pi-qol

pi-qol adds interactive questions, automatic thread names, persistent goals, metrics, and HTML exports to Pi.

Included features

• Configure the bundle with domain tabs and individual feature switches in /qol.
• Answer interactive questions with single-choice, multiple-choice, and typed responses.
• Name new threads automatically with a configurable model, effort, and prompt.
• Work toward a persistent goal across turns, with an optional token budget.
• Toggle installed Pi extensions with a searchable /plugins picker.
• See response statistics for input and output tokens, tokens per second, time to first token, and cost in USD.
• Customise the status line with colour and your choice of modules, including status text from other plugins.
• Continue interrupted work with /continue or Ctrl+Alt+C.
• Cycle supported thinking levels with Alt+, and Alt+..
• Start ephemeral chats that keep session history in memory.
• Open a saved thread from a searchable picker with date and project groups, as an alternative to /resume.
• Delete threads individually or through the same picker.
• Export chats as HTML with offline LaTeX, printing, and a redaction preview for sharing.

Install

Requires Node.js 22.19 or later and Pi 1.3.x.

Before installing, remove any standalone packages that pi-qol replaces.

Run only the removal commands that match your installations:

pi remove git:github.com/thgilciffart/pi-ask-questions
pi remove npm:@thgilciffart/pi-ephemeral
pi remove npm:pi-better-export

If you installed pi-ask-questions from npm, use pi remove npm:pi-ask-questions instead. For extensions loaded through a local path or settings file, remove those entries.

Install pi-qol from npm:

pi install npm:@thgilciffart/pi-qol

To install the development version from git instead, run:

pi install git:github.com/thgilciffart/pi-qol

Run /reload in an open Pi session.

Configure pi-qol

Run /qol to configure the bundle. Tab or Shift+Tab switches between Threads, Agent, Display, and Tools. Use Up/Down to select a feature and Space or Enter to toggle it. Each row describes the commands, tools, or shortcuts it provides.

Settings rows open the existing automatic naming, status line, and plugin manager editors. Those editors save their own settings independently. The main /qol editor keeps your pending feature switches while you use them.

Press s or Ctrl+S to save feature switches and reload Pi. Escape cancels; if you have unsaved changes, press Escape again to discard them. When Pi is busy or has queued input, settings save for the next /reload.

You can also change settings directly:

/qol status
/qol off auto-name
/qol on auto-name
/qol off domain:display
/qol reset

Every feature starts enabled. Disabled features stop registering their commands, tools, event handlers, and shortcuts after reload. /qol remains available so you can enable them again. Choices apply across chats and projects. See the settings reference for domains, feature IDs, and storage.

Answer questions

The bundled ask_user tool from pi-ask-questions supports single-choice, multiple-choice, and typed answers.

Background mode lets Pi continue independent work while you answer. Urgent mode waits for your response. Use Tab to switch questions, Space or number keys to select options, and Enter to confirm. Press Escape twice or Ctrl+C to cancel.

See the questionnaire reference for modes, controls, and structured results.

Name threads

Send the first message in a new chat. Pi generates a short thread name in the background using the current model with reasoning off. Existing threads and manual names stay unchanged.

Run /auto-name to configure the model, effort, and prompt. The model picker supports search. Tab switches between all and scoped models. Direct commands include:

/auto-name model provider/model-id
/auto-name effort low
/auto-name prompt
/auto-name off
/auto-name now

Settings apply across chats. See the automatic naming reference for defaults and prompt editing.

Work toward a goal

Use /goal to keep Pi working toward a verifiable outcome across turns:

/goal Make the checkout tests pass without changing the public API
/goal --tokens 50000 Reduce benchmark latency below 120 ms and verify correctness

Pi starts work immediately. The editor shows the goal's status, elapsed time, and consumed tokens or token budget. The agent marks the goal complete after verifying the outcome.

Use /goal pause, /goal resume, and /goal clear to control it. Use /goal edit to revise the objective. Escape pauses an interrupted goal. Ordinary messages steer an active goal without pausing it.

Goals survive compaction and session restarts. Reopened sessions restore goals paused. Give directions to continue or run /goal resume.

See the goal reference for commands, budget accounting, and continuation guards.

Toggle plugins

Run /plugins to enable or disable installed Pi extensions. Packages with one extension use a single row. Packages with several extensions show their files in a folder tree.

Type to search, use Up/Down to select an extension, and press Space to toggle it. Each toggle moves the selection to the next extension. Press Ctrl+S to save your changes and reload Pi. Escape or Ctrl+C discards unsaved changes.

The picker opens global settings. Press Tab to switch to project settings, or run /plugins project. Project settings can enable, disable, or inherit a global extension. Pi must trust the project before you can change its settings.

Plugin choices persist across sessions. The picker controls whole extensions, including their commands, tools, and event handlers. Use /qol to control individual features inside pi-qol.

