pi-vscode

Minimal VS Code extension for pi coding agent.

Features

• Terminal-based — Opens pi as an integrated terminal with full TUI/PTY support (opens beside the editor)
• VS Code bridge — Bundles a pi extension and local bridge so pi can query live editor state
• Editor awareness — pi can inspect the active editor, current/latest selection, open editors, workspace folders, and VS Code diagnostics (LSP / lint / type errors)
• Live VS Code footer status — pi's terminal UI shows the active VS Code file, cursor/selection, language, dirty marker, and diagnostic counts in its bottom status area
• Status bar button — PI button in the status bar for quick access
• Open with file context — Send current file path and line range (or cursor position) to pi, available from the editor title bar
• Send selection — Send selected text directly to the pi terminal
• @pi chat participant — Use @pi in VS Code Chat for streamed RPC-backed replies while keeping the terminal workflow for normal Pi sessions
• Package manager — Browse, search, install, and uninstall pi packages from the sidebar with live output streaming and cancel support; automatically detects package capabilities (extensions, skills, prompts, themes)
• Auto-detection — Finds the pi binary automatically from common paths (~/.bun/bin, ~/.local/bin, ~/.npm-global/bin)

Requirements

• pi CLI installed (npm i -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent or bun i -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent)
• An API key configured for at least one provider

Install

Available on the VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX:

# VS Code / Cursor
ext install pi0.pi-vscode

# Open VSX (VSCodium, etc.)
ovsx get pi0.pi-vscode

Commands

Command	Keybinding	Description
Pi: Open	Ctrl+Alt+3	Open or focus the pi terminal
Pi: Open with File	Editor title bar	Open pi with current file context
Pi: Send Selection	—	Send selected text to pi terminal
Pi: Upgrade Pi and Packages	—	Find the pi binary, infer its package manager, upgrade pi globally, then run pi update

Sidebar

The Pi activity bar icon opens a sidebar with:

• Packages view — Search the npm registry for pi-package packages, see capability labels (extensions, skills, prompts, themes), install/uninstall with live streamed output, cancel in-progress operations, and use Upgrade Pi and Packages to upgrade the pi CLI plus installed pi packages from the sidebar

Bridge tools exposed to pi

Each pi terminal launched by the extension loads a bundled pi extension that can call back into live VS Code APIs. The same extension also updates pi's footer status every few seconds with the active VS Code file, cursor/selection, language id, unsaved-change marker, and diagnostic summary.

Inspection tools

Tool	What it returns
vscode_get_editor_state	Aggregate snapshot of workspace folders, active editor metadata, current selection, latest cached selection, and open editors
vscode_get_selection	Current editor selection including selected text, file path, and coordinates; falls back to the latest cached selection when pi terminal focus hides the active editor
vscode_get_latest_selection	Most recent cached selection seen by the extension, even if focus already moved
vscode_get_diagnostics	VS Code diagnostics for a specific file or the whole workspace
vscode_get_open_editors	Visible/open file editors with language, dirty state, and active flag
vscode_get_workspace_folders	Workspace folders for the current VS Code window
vscode_get_document_symbols	Outline symbols for a file from the active language server
vscode_get_definitions	Symbol definition locations at a given file position
vscode_get_type_definitions	Symbol type-definition locations at a given file position
vscode_get_implementations	Concrete implementation locations for an interface or abstract member
vscode_get_declarations	Symbol declaration locations at a given file position
vscode_get_hover	Hover docs, inferred types, signatures, and markdown/code snippets from the language server
vscode_get_workspace_symbols	Global workspace symbol search through VS Code language providers
vscode_get_references	Symbol references at a given file position
vscode_get_code_actions	Available code actions / quick fixes for a selection or explicit range, plus intersecting diagnostics
vscode_get_notifications	Buffered bridge events such as selection, editor, diagnostics, save, and dirty-state changes

Action tools

Tool	What it does
vscode_open_file	Opens a file in VS Code and can reveal/select a range
vscode_check_document_dirty	Checks whether a file is open and whether it has unsaved changes
vscode_save_document	Saves a document through VS Code
vscode_execute_code_action	Executes a previously returned code action by actionId
vscode_apply_workspace_edit	Applies explicit range-based text replacements through VS Code so open buffers stay synchronized
vscode_format_document	Runs the active document formatter for a file and applies the resulting edits through VS Code
vscode_format_range	Runs the active range formatter for a selection/range and applies the resulting edits
vscode_clear_notifications	Clears the buffered bridge notification queue
vscode_show_notification	Shows an info, warning, or error notification inside VS Code

Notes

• Paths accepted by file-based bridge tools can be absolute or workspace-relative.
• vscode_get_code_actions accepts either selection or explicit start / end positions.
• vscode_execute_code_action only works with an actionId returned by the most recent vscode_get_code_actions calls while that cached entry still exists.
• vscode_apply_workspace_edit applies one or more { filePath, range, newText } replacements via VS Code rather than editing files behind the editor's back.
• vscode_format_range accepts either selection or explicit start / end positions.
• vscode_format_document / vscode_format_range use VS Code formatting providers and apply formatter-generated TextEdit[] results with workspace.applyEdit, which is safer for open or dirty buffers than shelling out.
• vscode_get_selection falls back to the latest cached VS Code selection when focus is in the pi terminal and VS Code reports no active text editor.
• vscode_get_notifications supports since and limit parameters for incremental polling.
• Oversized bridge tool results are capped; when a response exceeds the limit, the tool returns a valid JSON wrapper with truncated: true, original size metadata, and a resultJsonPrefix preview.

These bridge tools let pi inspect selections, diagnostics, symbols, definitions, declarations, implementations, hover/type info, workspace-wide symbol search, references, quick-fix availability, dirty state, and recent IDE events, while also safely opening files, saving buffers, applying workspace edits, formatting open buffers through VS Code providers, running VS Code code actions, and surfacing notifications back to the user.

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
pi-vscode.path	""	Absolute path to the pi binary (auto-detected if empty)

On Windows, an extensionless pi-vscode.path is auto-probed for .cmd/.exe/.ps1 variants so extensionless npm shims work out of the box.