pi-sticky-usermessage

Sticky header that shows your last user message above the editor in Pi coding agent. Features persistence, smart formatting, and sensitive data filtering.

What it does

After you send a prompt, a persistent bar above the input editor shows your message with rich metadata. Perfect for keeping context visible during long tool-execution sequences.

▎ 14:32 · ● new </>
  Fix the auth middleware to handle expired tokens properly
  and add a retry with exponential backoff to the client

Features

✨ Core

• Persistent Configuration: Settings saved across sessions
• Smart Truncation: Word-boundary aware, respects max lines
• Syntax Awareness: Highlights file paths, URLs, functions, errors
• Overflow Indicator: Shows … +N more lines when message exceeds display

🎨 Customization

• Timestamp Display: Show when the message was sent
• Message Type Indicators: ● new, → follow-up, ✎ edit
• Code Block Detection: Shows </> marker when code is present
• Custom Prefix Symbol: Change the ▎ to any character
• Theme-Aware Colors: Uses your active Pi theme colors

🔒 Privacy & Security

• Sensitive Data Filtering: Automatically redacts emails, API keys, passwords, IPs
• Custom Patterns: Add your own regex patterns for redaction
• Toggle Filtering: Enable/disable per your needs

Install

pi install pi-sticky-usermessage

Or test locally:

pi -e ./src/index.ts

Usage

The header is on by default after installation.

Commands

Command	Effect
/sticky	Show current status (ON / OFF)
/sticky on	Enable the sticky header
/sticky off	Disable and clear the header
/sticky show	Show detailed configuration
/sticky reset	Reset to default settings
/sticky config <key>=<value> ...	Update configuration
/sticky-lines <number>	Set max lines (1-20)
/sticky-width <number>	Set max width (20-200)

Configuration Examples

# Change multiple settings at once
/sticky config maxLines=5 showTimestamp=false smartTruncation=true

# Customize colors
/sticky config timestampColor=yellow metadataColor=cyan

# Change prefix symbol
/sticky config prefixSymbol="→"

# Disable sensitive data filtering
/sticky config filterSensitive=false

Configuration Options

Key	Default	Description
enabled	true	Start enabled
maxLines	3	Maximum message lines to display (1-20)
maxWidth	120	Characters per line before ellipsis (20-200)
showTimestamp	true	Show message timestamp
showMessageType	true	Show message type indicator
smartTruncation	true	Apply smart syntax highlighting
codeBlockIndicator	true	Show </> for code blocks
prefixSymbol	"▎"	Prefix character for header
truncateAtWordBoundary	true	Truncate at word boundaries
filterSensitive	true	Filter sensitive data
customPatterns	undefined	Custom regex patterns for redaction
timestampColor	"dim"	Theme color for timestamps
metadataColor	"muted"	Theme color for metadata

Sensitive Data Filtering

The extension automatically detects and redacts:

• Email addresses: user@example.com → [email]
• IP addresses: 192.168.1.1 → [ip]
• Phone numbers: (555) 123-4567 → [phone]
• API keys: sk-abc123... → [key]
• Bearer tokens: Bearer xyz → Bearer [token]
• Passwords: password: secret123 → password [redacted]
• API keys: api_key: abc123 → api_key [redacted]
• Secrets: secret: xyz → secret [redacted]

Custom Patterns

Add custom regex patterns via the API or by modifying the config in code:

config.customPatterns = [
  "\\b[A-Z]{2}-\\d{4}\\b",  // Ticket numbers like AB-1234
  "\\b\\d{4}-\\d{4}-\\d{4}-\\d{4}\\b",  // Credit card format
];

Syntax Highlighting

When smartTruncation is enabled, the extension highlights:

• File paths: src/components/Button.tsx (accent color)
• URLs: https://example.com (cyan color)
• Function calls: fetchData() (yellow color)
• Errors/warnings: Error: failed (error color)

Theme Colors

The extension uses these Pi theme color names:

Color	Usage
accent	Code block markers, file paths
muted	Metadata, message type
dim	Timestamps, overflow indicator
cyan	URLs
yellow	Function calls
error	Error/warning patterns

Technical Details

Persistence

Configuration and last message metadata are persisted using pi.appendEntry():

pi.appendEntry("sticky-config", {
  config: { ... },
  lastMetadata: { ... }
});

State is automatically restored on session_start.

Event Capture

Messages are captured from the before_agent_start event, which fires for every prompt that reaches the agent.

Troubleshooting

Widget not showing

• Check if enabled: /sticky
• Verify UI is available (not in print mode)
• Check for errors in Pi logs

Settings not persisting

• Ensure session is saved (Pi auto-saves)
• Check file permissions for Pi data directory
• Try /sticky reset then reconfigure

Sensitive data not filtered

• Verify filterSensitive: true via /sticky show
• Check if custom patterns are needed
• Test with known patterns (email, API key)

Text not truncating correctly

• Check maxWidth setting via /sticky show
• Verify truncateAtWordBoundary is set as desired
• Try adjusting maxLines for better fit

License

MIT