pi-tmux-spinner

A pi coding agent extension that animates the tmux window name while the agent is working, then restores it cleanly when done.

Demo

While pi is processing, your tmux window title cycles through a configurable animation:

· pi spinner extension
✢ pi spinner extension
✳ pi spinner extension

When the agent finishes, the window name is restored cleanly.

Install

pi install git:github.com/adamschlesinger/pi-tmux-spinner

Or from npm (if published):

pi install npm:pi-tmux-spinner

Requirements

• pi coding agent
• tmux (the extension silently skips if $TMUX / $TMUX_PANE are not set)

Configuration

Use the /tmux-spinner command to configure at runtime. Settings persist to ~/.pi/agent/tmux-spinner.json.

/tmux-spinner                    Show current config
/tmux-spinner list               List all styles with previews
/tmux-spinner style <name>       Set animation style
/tmux-spinner speed <value>      Set speed: slow | normal | fast
/tmux-spinner enable             Enable the spinner
/tmux-spinner disable            Disable the spinner

Styles

Name	Preview
default	· ✢ ✳ ✶ ✻ ✽
braille	⠋ ⠙ ⠹ ⠸ ⠼ ⠴ ⠦ ⠧ ⠇ ⠏
dots	⣾ ⣽ ⣻ ⢿ ⡿ ⣟ ⣯ ⣷
classic	- \ | /
arrows	← ↖ ↑ ↗ → ↘ ↓ ↙
pipe	┤ ┘ ┴ └ ├ ┌ ┬ ┐
star	✶ ✸ ✹ ✺ ✹ ✸
moon	🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕 🌖 🌗 🌘
pulse	· • ● •

Speeds

Name	Interval
slow	300ms
normal	150ms (default)
fast	80ms

How it works

The extension hooks into pi lifecycle events:

Event	Action
agent_start	Begin cycling spinner frames in the tmux window name
agent_end	Stop cycling, strip prefix, restore the clean name
session_shutdown	Stop on Ctrl-C / reload (no zombie processes)

Each tick re-reads the current window name before writing, so pi's own tmux_rename_window tool calls are always respected — the spinner just wraps whatever name is currently set.

Compatibility with pi-tmux-rename

Works alongside pi-tmux-rename. Topic renames are picked up automatically on the next spinner tick.

License

MIT