@localaicat/pi

A pi extension that keeps the Local AI Cat resident model warm for the duration of a coding session and publishes local generation stats to pi's status line. It also exposes resource-control slash commands so you can load, unload, or stop the local server without a custom pi binary.

The Local API loads a model lazily on the first chat request, so the first turn of a session is slow (weights load + KV warm-up). This extension proactively loads the model when pi selects one from the localaicat provider, and unloads it on session shutdown to return the RAM to the budget.

Install

# from npm (recommended)
pi install npm:@localaicat/pi

# or install a local checkout persistently
pi install ./tools/pi

# or one-off for a single run
pi -e ./tools/pi/index.ts

Quick start

pi install npm:@localaicat/pi
export LOCALAICAT_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:11434
export LOCALAICAT_API_KEY=local                 # if the Local API requires a token
export LOCALAICAT_MODEL=mlx-community/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-4bit
pi --provider localaicat

The extension self-configures the localaicat provider on first load by writing ~/.pi/agent/models.json from the LOCALAICAT_* environment above (see "Provider self-configuration"), so the install + four lines is all you need.

Provider self-configuration

On load the extension ensures pi knows about the localaicat provider. If ~/.pi/agent/models.json has no localaicat entry, it writes one:

{
  "providers": {
    "localaicat": {
      "baseUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1",
      "api": "openai-completions",
      "apiKey": "local",
      "models": [{ "id": "mlx-community/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-4bit" }]
    }
  }
}

baseUrl comes from LOCALAICAT_BASE_URL (with /v1 appended), apiKey from LOCALAICAT_API_KEY (default local), and the seeded model from LOCALAICAT_MODEL (default Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-4bit). An existing localaicat entry is never overwritten — hand-edit it freely. If the write fails for any reason, paste the block above manually.

Environment

Variable	Default	Purpose
LOCALAICAT_BASE_URL	http://127.0.0.1:11434	Base of the Local API
LOCALAICAT_API_KEY	–	Local API token when the app requires one
LOCALAICAT_PROVIDER	localaicat	Comma-separated pi provider names to match on model_select
LOCALAICAT_MODEL	–	Model to warm on session_start if none selected yet
LOCALAICAT_LOG	–	Append one line per load/unload action (used by tests)

Commands

All under a single /localaicat command:

• /localaicat (or /localaicat status) — show loaded state + the local RAM budget / headroom (/v1/local/resources).
• /localaicat load [model-id] — load a specific model, the selected pi model, or LOCALAICAT_MODEL.
• /localaicat unload [model-id] — unload a specific model, the selected pi model, or LOCALAICAT_MODEL.
• /localaicat stop — stop the Local API server.

Status line

The extension updates pi's footer with the last assistant turn when pi exposes usage data:

localaicat: loaded Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-4bit · 28.4 tok/s · 1240/310/1550 tok · 12.8% ctx

It reads loaded/unloaded state from /v1/local/resources, OpenAI-style usage fields (prompt_tokens, completion_tokens, total_tokens, tokens_per_second), and pi's built-in context estimate via ctx.getContextUsage(). If a value is missing, it is omitted rather than blocking the session.

How it works

pi event	action
model_select (provider = localaicat)	POST /v1/local/models/{id}/load
message_update / message_end	update pi footer resource + stats via setStatus
session_start (with LOCALAICAT_MODEL)	warm fallback load
session_shutdown	POST /v1/local/models/{id}/unload
/localaicat stop	POST /v1/local/server/stop

If the app isn't running, actions degrade quietly — the next chat request still loads the model lazily.