pi-autoname

✨ What it does

Scenario	Behavior
First dialogue settles	Automatically generates a semantic session name
Conversation continues	Silently considers a rename every 10 minutes (configurable)
Session topic drifts	Updates only when the current name no longer fits
Run /autoname	Manually regenerate from recent context
AI naming fails	Falls back to smart text extraction

🚀 Install

pi install npm:pi-autoname

Works out of the box. No configuration needed — uses your current session's model by default.

⚙️ Configuration

Config file is auto-generated on first use at ~/.pi/agent/pi-autoname.json:

{
  "enabled": true,
  "model": "",
  "fallbackModels": [],
  "cooldownMinutes": 10,
  "debug": false,
  "respectManualName": false
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
enabled	boolean	true	Set to false to disable AI naming
model	string	(session model)	Primary model (provider/modelId). Empty = use session model
fallbackModels	string[]	[]	Additional models to try if primary fails
cooldownMinutes	number	10	Minutes between periodic re-names
debug	boolean	false	Enable debug logging
respectManualName	boolean	false	When false (default), a /name change gets one cooldown window before automatic naming resumes. Set to true to keep a user-issued /name until /autoname is explicitly run.

Example: Model fallback chain

{
  "enabled": true,
  "model": "minimax-cn/MiniMax-M2.7",
  "fallbackModels": [
    "xiaomi-token-plan-cn/mimo-v2-omni"
  ],
  "cooldownMinutes": 10
}

This tries models in order: MiniMax-M2.7 → mimo-v2-omni → session model.

🏗️ How it works

Automatic naming

first complete dialogue
        ↓
Pi reaches agent_settled
        ↓
AI generates a semantic session name in the background
        ↓
setSessionName(name)

Periodic re-naming

agent_settled event (all retry/follow-up work complete)
        ↓
cooldown passed? (10 min default)
        ↓
AI checks recent context against the current name
        ↓
topic changed? → silently update
name still fits? → keep it

Model fallback chain

primary model (from config)
        ↓ failed within the shared 30-second budget?
fallback models (from config)
        ↓ failed?
session model (automatic)
        ↓ failed?
smart text extraction (no AI)

Manual naming

/autoname

Regenerates the session name from recent conversation context. Useful when you want to force an immediate rename.

Built-in /name is largely redundant

Pi's native command still works:

/name My custom title

With the default respectManualName: false, pi-autoname gives /name a full cooldownMinutes grace period, then may resume automatic naming if the topic changes. It observes the name change immediately through Pi's session metadata event.

• For a one-shot rename that pi-autoname may later take over again: use /name.
• To force a re-name from the current conversation right now: use /autoname.
• To keep a /name indefinitely: set respectManualName: true. Running /autoname remains an explicit override.

Stable periodic names

Periodic naming compares recent context with the current title. The model is asked to return the existing title unchanged when it still fits, so the extension avoids needless title churn and session metadata writes.

🔐 Privacy note

pi-autoname sends a short, recent conversation excerpt to the selected naming model. Before sending, it redacts common secret patterns such as API keys, bearer tokens, AWS access keys, private keys, and *_TOKEN / *_SECRET / *_PASSWORD environment assignments. If the AI call fails and the user text contained a detected secret, the local fallback name is skipped to avoid turning secrets into session names.

🌍 Language support

Names use the dominant natural language in user messages: the first user message for initial naming, and recent user messages for periodic or manual naming. Assistant responses, paths, URLs, and code snippets do not determine the language. When no natural-language user text is available, pi-autoname optionally uses the active pi-di18n /lang locale; pi-di18n is never required.

🔗 Related

• pi-compaction-i18n — localized compaction summaries

Development

The repository has no development dependency. With Node.js 22.6 or later (Node.js 22.22.3 is the tested baseline), run the built-in TypeScript test runner directly:

npm test

Pi provides the two declared peer dependencies at extension runtime.

License

MIT