pi-system-prompt-patcher

Patch provider system prompts with exact, provider-aware, config-driven replacements.

The extension rewrites the system field in compatible provider requests immediately before Pi sends them. It supports string prompts and arrays of text content blocks, and ignores request payloads without a system field.

Install

pi install npm:pi-system-prompt-patcher

To try the package without adding it to your settings:

pi -e npm:pi-system-prompt-patcher

Pi packages run with full system access. Review the source before installation.

Configure

Create ~/.pi/agent/pi-system-prompt-patcher.json:

{
  "providers": {
    "cult": {
      "replacementFile": "replacements/cult.json",
      "models": {
        "ritual-2": "replacements/cult-ritual-2.json"
      }
    },
    "other-provider": {
      "replacementFile": "/absolute/path/to/replacements.json"
    }
  }
}

When PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR is set, the extension reads the configuration from that directory instead of ~/.pi/agent.

Provider and model names are matched exactly. A model-specific file takes precedence over its provider file. A provider can omit replacementFile when it only configures model-specific files. Requests without a matching provider or model configuration are left unchanged.

Relative replacement file paths are resolved from the directory containing the settings file. Absolute paths and paths beginning with ~ are also supported.

Each replacement file contains an array:

[
  {
    "target": "Exact text from the original system prompt",
    "replacement": "Replacement text"
  }
]

Replacements are:

• applied in array order;
• applied to every occurrence of each target;
• selected by provider and, when configured, model;
• loaded again with the settings for every provider request, so changes do not require /reload;
• applied atomically—the provider payload is not mutated.

If a target is absent, the extension leaves the request unchanged, reports the missing target, and aborts the current agent turn. Invalid or unreadable settings and replacement files are reported and the request continues unchanged.

Development

npm install
npm run check
npm test

Try locally

pi --no-extensions -e .

Release staging

The GitHub Actions workflow stages npm releases when a v* tag is pushed. The tag must match the package.json version, point at a commit whose subject is release: v<version>, and be a lightweight tag. Create it with git tag v<version>; do not use git tag -a, git tag -s, git tag -m, or cog bump --annotated.