pi-powerbar

A pi extension that renders a persistent powerline-style status bar with left-aligned and right-aligned segments.

Any other pi extension can update segments by emitting a single powerbar:update event — no imports or dependencies required.

Install

pi install npm:@juanibiapina/pi-powerbar

⚠️ Load Order: pi-powerbar must appear after pi-extension-settings and before any segment-emitting extensions in your packages array in ~/.pi/settings.json. It registers settings at load time (requiring pi-extension-settings to already be loaded), and segment emitters send events that pi-powerbar must be ready to receive.

Usage

The powerbar renders a widget with two sides, like tmux:

Producing segments

Any extension can register and update a segment. First, register the segment so it appears in the settings menu:

pi.events.emit("powerbar:register-segment", {
  id: "git-branch",
  label: "Git Branch",
});

Then update it with data:

pi.events.emit("powerbar:update", {
  id: "git-branch",
  text: "main",
  icon: "⎇",
  color: "accent",
});

Segments can include a progress bar with an optional block count hint:

pi.events.emit("powerbar:update", {
  id: "context-usage",
  text: "",
  suffix: "30%",
  bar: 30,              // progress value 0–100
  barSegments: 10,      // optional: number of discrete blocks in blocks mode
  color: "muted",
});

To remove a segment:

pi.events.emit("powerbar:update", {
  id: "git-branch",
  text: undefined,
});

Built-in segments

Segment ID	Description
git-branch	Current git branch (refreshes after bash commands)
tokens	Cumulative input/output tokens, cache reads (R) and writes (W), the latest assistant request's cache hit rate (CH), and session cost (e.g. ↑3.0k ↓400 R20k W2.0k CH80.0% $0.15). R and W are session totals; CH covers only the most recent request
context-usage	Context window usage as a progress bar with percentage
provider	Current LLM provider name (e.g. anthropic, openai)
model	Current model name and thinking level
sub-hourly	Hourly subscription usage from pi-sub-core
sub-weekly	Weekly subscription usage from pi-sub-core

Configuration

Settings are managed through pi-extension-settings and can be changed via the /extension-settings command in pi.

Setting	Description	Default
Left segments	Segments shown on the left side (ordered multi-select menu)	git-branch,tokens,context-usage
Right segments	Segments shown on the right side (ordered multi-select menu)	provider,model,sub-hourly,sub-weekly
Separator	String drawn between segments on the same side	│
Placement	Where the powerbar appears (belowEditor or aboveEditor)	belowEditor
Bar style	Visual style of progress bars (continuous or blocks)	blocks
Bar width	Width of progress bars in characters (4–24)	10

The left and right segment settings open an interactive menu where you can toggle segments on/off and reorder them with Shift+↑/↓. All segments registered via powerbar:register-segment appear as options. Segments not listed in either side are ignored.

Development

npm install
npm run check    # lint + typecheck
npm run build    # compile to dist/
npm run dev      # watch mode

Testing locally against your own pi

To run pi with the powerbar loaded from this checkout instead of your globally installed version:

gh pr checkout <n>       # optional: test a branch/PR
scripts/test-local.sh    # launches pi with this repo's powerbar

scripts/test-local.sh seeds a throwaway agent config (under .local/) from your real global config, swaps the powerbar package entry to this repo, and launches pi with PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR pointing at it. Your global ~/.pi/agent config is never modified. Extra arguments pass through to pi.

It inherits your real enabledModels (so every model you use is available) but defaults to Claude Sonnet 4.6 at medium thinking on the anthropic provider (your Claude subscription). Override with PI_TEST_MODEL, PI_TEST_PROVIDER, and PI_TEST_THINKING. It symlinks your auth.json, model catalog, and the cache/ dir (so pi-usage subscription segments populate) and writes a minimal SYSTEM.md that marks the instance as a throwaway test on a live subscription.

License

MIT