pi-resource-center

A keyboard-driven resource browser for Pi: browse, enable/disable, and organize your packages, skills, extensions, prompts, themes, tools, and MCP servers from a single /resource TUI. Resource commands mirror browser actions; advanced server management uses native /mcp.

Questions or bug reports? Join the Discord.

Quick start

pi install npm:pi-resource-center

Then in Pi:

/reload
/resource

That's it. The browser opens on the Packages tab. Everything below is reference material.

The Browser

Categories

¹ Disabling a package replaces its resource filters with empty arrays; enabling restores the plain source. Fine-grained autoload, glob, and +/-/! filters are cleared — use Browse Package Contents in package details to preserve them. Resource Center refuses to disable its own running package.

² Core builtin tools and native codemode / tool_search changes also persist to Pi's defaultTools. Other tools only change the session/branch active set. Deactivating codemode/deferred tools does not block indirect calls (see Tools).

Row badges

Keys

³ Sort modes: Recent, Default, Name, Enabled, Scope. ⁴ Integrations tab only.

Notes:

• Browse Package Contents in package details opens one flat, searchable list of contained extensions, skills, prompts, and themes. All resources use the normal list-row layout; the right column identifies type rather than repeating the package source. There are no category preview limits or “more” entries. Search, sort, pin, toggle and detail navigation work across types, with selection preserved on return and inventory updates. Package-contained resources can be surfaced in their top-level category via Show in Category (marked [pkg]).
• Add view: default scope follows the current selection context; inline suggestions for local paths, npm:, git:, and GitHub URLs. Remote adds run the real Pi install before writing settings. Long operations show a live status widget and survive leaving the view.
• Descriptions initially show at most four wrapped lines. Long descriptions have an inline o expand / o collapse hint (compact o + / o − in narrow windows); no extra action is added. Scrollable content has one shared j/k hint, with argument counts kept beside Parameters and body-line counters omitted. Narrow headers drop statistics/context before resource names, and action labels wrap before auxiliary hints are shortened or omitted.
• Tool details show top-level arguments as compact, description-first rows with code-colored names, secondary explanations, type coloring, and subdued scalar defaults; * marks required arguments. At most four arguments are displayed at once; j/k slides the window through the remaining arguments without opening another page. Narrow windows put descriptions below the argument name/type. When both the content area and argument window overflow, j reaches the end of the content before advancing arguments; k restores earlier arguments before scrolling the content upward. Full JSON schemas and nested object fields are not displayed.
• Prompt details preview the first six wrapped body lines, without frontmatter or argument expansion. Truncated previews are marked …, and descriptions repeated at the start of the body are not shown twice. Long tool/prompt content scrolls with j (down) / k (up), also accepting uppercase J/K, while actions stay visible. Arrow keys still select actions; details do not bind PgUp/PgDn.
• Settings view persists preferences (sort mode, reload behavior, search options, pins, external skill sources) to its own file.

Behavior notes

Tools

The Tools tab reads Pi's getAllTools() / getActiveTools() inventories on open and automatically checks for changes every second while the browser remains open. Tools from the same source or namespace are grouped (builtin, package name, local:<file>, or mcp:<server>); single-tool sources are plain rows. The builtin group always sorts first.

• Builtin tools (read, bash, powershell, edit, write, grep, find, ls, plus native codemode and tool_search): toggles update the active set and persist only the requested +name/-name change to Pi's defaultTools — project settings if the trusted project defines defaultTools, otherwise user settings. Unrelated entries, inheritance, and explicit empty allowlists are preserved.
• Other extension/SDK/MCP tools: change the session/branch active set, not startup settings. Pi may restore that selection on resume, but /reload can reactivate tools registered active by default. Resource Center does not save and restore these selections across reloads. Disable the providing package/extension or use native /mcp for persistent server configuration.
• Exposure matters: codemode and deferred tools remain callable through codemode/tool search even when inactive; their actions are Activate/Deactivate, not access controls. Withdrawn hidden tools are omitted. With codemode.mode: "only", active tools may also be hidden from direct model declarations.
• Tool selection does not unload the extension, its commands, or its event handlers and is not a permission boundary.
• Tools are runtime capabilities: no add/remove/update/pin, and they don't count toward package summaries.
• On Windows, enabling powershell and disabling bash persistently replaces Bash with PowerShell — equivalent to:

{ "defaultTools": ["read", "powershell", "edit", "write"] }

MCP

/resource mcp lists servers from user/trusted-project mcp.json, extension registrations, and observed MCP tool namespaces. Disabled servers remain visible. Project overrides are shown only after trust; configuration secrets, arguments, environment variables, and credentials are not displayed or executed.

