pi-ide

A small Neovim workspace for running multiple pi agent shells while keeping normal development tools one keystroke away.

The premise is simple: the bottleneck in software development is increasingly attention. You may have several agents, test runs, and shell tasks moving at the same time, but constantly switching terminals makes it hard to know what needs your focus. pi-ide gives you a minimal control room: big interactive agent terminals, a compact status view, a scratch shell, and the usual file picker/editor workflow.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│ main area                                    │ Agents                     │
│ active agent shell, or a file you are editing│ ▶ [1] backend  🤔 running  │
│                                              │   [2] tests    ✅ done     │
│                                              ├────────────────────────────┤
│                                              │ scratch shell              │
│                                              │ quick ad-hoc commands      │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘

What it does

• Opens a Neovim workspace with:
  • a large main area for the active agent shell or normal file editing
  • a compact agent/status panel
  • a small scratch terminal for ad-hoc commands
• Lets you run plain zsh/bash agent tabs and type pi yourself.
• Tracks pi lifecycle status automatically when pi runs inside a managed agent shell.
• Lets you switch agents by keymap or mouse click.
• Keeps file navigation/editing available through your existing Neovim setup.

Status icons:

Icon	Meaning
🟢	idle / ready
🤔	pi agent is running
✅	pi agent finished its turn
🛑	shell stopped
❌	shell failed
❔	unknown

How status tracking works

pi-ide has two parts:

1. Pi extension: extensions/nvim-agent-status.ts
   • listens to Pi lifecycle events such as agent_start and agent_end
   • writes structured JSONL events to /tmp/pi-agent-status-$USER/events.jsonl
2. Neovim plugin: lua/pi_ide/init.lua
   • starts managed shell terminals with NVIM_AGENT_ID
   • watches the JSONL event file
   • updates the agent status panel

This avoids brittle prompt parsing. The status comes from Pi's own lifecycle events, not from guessing whether a terminal prompt returned.

Requirements

• Neovim 0.10+
• pi installed
• A shell such as zsh or bash
• Optional but recommended: LazyVim / Snacks picker for <leader>ff

Installation

You should install both halves from the same repository.

1. Install the Pi package

This installs the Pi extension so pi can emit lifecycle events for Neovim.

If installing from npm:

pi install npm:@hesam.korki/pi-ide

If installing directly from GitHub:

pi install git:github.com/HesamKorki/pi-ide

You can verify it is installed with:

pi list

pi.dev/packages indexes Pi packages published to npm with the pi-package keyword. GitHub installs work, but npm publishing is what makes the package appear in the public gallery.

2. Install the Neovim plugin

With lazy.nvim:

{
  "HesamKorki/pi-ide",
  config = function()
    require("pi_ide").setup()
  end,
}

Then restart Neovim or run :Lazy sync.

Usage

Open the workspace:

:AgentWorkspace

The default agent tab is a normal shell. Type pi there when you want an agent session:

pi

When Pi starts processing a prompt, the tab becomes 🤔 running. When the turn ends, it becomes ✅ done.

Commands

Command	Description
:AgentWorkspace	Open/rebuild the workspace
:AgentNew	Create a new shell-backed agent tab
:AgentNew name	Create a new agent tab named name
:AgentNew name command	Create a tab running command
:AgentSelect 2	Switch main area to agent tab 2
:AgentRename name	Rename the active agent tab

Examples:

:AgentWorkspace
:AgentRename backend
:AgentNew tests
:AgentNew review zsh
:AgentSelect 1

Keymaps

Default keymaps installed by require("pi_ide").setup():

Key	Action
<leader>aw	Open workspace
<leader>aa	Focus/show the active agent shell in the main area
<leader>as	Focus the scratch shell
<leader>an	New agent shell
<leader>ar	Rename active agent shell
<leader>a1 ... <leader>a9	Switch to agent tab 1–9
<leader>ff	Open file picker in the main area

You can also click an agent row in the status panel to switch to it.

File editing workflow

pi-ide is intentionally not a full IDE replacement. It tries to keep your normal Neovim workflow intact:

1. Use :AgentWorkspace to supervise agents.
2. Use <leader>ff to open files in the main area.
3. Edit as usual.
4. Press <leader>aa to return to the active agent shell.
5. Use the scratch shell for quick commands that should not pollute agent sessions.

Limitations

• Automatic running/done status is for pi sessions running inside managed agent shells.
• Generic shell commands do not emit Pi lifecycle events; their terminal status only changes when the shell exits.
• The UI is intentionally minimal. It is not a replacement for tmux, terminal multiplexers, or full IDE project views.
• Emoji alignment depends on your terminal/font. If spacing looks odd, switch to a font with better emoji width support or patch the icons locally.

Development

Clone the repo:

git clone git@github.com:HesamKorki/pi-ide.git
cd pi-ide

Try the Neovim plugin locally with Lazy:

{
  dir = "/path/to/pi-ide",
  config = function()
    require("pi_ide").setup()
  end,
}

Try the Pi extension without installing globally:

pi -e ./extensions/nvim-agent-status.ts

Or install the local package:

pi install /path/to/pi-ide

Philosophy

pi-ide is built around one idea: agents do not remove the need for developer attention; they change where attention is spent. A useful interface should make concurrent agent work visible without forcing you out of your editor or hiding the boring but necessary tools: files, shells, tests, and quick commands.

So this project stays small:

• no heavy project model
• no custom agent protocol
• no terminal prompt scraping
• no attempt to replace your editor setup

Just enough structure to see what each agent is doing and get back to coding quickly.

License

MIT