pi-token-count

A focused Pi extension that replaces Pi's default footer with a pipe-separated footer that gives the current context token count its own field.

The footer shows current context tokens first, followed by percentage/context-window used, cost spent, and active model/reasoning as separate fields:

84,000 tok | 7.6%/1.1M used | $0.60 spent | gpt-5.5/high

Pi's other default footer information is still preserved where possible: cwd, git branch, session name, provider when needed, and extension status lines.

The current token count changes color based on a raw token threshold, not based on the context-window percentage:

• dim/default: below the warning threshold
• warning/yellow: at or above 75% of the dumb-zone token count by default
• error/red: at or beyond the dumb-zone token count

By default, the dumb-zone token count is computed the same way Pi's auto-compaction threshold is computed:

contextWindow - compaction.reserveTokens

compaction.reserveTokens and compaction.enabled are read from Pi settings, including project overrides. You can also set an explicit raw dumb-zone token count for this extension.

Configuration

/dumb-zone command

Run the extension command from Pi's slash menu:

/dumb-zone

With no arguments, it prompts for where to save the setting and then asks for the raw token count where the dumb zone starts.

You can also set it directly:

/dumb-zone 160000
/dumb-zone project 160000
/dumb-zone global 160000
/dumb-zone project 160k
/dumb-zone global 1m

The command writes piTokenCount.dumbZoneStartTokens to either .pi/settings.json for the current project or ~/.pi/agent/settings.json globally.

Settings JSON

Use Pi's existing compaction settings when you want this extension to infer the dumb-zone boundary from the active model's context window:

{
  "compaction": {
    "enabled": true,
    "reserveTokens": 16384,
    "keepRecentTokens": 20000
  }
}

Or set an explicit raw token threshold for this extension manually:

{
  "piTokenCount": {
    "dumbZoneStartTokens": 160000,
    "warningRatio": 0.75
  }
}

With that config, the current-token field turns yellow at 120,000 tok and red at 160,000 tok, regardless of the selected model's context-window percentage.

Global settings live at ~/.pi/agent/settings.json; project settings live at .pi/settings.json. Project settings override global settings.

Behavior notes

• This extension replaces the whole footer because Pi's extension API exposes footer replacement via ctx.ui.setFooter() rather than patching individual built-in footer fields.
• The replacement footer intentionally mirrors Pi's default footer around the requested stats line: cwd, git branch, session name, model/provider, reasoning level, and extension status lines are preserved. Model and reasoning are combined at the end as model/reasoning.
• Right after compaction, Pi may not know the current post-compaction token count until the next assistant response. In that case the footer shows ? tok.