pi-rich-renderer

Pi extension that renders LaTeX formulas as terminal images while preserving original LLM context.

Package details

extension

Install pi-rich-renderer from npm and Pi will load the resources declared by the package manifest.

$ pi install npm:pi-rich-renderer

Pi manifest JSON

{
  "extensions": [
    "./index.ts"
  ]
}

Pi packages can execute code and influence agent behavior. Review the source before installing third-party packages.

Local Pi extension that renders LaTeX formulas in assistant replies as tight terminal images.

It does not send rendered images to the model. Assistant context is restored to the original Markdown before the next LLM call.

On macOS with MacTeX these are usually available at /Library/TeX/texbin.

From npm:

pi install npm:pi-rich-renderer

For local development, add the extension path to ~/.pi/agent/settings.json:

{
  "extensions": ["~/.pi/agent/extensions/pi-rich-renderer/index.ts"]
}

Then run /reload in Pi.

Configure in ~/.pi/agent/settings.json or project-local .pi/settings.json:

{
  "richRenderer": {
    "imageScale": 0.5,
    "cacheTtlMs": 604800000
  }
}

imageScale: terminal display scale for rendered formula images. Default 0.5.
cacheTtlMs: delete cached PNGs older than this many milliseconds on extension load. Default 604800000 (7 days). Set 0 to disable cleanup.

Project .pi/settings.json overrides global settings.

Rendered PNGs are cached in:

~/.pi/cache/rich-renderer/

Cache keys are SHA-256 hashes of formula content, foreground color, and DPI.

Code blocks are not rendered as images; Pi's native Markdown code rendering is preserved.
Formulas inside fenced code blocks are ignored.
The extension rewrites only the displayed assistant message; the next model context receives the original Markdown.