@timmyjl12/pi-paste

Keeps large pastes out of model context. When you paste a large blob into the pi TUI, pi-paste offers to attach it as a local markdown file instead of inlining it — so the model gets a short file reference it can read on demand, not a 100 KB paste.

pi-paste is a Pi extension that intercepts large interactive pastes on the public input event and presents a "Paste as-is" vs. "Attach as markdown" choice, modeled on the large-paste menu in oh-my-pi and built on the stable patterns of pi-pasteboard.

How it works

When you submit input in the TUI that is large (≥ 64 KiB or ≥ 100 lines by default), pi-paste shows a selector:

• Paste as-is — deliver the input to the agent unchanged (the default pi behavior).
• Attach as markdown — write the text to a private local .md file and replace the prompt with a short reference to that file.

The choice is a convenience, never a gate: pressing Esc (or choosing "Paste as-is") delivers the original text, and any error fails open so your input is never lost.

Example

You paste 500 lines of logs. Instead of inlining them, the model receives:

Pasted content saved to C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\Temp\pi-paste\<session>\paste-1.md. Read that file if needed; do not ask the user to paste it again.

and can read the file on demand.

Install

pi install npm:@timmyjl12/pi-paste

For one run without installing:

pi -e npm:@timmyjl12/pi-paste

The package manifest exposes ./index.ts as a Pi extension.

Configuration

All settings are environment variables.

An input triggers the choice when its UTF-8 byte length ≥ PI_PASTE_MIN_BYTES or its line count ≥ PI_PASTE_MIN_LINES.

Safety notes

• Attachment files are written with mode 0600 (owner-only) under a root created with mode 0700. This guarantee is enforced on POSIX; on Windows, access is governed by the inherited per-user temp ACL rather than mode bits.
• Writes are atomic (temp file + rename) and the file mode is enforced with chmod so a permissive umask cannot widen it.
• The per-session counter is derived from existing files, so an extension reload mid-session resumes instead of overwriting paste-1.md.
• Paste content is written only to local files. Nothing is sent to any external service, and only the file reference enters the prompt — never the paste contents.
• Expired per-session directories are removed best-effort on session_start (TTL, default 7 days). The live session's directory is never cleaned.
• The extension loads in all four pi modes (tui, rpc, json, print); the choice is offered only in tui mode. In other modes, input passes through unchanged.

Bypass logic

The choice is not offered when the input is:

• not in TUI mode (rpc / json / print);
• extension-sourced or non-interactive;
• a steering message (streamingBehavior === "steer");
• carrying images;
• below both size thresholds.

Slash (/), bang (!), and likely @-file-reference heuristics apply only below the size thresholds. They detect hand-typed prompts; scanning a large paste for them would misfire on ordinary content — git-diff @@ hunk headers, @decorator lines, comment blocks starting with /** — and silently skip exactly the pastes this extension exists to intercept. Large interactive input always offers the choice.

Development

npm run typecheck # TypeScript compilation check
npm run lint      # ESLint
npm run format    # Prettier
npm test          # node:test unit tests
npm run check     # all of the above (typecheck && lint && format:check && test)

License

MIT — see LICENSE.