pi-ime-slash

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Typing a leading 、 in pi is almost always a mistake: your CJK input method committed a full-width comma where you meant the / that starts a slash command. This extension fixes both halves of that problem.

• 、 → / when it is the first character of an empty prompt
• switches the OS input source to English so the rest of the command types normally

Text in the middle of a sentence is never touched, so normal Chinese prose is unaffected.

Before:  、model              ← nothing happens, "、" is not a command
After:   /model              ← slash autocomplete opens, IME is now English

Install

pi install npm:pi-ime-slash

Or try it without installing:

pi -e npm:pi-ime-slash

Requirements

The character replacement works everywhere with no dependencies. Switching the input source is separate and optional:

If no backend is available, the extension still rewrites the character and shows a one-time notice. Nothing breaks.

Usage

Just type 、 at the start of an empty prompt. To toggle the feature off and on:

/ime-slash

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables, so there is no config file.

Examples:

# Switch to US instead of ABC
PI_IME_SLASH_ENGLISH_SOURCE=com.apple.keylayout.US pi

# Linux with fcitx5
PI_IME_SLASH_SWITCH_CMD="fcitx5-remote -s keyboard-us" pi

# Also convert the full-width comma to a regular one
PI_IME_SLASH_MAP='{"、":"/","，":","}' pi

# Disable
PI_IME_SLASH=0 pi

PI_IME_ENGLISH_SOURCE is accepted as a legacy alias for PI_IME_SLASH_ENGLISH_SOURCE.

How it works

The extension registers a custom editor via ctx.ui.setEditorComponent(). It extends pi's CustomEditor, so every app-level keybinding (Escape to abort, Ctrl+D, model switching, …) keeps working. Only when the prompt is empty does it intercept the keystroke, substitute the ASCII character, and delegate to the default implementation.

Two details worth knowing:

• It replaces the character via super.handleInput() rather than rewriting the text afterwards. Undo history, slash autocomplete, and IME cursor placement therefore behave exactly as if you had pressed the ASCII key.
• Terminals with the Kitty keyboard protocol or xterm modifyOtherKeys are handled too. Those report committed text as escape sequences instead of raw UTF-8, so both encodings are decoded before the leading-character check.

The extension only affects pi's own prompt editor. Dialog inputs (/model filtering, settings, extension selectors) do not route through it, so they are never altered.

What it touches on your system

No background service is installed and nothing auto-starts:

• No daemon, no background process, no timers. The extension lives exactly as long as pi does. It does not write launchd / LaunchAgent / login-item entries.
• No postinstall hook. npm install runs nothing extra on your machine.
• The only subprocess is im-select, and only when you press 、. It is a one-shot command: switch the input source, then exit.
• The only persistent side effect is your current input source. It switches the OS input method to English, exactly as pressing Ctrl+Space yourself would. Nothing is written to any config file.
• Environment variables are not persisted. PI_IME_SLASH and friends apply to that one pi run; export them from ~/.zshrc if you want them permanent.

If you would rather it never touch the input method, point the switch command at a no-op or simply leave im-select uninstalled — the 、 → / replacement still works on its own.

Development

npm install
npm test          # 37 tests, uses the real pi CustomEditor
npm run typecheck

The test suite deliberately runs against the installed pi packages rather than a mock, so undo behaviour, multi-line editing, and the editor's submit handling are all exercised for real.

License

MIT