the TypeScript source directly through its extension loader; no emitted build artifacts are required.

npm install
npm test

License

MIT