Pi Working Line

Claude-style working messages for Pi.

pi-working-line replaces Pi's default working message with a per-turn phrase and an elapsed timer.

Baking... · 12s
Herding... · 1m 04s
Baking... · running bash · 45s · thought for 8s

Install

pi install npm:@markoonakic/pi-working-line

For local development:

{
  "packages": ["/path/to/pi-working-line"]
}

What It Does

• Picks one working phrase per agent turn.
• Shows elapsed time next to the phrase.
• Shows the currently running tool as a suffix.
• Shows thinking state and thinking duration when Pi exposes thinking stream events.
• Can show an approximate live output token count.
• Can optionally add a visible turn-duration message after long turns.
• Restores Pi's default working message when the turn ends.

What It Does Not Do

• It does not replace spinner frames.
• It does not integrate with task/subagent extensions yet.

Command

/working-line

Opens a compact Pi-native menu for common settings:

pi-working-line
Baking... · running bash · 12s · thinking

> Toggle tokens        off
  Toggle thinking      on
  Toggle tool suffix   on
  Toggle turn message  off
  Configure phrases

Power-user commands:

/working-line status
/working-line help
/working-line tokens on|off
/working-line thinking on|off
/working-line suffix on|off
/working-line turn-duration on|off
/working-line turn-duration threshold 45s
/working-line phrases add Reticulating
/working-line phrases mode append|replace
/working-line phrases reset
/working-line reset

Configure phrases lets you add one phrase, edit custom phrases one per line, switch between append and replace, or reset custom phrases. replace mode requires at least one custom phrase.

Command changes are saved to global ~/.pi/agent/settings.json and applied to the current session immediately. Project .pi/settings.json overrides are read when rendering working lines, but command writes are intentionally global because this is personal UI behavior.

Configuration

Configure it in ~/.pi/agent/settings.json:

{
  "pi-working-line": {
    "enabled": true,
    "phrases": {
      "mode": "append",
      "verbs": []
    },
    "segments": {
      "phrase": true,
      "suffix": true,
      "elapsed": true,
      "thinking": true,
      "tokens": false
    },
    "turnDuration": {
      "enabled": false,
      "thresholdMs": 30000
    }
  }
}

Defaults:

• phrases.mode: append
• phrases.verbs: []
• phrase: on
• suffix: on
• elapsed: on
• thinking: on
• tokens: off, because it is an approximate text_delta.length / 4 estimate
• turnDuration: off, because it adds a visible transcript message

Example with tokens enabled:

Baking... · running bash · 45s · thought for 8s · ↓ 1.8k tokens

Example turn-duration message when enabled:

Baked for 1m 06s

Custom Phrases

Append your own phrases to the built-in list:

{
  "pi-working-line": {
    "phrases": {
      "mode": "append",
      "verbs": ["Consulting", "Reticulating"]
    }
  }
}

Replace the built-in list entirely:

{
  "pi-working-line": {
    "phrases": {
      "mode": "replace",
      "verbs": ["Consulting", "Reticulating"]
    }
  }
}

Manual JSON editing is optional. Use /working-line for normal configuration.

Compatibility

This extension intentionally owns the whole ctx.ui.setWorkingMessage(...) surface. Do not run it together with another extension that continuously rewrites the working message, or the extensions will overwrite each other.

It is fine to use alongside spinner-frame extensions, footer extensions, and theme extensions that do not call setWorkingMessage().

Development

npm install
npm run check
npm run pack:dry