@nicknisi/pi-cloak

Redacts secrets and other sensitive content from read, bash, and grep tool results before they enter model context. Rules are defined per-file-glob in a JSON config; when the agent reads a matching file, matched text is replaced with a masked string (e.g. S********) so credentials, tokens, and private values never reach the model while the agent can still see file structure and read around the masked regions.

What it adds

• Command: /cloak-status — reloads the config and notifies with current status: pi-cloak enabled=<bool> patterns=<n> config=<path>, or the load error if the config is missing/invalid.
• Event hooks:
  • session_start — reloads config; notifies a warning if the config file is missing, failed to parse, or had rules skipped. Without a UI (print/RPC mode), parse errors and skipped rules are written to stderr; a missing config stays silent.
  • tool_result — intercepts results from the read, bash, and grep tools and rewrites text content parts in place. A rule applies when its filePattern matches the file the output came from: the read path, a file the bash command names (cat .env, source ./.env.local), or grep's path/glob. Rules with "global": true apply to every read, bash and grep result. Other tools and non-text content parts pass through untouched. Returns undefined (no modification) when disabled, when no rule matches, or when nothing changed.
• Config file: <agentDir>/cloak.json (see below).
• Exports (for other extensions/tests): loadState(configPath?) and cloakText(rawText, rawPaths, cwd, state) are exported from index.ts. rawPaths is one path or a list; rules matching any of them, plus global rules, apply.

No tools, keybindings, widgets, or custom entry types.

Install

pi install /Users/nicknisi/Developer/pi-extensions/packages/cloak

Configuration

Config is read from DEFAULT_CONFIG_PATH = join(getAgentDir(), "cloak.json") — i.e. ~/.pi/agent/cloak.json with a default pi setup. It is loaded at extension init and reloaded on session_start and /cloak-status. There is no live file watcher; edits take effect on the next session start or /cloak-status.

• Missing file: no rules; tool results pass through unchanged (a warning is shown on session start in UI sessions).
• File exists but cannot be read or parsed (e.g. invalid JSON): the extension fails closed — every read/bash/grep result is replaced with a [pi-cloak: <tool> output withheld because the cloak config could not be loaded. …] placeholder until the config is fixed and reloaded. The error is reported as above.
• Invalid rule (e.g. a bad regex): that rule is skipped and reported (pi-cloak skipped rule #<n> …); the other rules stay active.

Top-level options

Rule shape

{
  "filePattern": "**/.env*",
  "cloakPattern": "^([A-Z0-9_]+)=(.+)$",
  "replace": "$1="
}

Replacement semantics

Each match becomes visiblePrefix + mask:

• With a replace template, the visible prefix is the rendered template. Supported substitutions: $& (whole match), $1–$99 (capture groups), $$ (literal $). Unknown $x sequences are passed through literally.
• Without replace, the visible prefix is the first character of the match (e.g. hunter2 → h*******).
• The remainder is padded with cloakCharacter up to cloakLength, or to max(match.length, visible.length) when cloakLength is null. If the visible prefix is already longer than the target length, it is truncated and no mask is added.
• Text outside matches (including \r\n line endings) is preserved. A match spanning lines is masked as one unit, so its line breaks are masked too. If nothing changed, the original text is returned unmodified.

Full example (~/.pi/agent/cloak.json)

{
  "enabled": true,
  "cloakCharacter": "*",
  "cloakLength": null,
  "tryAllPatterns": true,
  "patterns": [
    {
      "filePattern": ["**/.env", "**/.env.*"],
      "cloakPattern": {
        "pattern": "^([A-Z0-9_]+)=(.+)$",
        "replace": "$1="
      }
    },
    {
      "filePattern": "**/*.pem",
      "cloakPattern": ".+"
    },
    {
      "filePattern": "**/credentials.json",
      "cloakPattern": [
        { "pattern": "\"(private_key|client_secret)\":\\s*\"([^\"]+)\"", "replace": "\"$1\": \"" },
        { "pattern": "-----BEGIN [A-Z ]+-----.*?-----END [A-Z ]+-----", "flags": "s" }
      ],
      "replace": ""
    }
  ]
}

Effect: in .env files API_KEY=sk-abc123 becomes API_KEY=*********; in .pem files every non-empty line becomes x********...; in credentials.json named fields keep their key and quote prefix with the value masked, and multi-line PEM blocks are masked whole.

Usage

/cloak-status

Typical workflow: add rules to ~/.pi/agent/cloak.json, run /cloak-status in a session to reload and verify the pattern count, then any read of a matching file, and any bash/grep output from a matching file (or matching a global rule), is masked before the model sees it.

Dependencies

• @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent (peer, *) — ExtensionAPI type and getAgentDir(); relies on the extension event API (pi.on, pi.registerCommand) and the tool_result event contract (event.toolName, event.input.path, mutable content parts).
• Node built-ins only otherwise: node:fs, node:os, node:path. No npm runtime dependencies, no workspace deps.

Caveats

• Only read, bash, and grep are cloaked. bash output is matched to rules only through the file names its command mentions, so a secret printed without naming its file (env, printenv, rg API_KEY) is masked only by global rules; keep global patterns specific enough not to mask unrelated output. Content reaching the model via edit diffs, other tools, or encodings your patterns don't match (e.g. base64 .env) is not masked. Rules that depend on secrecy should assume shell access can bypass the cloak.
• Depends on the tool_result event returning { content } to mutate results, and on event.input.path being a string — both are pi internals that could change across versions.
• Regexes are compiled with new RegExp(spec) directly from config, one rule at a time; a rule with an invalid regex is skipped and reported, the rest stay active.
• Patterns run over the whole text. . does not cross line breaks unless you add the s flag, but \s, \n, and negated classes like [^"] can; use a lazy quantifier (.*?) for block patterns so one match doesn't swallow everything between the first BEGIN and the last END.
• Glob matching is a hand-rolled globToRegExp, not a full glob library — no character classes ([...]) or brace expansion.
• The masked output length can leak the original secret length when cloakLength is null (default). Set cloakLength to a fixed number to avoid this.
• Config is not hot-reloaded on file change; reload requires a new session or /cloak-status.
• Package name is @nicknisi/pi-cloak, private, single-file extension. (Directory renamed cloak; package name kept.)