pi-mini

Ask a question, read the answer, get back to your terminal.

pi-mini turns Pi into a low-clutter terminal chat for quick questions and follow-ups. It replaces the bordered input with a shell-style prompt, hides the footer, and removes redundant thinking-level announcements. With the launch command below, conversations stay in memory instead of becoming saved Pi sessions.

Claude Sonnet 4.5/anthropic:off> What's the difference between TCP and UDP?

The prompt shows your model, provider, and thinking level. Replies appear below it; your conversation stays in the terminal's normal scrollback after you exit, subject to the terminal's scrollback limits.

Get started

You need Pi with a configured model/provider and Node.js 22.19 or newer. Follow Pi's setup guide if you have not installed it or authenticated yet. Compatibility has been verified with Pi 1.1.0; other versions have not been validated.

Install the extension through Pi's package manager:

pi install npm:pi-mini

Run a minimal chat with only pi-mini:

pi --offline --tui-mini --tui-mode regular --no-session --no-extensions -e ~/.pi/agent/npm/node_modules/pi-mini

• Type a question and press Enter. Follow-up questions use the current conversation.
• Use Shift+Enter for multiline input.
• Press Ctrl+D with an empty input to exit. There is no saved session to resume.

--no-extensions disables automatic extension loading; -e selects the installed pi-mini package. The path assumes Pi's default global installation layout. Use an installed path rather than -e npm:… with --offline; see launch options for custom directories and details.

--offline is not a network block: model requests and web tools can still use the internet. It disables Pi's automatic activity such as update checks and model-catalog refreshes. Response speed still depends on the model, provider, and thinking level—not on the UI extension.

Additional extensions

You can include other installed extensions by adding more -e /path/to/extension arguments. They are your choice, not dependencies of pi-mini.

For example, to give the agent dedicated tools for fetching content over HTTP and searching the internet, include pi-web-access. If both extensions are already installed, a Bash/Zsh alias can look like this:

alias pi-mini='pi --offline --tui-mini --tui-mode regular --no-session --no-extensions \
  -e ~/.pi/agent/npm/node_modules/pi-mini \
  -e ~/.pi/agent/npm/node_modules/pi-web-access'

Add it to your shell configuration, open a new shell or reload the configuration, then run pi-mini. This loads only those two extensions. Follow pi-web-access's setup instructions for its search-provider configuration; omit or replace its -e argument if you want different capabilities.

What stays the same

Pi's native editing, history within the current run, autocomplete, model selection, and shortcuts remain available. The prompt follows model, thinking-level, and theme changes. pi-mini does not restrict Pi's built-in tools or project instructions; it is not a read-only mode or a sandbox.

Mini mode is opt-in: it runs only with --tui-mini in terminal UI mode. Loading the package without the flag, or using RPC, JSON, or print mode, leaves Pi's behavior unchanged. The flag itself does not disable saved sessions or choose regular rendering; the launch examples do that explicitly.

Before using it

• Wait for the mini prompt before pasting large input. Pi 1.1.0 can lose a large paste entered before the editor is replaced at startup.
• The standard editor/footer can briefly flash during startup, sometimes leaving blank space. Other Pi messages and errors are not hidden.
• Compatibility with future Pi versions needs verification, particularly for quiet thinking-level switching.

See known issues for conditions and limitations.

More information

• Usage — launch options, model selection, additional extensions, and conversation history.
• Implementation — UI behavior, theme colors, and compatibility details.
• Development — working on the extension; release instructions are linked there.

License

MIT.