ask

A Pi extension that adds a read-only question command:

/ask <prompt>

/ask lets the agent answer a question while inspecting the project when necessary. It keeps only Pi's read-only tools (read, grep, find, ls, and bash) active. The bash tool is limited to a conservative set of inspection commands such as git status, git diff, rg, find, and ls; shell composition and commands that could change state are blocked.

edit, write, custom tools, mutating Git subcommands, shell redirections, and other unsafe shell commands are unavailable or blocked. The agent is also explicitly instructed never to create, overwrite, delete, rename, install, stage, commit, or otherwise modify files or system state.

The original tool selection is restored once the answer has settled. If Pi is busy when the command is entered, the extension waits for the current work and queued messages to finish before starting the read-only request.

Usage

Try it temporarily:

pi -e ./ask

Install it in a project using auto-discovery:

mkdir -p .pi/extensions
cp -R ask .pi/extensions/
pi

Then ask a question:

/ask Explain the trade-offs between optimistic and pessimistic locking.

The agent can inspect existing files and use the permitted commands, but it will explain or propose a change rather than applying it.