pi-compaction-i18n

Make pi's compaction and branch summaries speak your language.

pi-compaction-i18n is a Pi extension that overrides the default English-only /compact and /tree branch summaries with fully localized output in 11 languages — auto-detected from your system locale.

✨ What it does

Feature	Default pi	With this extension
/compact summary headings	## Goal, ## Progress… (English)	## 目标, ## 进展… (your language)
/tree branch summary	English only	Localized
Language detection	N/A	Auto from PI_LOCALE > LC_ALL > LANG
Supported languages	English only	11 languages

🌍 Supported languages

Locale	Language	Headings example
zh-CN, zh_*	简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)	## 目标 / ## 进展 / ## 下一步
zh-TW, zh-HK, zh-MO	繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)	## 目標 / ## 進展 / ## 下一步
ja-*	日本語 (Japanese)	## 目標 / ## 進捗 / ## 次のステップ
ko-*	한국어 (Korean)	## 목표 / ## 진행 상황 / ## 다음 단계
de-*	Deutsch (German)	## Ziel / ## Fortschritt / ## Nächste Schritte
fr-*	Français (French)	## Objectif / ## Progression / ## Étapes suivantes
es-*	Español (Spanish)	## Objetivo / ## Progreso / ## Próximos pasos
pt-*	Português (Portuguese)	## Objetivo / ## Progresso / ## Próximos passos
ru-*	Русский (Russian)	## Цель / ## Прогресс / ## Следующие шаги
ar-*	العربية (Arabic)	## الهدف / ## التقدم / ## الخطوات التالية
other	English	## Goal / ## Progress / ## Next Steps

📦 Install

pi install npm:pi-compaction-i18n

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-compaction-i18n.json:

{
  "locale": "auto",
  "model": ""
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
locale	string	"auto"	Force a locale (e.g. "zh-CN"). Set to "auto" for auto-detection from environment
model	string	(session model)	Override the LLM model for summaries (provider/modelId). Empty = use current session's active model

Note: Compaction summaries benefit from strong models (they need deep context understanding). The default behavior of using your session model is recommended in most cases. Only override if you have a specific reason.

🚀 Usage

Check status

After installing, open any Pi session and run:

/compaction-i18n-status

Example output on a Chinese system:

pi-compaction-i18n: enabled
Detected locale: zh-CN
Summary language: zh-Hans
Instruction: Write the entire summary in Simplified Chinese (简体中文). All headings and body content must be in Simplified Chinese.

Trigger localized summaries

• Compaction: Type /compact or let auto-compaction trigger naturally
• Branch summary: Use /tree to navigate between branches with summarization enabled

Both will now produce fully localized markdown summaries.

🔧 How it works

1. Locale detection: Reads PI_LOCALE → LC_ALL → LANG environment variables (e.g., zh_CN.UTF-8 → zh-CN). Can be overridden via config.
2. Language mapping: Maps locale code to one of 11 supported languages
3. Template generation: Builds a compaction/branch-summary prompt with localized section headings and a language instruction prepended
4. Event interception: Registers handlers for session_before_compact and session_before_tree events via Pi's extension API
5. LLM call: Uses complete() from @earendil-works/pi-ai to generate the summary with the localized prompt. Uses session's active model by default, or a configured override.

Event precedence

For session_before_compact and session_before_tree events, the last handler that returns a non-null result wins. If you have multiple extensions that override compaction, ensure only one is active at a time.

🧪 Development

# Clone & test
git clone https://github.com/ssdiwu/pi-compaction-i18n.git
cd pi-compaction-i18n
npm install
npm test

# Install locally into pi for testing
pi install .

🔗 Related

• pi-autoname — AI-powered session naming (sibling project)

📄 License

MIT © ssdiwu