pi-task-panel

Persistent task panel above the Pi status line. Tasks are managed by the agent through the tasks_write tool or by you through /tasks.

Highlights

• Compact panel above the editor shows active and pending tasks at a glance.
• Expanded mode groups by phase and shows notes for the active task.
• Auto-advance moves to the next pending task when the active one is completed or dropped.
• Auto-hide when all tasks are done; auto-show happens only for the first non-empty task state each session and never overrides a panel you hid.
• Bulk-edit, import, and export tasks as plain markdown.
• Workflow reminders nudge the agent to keep the panel in sync.
• Participates in vstack's stable mini-dashboard stack order: Orch → Tasks → Agents → BG tasks.
• Per-session sidecar state keeps slash-command edits and pending tasks resumable before the next model turn writes tool-result history.
• Large task panels keep tool-result history compact; oversized tasks_write details store only counts and id samples while sidecar state remains canonical for resume. If sidecar writes fail, Pi warns and keeps a full session-history fallback; tasks_write also keeps full tool-result details for that write.

Install

Via npm:

pi install npm:@vanillagreen/pi-task-panel

Via vstack:

cargo install --git https://github.com/vanillagreencom/vstack.git vstack
vstack add vanillagreencom/vstack --pi-extension pi-task-panel --harness pi -y

Restart Pi after installation.

Commands

Command	Action
/tasks or /tasks:manage	Open the interactive manager.
/tasks:add <task>	Add a task. Use Phase :: task to assign a phase.
/tasks:edit	Bulk-edit tasks as plain text.
/tasks:start <task>	Set a task active.
/tasks:done <task>	Mark a task completed.
/tasks drop <task>	Mark a task abandoned.
/tasks:remove <task>	Remove a task.
/tasks hide	Hide the panel.
/tasks show	Show the compact panel.
/tasks show-all	Show the expanded panel.
/tasks:clear-completed	Remove completed tasks.
/tasks:export <path>	Write tasks to a markdown file.
/tasks:import <path>	Load tasks from a markdown file.

Arguments support autocomplete, including task names.

Manager keys

↑/↓ selects. enter/s starts, d marks done, x drops, r removes, c clears completed, e opens bulk edit.

Bulk edit format:

- Phase A :: First task (active)
- Phase A :: Second task (done)
- Phase B :: Third task

Status suffixes: (active), (done), (dropped).

Visibility cycle

The panel toggle cycles visible modes and hides the panel; toggling back in restores the last visible mode. After /tasks hide or a hide shortcut, task mutations stay hidden until /tasks show, /tasks show-all, or an explicit toggle-in. The manager popup opens with its own shortcut and documents its keys in the footer. All bindings are configurable via /extensions:settings; Pi's thinking-visibility binding is preserved unless you opt in to taking it over.

Settings

Open /extensions:settings; settings appear under the Task Panel tab.

Project settings in .pi/settings.json apply only after Pi marks the workspace trusted; before trust, vstack Pi extensions read user/global settings only.

Glyph style: each package exposes glyphStyle (unicode default, ascii for terminal-safe chrome). @vanillagreen/pi-tool-renderer.globalGlyphStyleOverride=ascii forces ASCII chrome across vstack Pi extensions while leaving tool/model/user content unchanged.

Panel

Setting	What it does
Enable task panel	Master toggle for tasks_write, panel rendering, shortcuts, and reminders.
Default panel state	hidden, compact, or expanded when tasks first appear; later settings changes do not override a user-hidden panel in the current session.
Compact task count	Max tasks shown in compact mode.
Show active notes	Show notes for the active task in expanded mode.
Auto-show on first task	Reveal the panel automatically only for the first non-empty task state in a session; user-hidden panels stay hidden until explicit show/toggle.

Keyboard

Setting	What it does
Take over thinking-visibility binding	Repurpose Pi's thinking-visibility binding for the task-panel toggle.
Alternate shortcut	Always-available toggle. Configurable.
Manager popup shortcut	Configurable.

Tool output

Setting	What it does
Compact tasks_write output	Render tasks_write results as a single inline status row.

Reminders

Setting	What it does
Task workflow reminders	Inject hidden task context so the agent reconciles state before replying.
Incomplete-task reminders	Subtle reminder when a turn ends with incomplete tasks.