pi-input-history

Cross-session prompt history and fuzzy reverse search for pi.

Why

Pi's built-in ↑/↓ history only covers the current session and is lost on reload. This extension persists your last 100 prompts across sessions and adds fuzzy reverse search (default Ctrl+R) to find any past prompt instantly.

Install

pi install npm:pi-input-history

Or from git:

pi install git:github.com/ouzhenkun/pi-input-history

Usage

Persistent History

On session start, your last 100 prompts across all sessions are loaded into the editor. Use ↑/↓ arrows to browse them as usual.

Reverse Search

1. Press the search shortcut (default Ctrl+R) to open the search overlay.
2. Type to fuzzy-filter history (subsequence matching, space-separated multi-token).
3. Matched characters are highlighted with your theme's accent color, using minimal-span matching so the highlight stays on the closest contiguous group (e.g. in highlights in in input, not pi's i + input's n).
4. The preview viewport shows the matched record; long lines are soft-wrapped (never truncated) and the viewport grows with content up to your terminal's height, then scrolls.
5. The first matched line is marked with ▸; the viewport is separated from the input line by a dim divider.
6. Navigate and accept:

Key	Action
search shortcut / ↑	Cycle to older match
newer shortcut / ↓	Cycle to newer match
ctrl+k / ctrl+j	Scroll the preview viewport (when it exceeds the terminal height)
Enter	Accept match into editor
Esc / Ctrl+G	Cancel

Defaults: search = ctrl+r, newer = ctrl+s, scroll up = ctrl+k, scroll down = ctrl+j.

Configuration

Optional config at ~/.pi/agent/pi-input-history.json:

{
  "searchShortcut": "ctrl+r",
  "newerShortcut": "ctrl+s",
  "scrollUpShortcut": "ctrl+k",
  "scrollDownShortcut": "ctrl+j"
}

Field	Default	Description
searchShortcut	ctrl+r	Open reverse search; press again in the overlay to cycle older
newerShortcut	ctrl+s	In the overlay, cycle to a newer match
scrollUpShortcut	ctrl+k	In the overlay, scroll the preview viewport up
scrollDownShortcut	ctrl+j	In the overlay, scroll the preview viewport down

Omit the file or any field to keep the default. After editing, run /reload in pi.

Shortcut conflict with app.session.rename

Pi binds app.session.rename to ctrl+r by default (session picker). This extension can still use ctrl+r; pi logs a non-fatal conflict warning and prefers the extension shortcut at the editor level.

To silence the warning while keeping reverse search on Ctrl+R, rebind rename in ~/.pi/agent/keybindings.json:

{
  "app.session.rename": "ctrl+shift+r"
}

Or change searchShortcut in pi-input-history.json to another chord.

Features

• Cross-session persistence — history survives across sessions automatically.
• Fuzzy subsequence matching — type partial characters in order, multi-token support with spaces.
• Minimal-span highlighting — matched characters form the closest contiguous group, so in highlights input, not scattered chars.
• Soft-wrapped preview — long lines wrap to multiple lines instead of being truncated with ....
• Adaptive viewport height — the preview grows with content up to the terminal height, then scrolls.
• Scrollable viewport — ctrl+k / ctrl+j to browse the whole record.
• Match markers — the first matched line is marked with ▸, separated by a dim divider.
• Deduplication — no duplicate entries across sessions.
• Current session awareness — merges live branch history with cached cross-session history.
• Configurable shortcuts — override via pi-input-history.json.

Acknowledgments

The reverse search component is inspired by pi-readline-search by @mrshu.

License

MIT