pi-perplexity

A pi extension that gives your coding agent real-time web search powered by your Perplexity Pro or Max subscription

Requirements

• pi coding agent
• Bun runtime (available on PATH)
• A Perplexity Pro or Max subscription
• macOS (for zero-interaction auth) or an interactive terminal (for email OTP)

Installation

pi install npm:pi-perplexity

Or from GitHub:

pi install github:ivanrvpereira/pi-perplexity

Authentication

Run the login command once to cache your token:

/perplexity-login

The extension tries two methods in order:

1. macOS Desktop App (zero interaction) — borrows the JWT directly from the Perplexity macOS app if it's installed and signed in. Nothing to type.
2. Email OTP (interactive fallback) — prompts for your Perplexity email, sends a one-time code, and prompts for the code.

The token is saved to ~/.config/pi-perplexity/auth.json (mode 0600) and reused across sessions. On auth failure, run /perplexity-login --force to clear and re-authenticate.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
PI_AUTH_NO_BORROW=1	Skip macOS desktop app extraction and go straight to email OTP
PI_PERPLEXITY_EMAIL	Pre-fill the email prompt (useful for non-interactive setups)
PI_PERPLEXITY_OTP	Pre-fill the OTP prompt

Usage

Once installed, the agent automatically calls perplexity_search whenever it needs current information. You can also ask it directly:

"Search Perplexity for the latest React 19 release notes"

Tool parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	✅	The search query
recency	string	—	Filter by age: hour · day · week · month · year
limit	number	—	Max sources to include (1–50)
model	string	—	Model preference, e.g. pplx_pro_upgraded, pplx_pro, experimental, gpt54, gpt54_thinking, claude46sonnet, claude46sonnetthinking, gemini31pro_high, nv_nemotron_3_super, pplx_reasoning, pplx_alpha
incognito	boolean	—	Whether to hide the search from Perplexity history; defaults to true

Output format

The tool returns structured text the agent can reason over:

## Answer
React 19 introduces Actions, use() hook, and improved Server Components...

## Sources
3 sources
[1] React 19 Release Notes (1d ago)
    https://react.dev/blog/2024/12/05/react-19
    React 19 is now stable. This release includes Actions for async...

[2] What's New in React 19 (3d ago)
    https://vercel.com/blog/react-19
    A deep dive into the new primitives landing in React 19...

## Meta
Provider: perplexity (oauth)
Model: pplx_pro_upgraded

Queries default to is_incognito: true, but you can override that per call or via config.

How It Works

The extension calls Perplexity's internal SSE endpoint (perplexity_ask) using your subscription credentials obtained from the macOS app or via email OTP. Responses stream as incremental events that are merged into a final result.

When pi loads extensions under Node/jiti, direct fetch to Perplexity gets Cloudflare-challenged, so the search client shells out to a Bun subprocess — that's the only reason Bun is required.

Development

bun install        # Install dev dependencies
bun test           # Run tests
bunx tsc --noEmit  # Type check

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

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Disclaimer

This project is intended for educational and demonstration purposes only. It reverse-engineers an undocumented internal endpoint and uses credentials borrowed from the Perplexity macOS desktop app. This likely violates Perplexity's Terms of Service. Use at your own risk — your account may be suspended. The author makes no warranties and accepts no liability for any consequences of its use.