pi-think-twice

Think twice before you send prompts.

A send-countdown extension for the pi coding agent.

By default, a send gesture does not put the message into the session right away. It opens a send countdown (default 3 s). The message does not enter the session until the countdown ends. During the countdown you can interrupt and keep editing, cancel, end the countdown early with a double enter, or send now.

Behavior

The countdown renders in the editor's top border, next to the same spinner pi uses for its working indicator, painted with the theme's warning color:

── ⠹ sending in 2s · ESC to cancel · Ctrl+Enter send now ──

Once the double-enter interval has elapsed the hint flips to plain Enter:

── ⠹ sending in 2s · ESC to cancel · Enter send now ──

What counts down

A submit either executes an action (exempt) or becomes a message the model sees (countdown) — see CONTEXT.md.

• Exempt (no countdown): built-in slash commands (/settings, /model, …) and commands registered via pi.registerCommand().
• Counts down: plain text, !bash submissions, skills (/skill:…), prompt templates, mistyped/unknown slash input, and alwaysCountdown entries — seeded with /compact.
• Streaming steer/follow-up messages count down too; messages injected via RPC or sendUserMessage are untouched (they never pass through the editor).

Cancelled messages never enter ↑ input history — cancel means never sent.

Config

~/.pi/agent/pi-think-twice.json, read once at startup (restart pi to apply):

{
  "delaySeconds": 3,
  "doubleEnterSeconds": 1,
  "alwaysCountdown": ["/compact"]
}

• delaySeconds — countdown length; 0 disables pi-think-twice entirely. Missing/invalid file or value falls back to 3.
• doubleEnterSeconds — the double-enter interval: a second Enter during the countdown sends only once this much time has passed since the first one (earlier repeats stay ignored, so key bounce can't fire a send); 0 lets any Enter during the countdown send. Missing/invalid value falls back to 1.
• alwaysCountdown — extra commands forced through the countdown; unioned with the built-in seed (compact), entries may be written with or without the leading slash.

Install

pi install npm:pi-think-twice

From a local checkout (development): pi install ./pi-think-twice.

Requires Node ≥ 22.6 and pi ≥ 0.80.

Notes & limitations

• Ctrl+Enter relies on enhanced key reporting (kitty protocol / modifyOtherKeys). In terminals without it the shortcut simply doesn't exist; tmux needs extended-keys on. Everything else works without it.
• Autocomplete: stock pi treats Enter with an open suggestion as "complete and run". pi-think-twice splits that gesture — the suggestion is applied (same as Tab), then the countdown decision runs on the completed text. Deliberate picks of exempt commands still run instantly.
• Editor extensions: this replaces the editor component, so running another editor-replacing extension (e.g. vim mode) together with pi-think-twice means the last one loaded wins.
• Built-in commands are dynamic: they are reflected from the live autocomplete provider pi hands to the editor (its commands own property, minus pi.getCommands()), so commands added by future pi versions need no change here. Skills are excluded by their skill: prefix.
• Failure policy (pi is never affected): if reflection breaks — field renamed, made truly private, provider missing, throwing getter, empty result — a last-known pi 0.86 snapshot (RESERVED_BUILTIN_COMMANDS) is used instead; if the decision itself throws it fails open to an immediate stock submit; a fault mid-countdown stops the timer with your text intact; a rendering fault falls back to the stock border. No failure path wedges or crashes pi.
• Terminal scroll doesn't interrupt the countdown (only key input does).
• Esc is swallowed only while counting down. It still resolves through pi's own app.interrupt keybinding (so rebinding it works), but during the countdown the key never reaches pi's abort handler; a second Esc, with no countdown left to cancel, interrupts as usual.

Development

npm test              # node --test: config, decision table, reflection, editor behavior
tsc -p tsconfig.json  # strict type check