See the plugin reference for scope behavior and reload details.

Customise the status line

Run /statusline to open the status line editor. Choose which modules appear, place them on the left or right of any row, change their order, and preview the result before saving. Use Left/Right to choose a side, 1 to 9 to choose a row, +/- to move between rows, and Shift+Up/Down or [/] to reorder. Colour separates the model, thinking level, context remaining, and other values. A monochrome option is available.

Select an external module and press t or T to cycle its colour forward or backward. Each module can use a named colour or keep the extension's original styling.

The editor also lists status text published by other plugins through Pi's setStatus API. New status keys appear automatically. Your choices persist across chats, including preferences for plugins that are temporarily inactive.

Values are spaced without automatic dot separators. Press s in the editor to add a separator item, then move it like any module. Delete removes a selected separator.

Use /statusline off to restore Pi's built-in footer, or /statusline on to enable the custom footer again. Plugins that replace the entire footer compete for the same Pi API. Their internal modules need an integration before this editor can display them separately.

See the status line reference for controls, modules, and settings.

Continue interrupted work

Press Ctrl+Alt+C or run /continue to resume an unfinished task after Escape. Pi starts a new model request using the existing conversation. Your editor draft stays intact.

The command does nothing while Pi is busy or input is queued. Use /goal resume for a paused goal.

The standard Pi CLI owns the running agent. Closing Pi or switching sessions cannot preserve an in-flight run through this extension. Persistent goals retain their state, but need fresh direction or /goal resume after reopening. See the background thread assessment for Pi Durable compatibility and the current lifecycle limits.

Start an ephemeral chat

Press Alt+P or run /ephemeral to start a chat with in-memory history. A footer badge marks the ephemeral session. The previous saved chat remains on disk.

Press Alt+P again before sending a message to return to the saved chat. After the ephemeral chat contains messages, the shortcut keeps it open.

Pi reserves Alt+P for previous-model cycling. To free the shortcut, add this entry to ~/.pi/agent/keybindings.json, then run /reload:

{
	"app.model.cycleBackward": "shift+ctrl+p"
}

Use /ephemeral explain this repository to include an initial prompt. Ephemeral mode controls session history. Exports and files created by tools still write to disk.

Open a thread

Run /open to pick a saved thread and switch to it. Add search text to filter the list as it opens, for example /open login bug. Pi's /resume still works and is unchanged.

The picker has the same search, scopes, grouping, sort order, and Ctrl+T transcript viewer as /delete-threads. Press Enter to open the highlighted thread, or Escape to cancel. Open mode has no selection or deletion keys, so Space goes to the search box.

The list excludes the current thread. If Pi or another extension cancels the switch, or the file has gone since the picker opened, pi-qol reports it and you stay in the current thread.

Delete threads

Deletion permanently removes session files. There is no undo. Close a thread in other Pi processes before deleting it.

Run /delete to delete the current thread after confirmation. To delete several threads:

1. Run /delete-threads and type to search.
2. Press Space or Enter to select threads.
3. Press Ctrl+D to review the selection.
4. Press Enter to confirm, or N to return to the list.

The top-right of the picker header shows the current scope, grouping, sort order, and number of selected threads. On narrow terminals this state moves to the line below the title.

Tab switches between the current project and all projects. Both tabs start grouped. Ctrl+G changes grouping, and Shift+Up or Shift+Down sets ascending or descending order. Ctrl+T opens the highlighted thread in a read-only transcript viewer that draws messages the way Pi does. In Pi fullscreen mode, the viewer fills the screen. Escape returns to the picker. Ctrl+A selects all matching threads. Escape in the picker exits without deleting unconfirmed selections.

The picker excludes the current thread and stays open after deletion. See the thread picker reference for all controls.

Export a chat

Run /better-export to save the session as HTML. Pi asks before replacing a file and offers to open the export in your browser.

/better-export
/better-export "exports/My session.html"
/better-export --share --redact-text "Acme Internal" sharing.html

Exports include the current theme, offline LaTeX, equation copying, search, code highlighting, and a Print / PDF button. You can export during a running turn. The file captures recorded messages at export time.

Use --share to export the active conversation with a redaction preview. Review the HTML before sharing it. Detection uses text patterns and does not scan images.

See the export reference for flags and limits. Pi handles its built-in /export before extension commands, so this exporter uses /better-export.

Develop from a checkout

Development requires Bun in addition to Node.js and Pi.

npm ci
npm run check
npm test
npm pack --dry-run

The tests use temporary session files and local model fixtures. They do not delete saved chats or make paid model requests.

Run pi install . to install this checkout, then /reload in an open session. To try it without installing, run pi -e ./index.ts.

See the codebase map for feature boundaries, persistence, and tests.

See Publish to npm for release commands and package discovery.

MIT license. Embedded KaTeX assets retain their upstream license notices.