pi-prompt-history

A Pi extension that restores a previous prompt with a fuzzy picker.

Use

• Press the configured shortcut (default Ctrl+R) at any time, or run /history. The picker opens inline in Pi's editor area so transcript images cannot cover it.
• Type to fuzzy-filter prompts from the current session's active branch. The most recently used prompt is listed first by default.
• Press Tab to cycle through This session → This workspace → Global. Workspace history includes saved sessions from the current working directory (plus the current session); global history includes every saved Pi session and the local history retained for ephemeral sessions. Workspace and global results show use count and last-used time. The first global search builds a local cache; later searches reuse it. Press Ctrl+G to rebuild that cache from the saved sessions.
• Use ↑ / ↓ to select a result, then Enter to put it back into Pi's editor.
• It only restores text; it does not submit the prompt.
• Esc or Ctrl+C dismisses the picker.

The search ranks in-order character matches and gives preference to consecutive and word-boundary matches. Repeated prompts appear once, prioritizing their most recent use. The global history is stored locally in ~/.pi/agent/pi-prompt-history-history.json; it starts collecting prompts after this version is installed.

Configure the shortcut

The default picker shortcut is Ctrl+R. To change it globally without editing the installed package, create ~/.pi/agent/pi-prompt-history.json:

{
  "shortcut": "alt+r",
  "globalHistoryLimit": 1000
}

The PI_PROMPT_HISTORY_SHORTCUT environment variable takes precedence for one Pi launch:

PI_PROMPT_HISTORY_SHORTCUT=alt+r pi

Use any Pi keybinding format (for example alt+r or ctrl+shift+r). If the selected key conflicts with a built-in Pi shortcut, Pi reports the conflict at startup and /history remains available.

Install

Install the v0.3.4 release from npm:

pi install npm:@light4/pi-prompt-history@0.3.4

Or install the same release from GitHub: pi install git:github.com/light4/pi-prompt-history@v0.3.4.

After changing the shortcut configuration, restart Pi or run /reload.

Install for local development

Pi auto-discovers an extension whose directory contains index.ts. Symlink this repository's source directory into the global extension directory:

ln -sfn /Users/chenyuanning/sources/pi-prompt-history/src \
  ~/.pi/agent/extensions/pi-prompt-history

Then start Pi or run /reload in an existing session.

For a one-off test without installing it globally:

pi -e /Users/chenyuanning/sources/pi-prompt-history/src/index.ts

Scope and privacy

The extension reads the active session, saved sessions for the current workspace or all workspaces, and maintains a local global-history cache at ~/.pi/agent/pi-prompt-history-history.json (including prompts from ephemeral sessions). It does not send prompt data over the network. Press Ctrl+G in the picker, or delete that file, to rebuild the cache from saved sessions.

Development

Run pnpm install, pnpm run typecheck, and pnpm test. The extension is TypeScript interpreted by Pi's extension loader and deliberately has no npm runtime dependencies. Test it manually by sending a few prompts, then invoking Ctrl+R or /history.

Release

Bump package.json and the install examples above, commit, and push a matching vX.Y.Z tag. Publish a GitHub Release for that tag; publish.yml verifies the version, runs checks, and publishes to npm with provenance via OIDC. No npm token is stored in GitHub.

One-time setup by the npm package owner (requires npm 11.19+ and 2FA):

npm trust github @light4/pi-prompt-history --repo light4/pi-prompt-history --file publish.yml --allow-publish --yes

If publishing fails, fix the cause and rerun the failed GitHub Actions job. Confirm both the GitHub Release and npm version before updating consumers.