• Enter opens server details; Browse Tools switches to its namespace in Tools without removing tools from that category. List rows use the same checkbox, pin, scope, and source layout as other resources; unknown/error states use [?] / [!].
• Space or Enable/Disable updates the server's enabled flag in its effective user/project mcp.json, preserving transport, credentials, exposure overrides, and unrelated entries. The row reflects saved configuration, not live connection status. Changes apply on /reload, following Resource Center's reload preference when the browser closes.
• For extension registrations, Resource Center attempts the native registration API. Pi permits updates only to registrations owned by the calling extension; these requests are session-only and need no reload. Registrations owned by another extension cannot be taken over or silently copied into mcp.json; use native /mcp for those. Runtime-only servers without editable config also retain the native-manager fallback.
• M or Open MCP Manager closes Resource Center and dispatches the existing /mcp command for connection, authentication, and exposure management. Resource Center does not open additional connections.
• Pi 1.4 does not expose a per-server resource inventory or connection-status API to extension commands. Resources are explicitly not queried, not counted as zero. Details show the shared native list_mcp_resources, list_mcp_resource_templates, and read_mcp_resource tools when registered; their presence does not prove that a particular server offers resources.
• Tools and observed MCP namespaces update automatically while the browser is open, including late registrations and withdrawals. The lightweight check does not rescan files, synchronize skills, activate tools, or connect servers; unchanged inventories do not redraw. Selection, searches, expanded groups, and pins are preserved. Checks stop when the browser closes.
• Empty initial inventories show fetching tools until the first successful live check, then 0 tools if none are listed. Counts track currently registered, visible tools and keep updating if tools arrive later; they are not connection status or a server capability total. Connection diagnostics remain in /mcp. File configuration is read on open and after configuration actions, not polled.
• /resource enable mcp <name> and /resource disable mcp <name> use the same toggle flow; adding/removing servers still uses native pi mcp add/remove.

Themes

Themes are applied, not enabled/disabled: Space switches the UI immediately and saves the theme setting. Available themes come from Pi's runtime inventory, merged with discovered file/package metadata. Built-in system (Pi's default), dark, and light can't be removed; custom themes can. The name system is reserved.

Discovery model

Resources are discovered from, in both project and user scope:

• Pi settings path entries (extensions, skills, prompts, themes arrays, including +/-/! and glob filters)
• Conventional folders: .pi/extensions|skills|prompts|themes and ~/.pi/agent/...
• Pi's built-in extensions: builtin:mcp, builtin:llama.cpp, builtin:codemode, and builtin:tool-search (disable/enable, not remove)
• Agent Skills folders: .agents/skills/ in the current directory and its ancestors
• Configured package sources (npm:, git:, http(s)://, local paths), including autoload: false deltas
• External skill sources configured in Resource Center settings (see Integrations)

By default, package-contained extensions/skills/prompts are managed from the package's Browse Package Contents view; Show in Category surfaces them top-level. Package themes are always shown in the Themes tab. When a project is not trusted, project-scope resources are neither discovered nor modified.

Commands (Reference)

Tab completes resource subcommands and names. MCP enable/disable commands mirror the browser; advanced management uses native /mcp / pi mcp.

Category aliases: package, skill, extension, prompt, theme, tool (plural forms work). Matching covers name, source, path, and package-relative path.

Integrations

Shift+S → Integrations manages external skill sources: Claude, Codex, Codex Plugins, OpenCode, plus custom directories (add with A, remove with R, toggle with Space, edit paths inline).

• Enabled sources are synchronized into Pi's settings.json skills entries so Pi owns directory discovery.
• Codex plugin skills are grouped by plugin in the Skills browser and get stable IDs (source + plugin + relative path), so disabled skills stay disabled across Codex cache or version changes. Disabled state lives in Resource Center settings, not in Codex paths.
• The Codex Plugins integration only syncs plugins that don't declare apps (app-backed plugins may need Codex/OpenAI runtime Pi can't provide).

Plugin settings

Resource Center stores its own state (preferences, pins, exposed resources, disabled external skill IDs, external sources, sync entries) in a separate file, not in Pi's settings.json:

• Windows: C:\Users\<you>\.pi\agent\pi-resource-center-settings.json
• macOS/Linux: ~/.pi/agent/pi-resource-center-settings.json

Honors PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR. Stale pins/exposures are pruned automatically. Legacy resource-hub.json files are safe to delete.

Requirements

• Node.js >=22.19.0, Pi >=1.4.0
• Peer dependencies: @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent >=1.4.0, @earendil-works/pi-tui >=1.4.0
• Development checks use exact Pi 1.4.0 dependencies: npm ci --ignore-scripts then npm run check.

# From GitHub
pi install https://github.com/sodie2323/pi-resource-center

# From a local path (loads the folder directly — run /reload after changes)
pi install .
pi install E:/code/pi-resource-center

License

MIT