@pi-kaush/pi-tool-call-markers

Collapse Pi's adjacent successful tool calls into one compact, gear-headed block per tool type, so a run of similar calls reads as a tidy bulleted list instead of a wall of repeated headers and results.

What it changes

When several tool calls of the same type succeed in a row, Pi normally renders each one as its own expanded block. This extension groups them:

• One gear header per contiguous tool type. A run of read calls shares a single ⚙️ read header; the following write run gets its own ⚙️ write header.
• Bulleted call summaries. Each call in a group becomes one bullet with a short summary (the tool name is stripped from the bullet since the header already names the tool).
• Vertical spacing between tool types. A blank line separates one tool group from the next.
• Hanging indent for wrapped bullets. When a summary wraps, continuation lines align under the bullet text rather than under the gear.
• Boundaries stay separate. Visible thinking or text, still-running (active) calls, and failed calls split groups, so they never get silently merged.
• Errors expand in place. A failed call keeps its own block and shows its full detail.
• Ctrl+O restores full blocks. Expanding tools (setToolsExpanded(true)) brings back Pi's individual full blocks, results and all.
• Adjacent thinking blocks combine. Only directly adjacent thinking blocks merge into one; a non-thinking block between them keeps them separate. Malformed thinking content safely falls back to Pi's renderer exactly once, so the display never breaks.

Install

After the first npm release:

pi install npm:@pi-kaush/pi-tool-call-markers@0.1.0

For local development:

pi -e ./extensions/pi-tool-call-markers/src/index.ts

Compatibility and risk

This extension currently relies on guarded, reversible prototype patches against a small number of Pi component classes:

• ToolExecutionComponent (render + display presentation),
• Container (transcript grouping), and
• AssistantMessageComponent (adjacent thinking merge).

Pi exposes no public transcript or tool-grouping hook today, so the extension patches those prototypes on session_start and restores the originals on session_shutdown. Every patch is wrapped in try/catch with an idempotency guard (Symbol.for(...) markers), so if Pi's internals change the extension silently no-ops and Pi's default rendering is preserved.

Compatible Pi version: @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent and @earendil-works/pi-tui >=0.80.6. Because the patches touch internal prototype methods, a future Pi release that renames or restructures those methods can silently disable the grouping until this extension is updated. The extension never broadens the private-API footprint beyond the three classes above, and all original methods are restored on shutdown.

TODO: migrate to a public Pi tool/transcript rendering API when one becomes available, and remove the prototype patches.

Design

• No runtime dependencies.
• Startup only registers session_start / session_shutdown handlers and installs the reversible patches; no I/O, subprocesses, model requests, or timers.
• Grouped output is cached per row and invalidated when any member's display version changes, so repeated renders reuse work while stale groups refresh on demand.
• Removing the package restores Pi's default rendering on the next session.

Development

From the repository root:

npm ci --ignore-scripts
npm run check

Inspect the publish payload:

npm pack --workspace @pi-kaush/pi-tool-call-markers --dry-run

License

MIT