pi-foldable-tools

Make pi tool blocks foldable and hideable.

pi's built-in tool blocks (the green/red "Tool execution box") are always rendered with a full colored shell. The only built-in control, ctrl+o (app.tools.expand), toggles output verbosity — invisible for short outputs and it never collapses the block itself. This extension adds the missing fold / hide capability.

What it does

Re-registers the built-in tools (read, bash, edit, write, grep, find, ls) with renderShell: "self" so the always-on colored box is gone, and adds a 3-state view for completed blocks (running blocks always stream live so you can still see activity):

Mode	Completed block shows
folded (default)	Compact 2-line card: the call header ($ ls -la / read foo.py) + a one-line status (✓ 3 lines, ✗ exit 127 · 3 lines, +2 -1 for edits)
expanded	Full output — syntax-highlighted reads & diffs (delegated to the originals) / full text for bash·edit·write
hidden	Removed from the transcript entirely (0 lines)

Execution behavior is unchanged: every tool delegates execute to the original built-in tool definition, so reads/edits/bash/grep behave identically. Only the rendering changes.

Controls

• ctrl+q — cycle folded → expanded → hidden → folded
• /tools [folded|expanded|hidden] — set directly, or cycle with no arg (use this if your terminal eats ctrl+q)
• ctrl+o (built-in) — still expands output within folded/expanded modes
• PI_TOOL_FOLD_MODE env var — default mode on startup (folded (default), expanded, or hidden)

A footer status line (tools: folded) shows the current mode.

Install

pi install npm:pi-foldable-tools

Or from git:

pi install git:github.com/<user>/pi-foldable-tools

Then restart pi (or run /reload).

Notes

• ctrl+q is a single byte (0x11) that tmux passes through (only ctrl+b is tmux's prefix), so it works inside tmux. If your terminal intercepts ctrl+q (some map it to XON flow control), use the /tools command instead.
• Rendering for read/grep/find/ls is delegated to the originals (they use a Text-based renderer), preserving syntax highlighting and truncation notes. bash/edit/write use a Container+state renderer that is not safe to delegate, so they are rendered locally as Text.
• Reading an image file in hidden mode still renders the image (image rendering is owned by the tool component, not the result renderer); the text part is hidden as expected. Rare edge case.

License

MIT