pi-proto-prompt

A modal notes editor for Pi. Move text between a scratch draft and the prompt without sending it to the model.

Why?

While the agent is working, you have an idea and start drafting your next prompt. Then the agent finishes and asks a question. You want to answer right away, but your unfinished draft is still in the prompt editor.

You could move it to an external editor, but that adds friction and breaks your flow. The same problem arises when you want to run a slash command halfway through writing a prompt.

Proto Prompt lets you move your draft into a temporary editor, freeing the prompt for a reply or command. Restore your draft whenever you're ready.

Global installation

pi install npm:pi-proto-prompt

Run /reload in existing sessions after installation or updates.

Usage

• Ctrl+Alt+P: open the centered modal with a continuous box-drawing frame.
• Opening moves the current prompt to the end of the modal draft and clears the prompt.
• Enter: close the modal, transfer its contents to the prompt immediately, and clear the draft. This does not send a message to the model.
• Shift+Enter (or Ctrl+J): insert a new line.
• Paste protection: in legacy terminals without bracketed paste, Enter within 200 ms of typing is treated as a newline. Pause briefly after typing/pasting before pressing Enter to transfer. This is a timing safeguard, not perfect paste detection; bracketed paste is recommended.
• Ctrl+C inside the modal: clear all text, including the saved draft, without closing.
• Alt+V inside the modal: paste copied file paths, an image path, or plain text at the cursor without confirming. Screenshots are saved as temporary image files; existing copied files keep their original paths. Paths are quoted to support spaces. Clipboard reads are discarded if you clear or close the modal before they finish. Requires local clipboard access; errors appear in the modal.

Clipboard image access uses Pi's native backend, with a PowerShell fallback on Windows/WSL. Saved images remain in the OS temporary directory so paths stay valid after transfer; the extension does not delete them automatically. Pasting a path does not itself attach an image or send it to the model.

• Esc: close and keep the draft for later. Imported prompt text remains in the draft, not in the main prompt.
• /proto-prompt: open the modal without a keyboard shortcut.

Drafts remain in memory until confirmed, reloaded, or Pi exits. No notes are saved to disk. Whitespace-only additions are ignored. Interactive TUI only; RPC and print modes are not supported.

Global shortcut

Create pi-proto-prompt.json in Pi's user directory (normally ~/.pi/agent, or the directory selected by PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR):

{
  "shortcut": "ctrl+alt+p"
}

For example, use "ctrl+alt+n" to change the shortcut for all projects. Run /reload to apply changes. The default is ctrl+alt+p; invalid configuration produces a warning and falls back to the default. Project overrides are not read.

User configuration takes precedence over the default. If your terminal intercepts the configured combination, choose another shortcut or use /proto-prompt.

Pi rejects reserved shortcuts: Ctrl+K, for example, belongs to tui.editor.deleteToLineEnd and must be remapped in Pi's global keybindings before an extension can use it. The OS, terminal, or other extensions may also intercept a shortcut. Check /hotkeys for active bindings.

Development

npm install
npm run check
npm test
pi -e .

Manual checks: import an existing prompt, edit multiline notes, press Enter, and verify the prompt appears immediately without submitting. Reopen to verify the draft was cleared. Test Escape retention, Unicode, narrow terminals, resizing, focus, and both regular and fullscreen modes.