Pi Station bar

Custom status bar extension for pi with fixed editor layout, bash mode, editor stash, prompt history, and configurable segments.

Demo

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/27e9beca-35e2-4491-9cc2-c3b70203ceca

Install

pi install npm:@nielpattin/pi-station

Restart pi to activate.

Commands

Command	What
/station	Open station bar settings (fixed editor, scroll bar)
/stash-history	Open prompt history picker
/bash-mode	Enable sticky bash mode
/bash-reset	Reset managed bash session

Station bar runs as a custom editor with fixed layout compositor. Configure via /station settings menu or settings.json.

{
   "station": {
      "fixedEditor": true,
      "scrollBar": true
   }
}

When fixedEditor is enabled (default): chat/feed scrolls above a fixed cluster containing station bar, editor, bash transcript, and last-prompt display. Uses the terminal's alternate screen buffer for composited scrolling.

You can select chat text and continue scrolling the chat viewport with the mouse wheel while keeping the selection active. Mouse selection now copies only visible chat text, not trailing padding cells.

When disabled: station bar widgets attach to pi's regular TUI layout using aboveEditor/belowEditor placements.

scrollBar shows a scroll position indicator on the right edge of the fixed cluster.

Shortcuts

Defaults:

Shortcut	What
Ctrl+B	Toggle bash mode
Alt+S	Stash/restore editor text
Ctrl+Alt+H	Open prompt history picker

Override in settings.json:

{
   "station": {
      "shortcuts": {
         "bashMode": "ctrl+shift+b",
         "stash": "ctrl+shift+s",
         "stashHistory": "ctrl+shift+h"
      }
   }
}

Editor Stash

Alt+S toggles editor stash by default:

Editor	Stash	Result
Has text	Empty	Stash text, clear editor
Empty	Has stash	Restore stash into editor
Has text	Has stash	Update stash, clear editor
Empty	Empty	Nothing to stash

Stashed text auto-restores when agent finishes if editor is still empty. Stash history persists to ~/.pi/agent/station-bar/stash-history.json (up to 12 entries).

Prompt history

Open with Ctrl+Alt+H by default or /stash-history. Two sources:

• Stashed prompts — up to 12 recent stashed entries (newest first)
• Recent project prompts — up to 50 user prompts from pi sessions in current project folder

Selecting an entry with existing editor text offers Replace, Append, or Cancel.

Bash mode

Enter with /bash-mode or Ctrl+B by default. Exit with Escape or the bash-mode shortcut again. Persistent shell session per pi session. Ghost-first completions from project shell history, global history, git, path, and executable sources.

While active:

• Enter runs current shell command
• Right Arrow accepts ghost text without running
• Tab accepts ghost suggestion if one exists
• Up/Down browse matching shell history
• Escape exits bash mode
• Ctrl+C interrupts active shell job

Command output renders in full-screen overlay (fixed-editor mode) or widget (non-fixed-editor). Shell cwd changes reflect in the shell_mode segment.

One-off bash commands

!command and !!command prompts reuse the shell prediction pipeline, including ghost suggestions.

Bash mode settings

{
   "bashMode": {
      "transcriptMaxLines": 2000,
      "transcriptMaxBytes": 524288
   }
}

Station bar layout

Row	Left	Right
Primary	path, git	mcp, skills
Secondary	shell_mode, context_pct, cache_read, cost	model, thinking
Tertiary	extension_statuses

Custom items

Register custom status items from any extension via config:

{
   "station": {
      "customItems": [
         {
            "id": "ci",
            "statusKey": "ci-status",
            "position": "right",
            "prefix": "CI",
            "color": "warning"
         }
      ]
   }
}

Fields: id (required, [a-zA-Z0-9_-]+), statusKey (defaults to id), position (left/right/secondary, default right), prefix, color (pi theme color or #RRGGBB), hideWhenMissing (default true), excludeFromExtensionStatuses (default true).

Configuration

Settings merge from ~/.pi/agent/settings.json and project .pi/settings.json:

{
   "station": {
      "fixedEditor": true,
      "scrollBar": true,
      "customItems": [],
      "shortcuts": {
         "bashMode": "ctrl+b",
         "stash": "alt+s",
         "stashHistory": "ctrl+alt+h"
      }
   },
   "showLastPrompt": true,
   "bashMode": {
      "transcriptMaxLines": 2000,
      "transcriptMaxBytes": 524288
   }
}

Segments

Built-in segments: model, shell_mode, path, git, subagents, token_in, token_out, token_total, cost, context_pct, context_total, time_spent, time, session, hostname, cache_read, cache_write, thinking, extension_statuses, skills, mcp.

Thinking segment shows current thinking level (think:off, think:med, etc.) with per-level colors.

Git integration uses async cached fetching (1s TTL). Invalidates on file writes/edits and git branch-changing commands. Shows branch, staged (+), unstaged (*), untracked (?).

Context warning colors: yellow at 70%, red at 90%. During streaming, uses live assistant usage. When pi-custom-compaction is installed, native context segments are hidden to avoid stale post-summary usage display.

Subscription detected via OAuth model registry — shows (sub) instead of dollar cost.

Credits

Thanks for the solution for the fixed input from Nico https://github.com/nicobailon/pi-interactive-shell

License

MIT