pi-autoname

✨ What it does

Scenario	Behavior
First dialogue completes	Automatically generates a semantic session name
Conversation continues	Silently re-names every 10 minutes (configurable)
Session topic drifts	Name updates to reflect the new focus
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), pi-autoname owns session naming: automatic naming runs on first dialogue and periodically, and may overwrite a name set via /name or /autoname. Set to true for the legacy behavior of treating a user-issued rename as sticky.

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 user message
        ↓
first assistant reply finishes
        ↓
AI generates semantic session name
        ↓
setSessionName(name)

Periodic re-naming

agent_end event (new message processed)
        ↓
cooldown passed? (10 min default)
        ↓
AI generates new name from recent context
        ↓
name changed? → silently update
name same? → skip

Model fallback chain

primary model (from config)
        ↓ failed?
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

However, with pi-autoname installed, the periodic re-naming (cooldownMinutes default 10 min) will likely overwrite your /name change on the next agent_end. This is the default behavior (respectManualName: false) — pi-autoname owns the session name.

• For a one-shot rename that pi-autoname will then take over again: use /name.
• To force a re-name from the current conversation right now: use /autoname.
• To opt out of pi-autoname ever overwriting your /name: set respectManualName: true in the config.

/name grace period

When you /name a session, pi-autoname detects the out-of-band change on the next agent_end and resets the rename cooldown to now. That gives your /name choice a full cooldownMinutes window before the next periodic rename is allowed to consider overwriting it. If the conversation topic changes earlier, the periodic rename will still run normally — /name is a grace period, not a lock.

🔐 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.

🌍 Locale support

Auto-detected from system environment (PI_LOCALE > LC_ALL > LANG). Names are generated in the detected language.

🔗 Related

• pi-compaction-i18n — localized compaction summaries

License

MIT