@timmyjl12/pi-statusline

Powerline statusline footer for the pi coding agent — built-in themes, a spacious full layout that spreads across the whole terminal width, and an airy grouped multiline layout. Based on @narumitw/pi-statusline, with ideas from @yorch/pi-statusbar (theme-token auto mode, rich git/PR/context segments, presets, Nerd Font detection) and feniix/pi-statusline (live activity + skill tracking, throttled rerenders, statusline tool).

multiline: 🌣 anthropic  model  🧠 high                          devbox  ◷ 12m  🕒 14:32
           🔢 ↑12k ↓1.8k  📦 R200k W23k CH85.0%  42.0%/200k     Act: running
           💸 $0.0043  /workspace/project  ⎇feature/statusline  ✎ c921a07 Add thing
           🧭 advisor: ON · 🔌 MCP: 3 servers enabled

Install

pi install npm:@timmyjl12/pi-statusline

Or try it without installing:

pi -e npm:@timmyjl12/pi-statusline

Local development (from this repository's root):

npm run check   # typecheck + tests
npm run preview # render every layout with fixture data

If Pi loads this local folder, run /reload after editing it. At a normal terminal width, the first multiline row should show 🌣 <active provider> before the model; compare it with /model after switching providers.

Layouts

Layout	Shape	Idea
minimal	1 line	provider · model · cwd · branch · context
compact	1 line	provider · model · git · cost · context + session clock
default	1 line	full telemetry, dense (yorch-style)
full	1 spacious line across the whole width	identity left, telemetry right, justified to the edges with generous padding — easiest single-line read
multiline (default)	3 rows, plus optional fourth	provider/model/thinking + session; tokens/cache/context + tools/activity; cost + full directory/git/longer commit; extension statuses (e.g. pi-advisor) when available

Built-in presets show the active provider before the model when space permits; custom segments lists must include provider explicitly. Rows that overflow the terminal width shed their lowest-priority segments first (context and cache are kept longest, then model, tools, activity, tokens, and cost); a row that cannot fit even one segment renders empty rather than over-wide.

Themes

auto (default) · tokyo-night · ocean · sunset · forest · candy · neon · mono · custom.

auto follows pi's active theme via theme tokens (re-skins with Tokyo Night, light, or any custom theme). custom reads per-block hex colors from customBlocks, or per-segment segmentPalette colors. Set "transparentBackground": true to keep custom foregrounds while painting no backgrounds.

Working indicator

The animation pi shows in the editor's top border while it works, plus the footer's working… icon, are configurable. Defaults keep the original pulse. /statusline indicator lists the animals first, then the regular modes; picking an animal asks how it should animate (dance, pulse, breathing, or static — and the penguin then asks for its rendering style).

Mode	Look
pulse (default)	the original · • ● • heartbeat dot — or, with an animal, dots beating around it (·🐧· ●🐧●, the pulsing penguin)
dance	an animal traversing the line with alternating music notes — the penguin can dance as the 🐧 emoji, as classic ASCII poses (choreography derived frame-by-frame from a real dancing GIF), or as a custom font glyph (see below); other animals are emoji
breathing	a slow breath: dots spread and brighten around the animal on the inhale (· 🐧 · ↔ · 🐧 ·)
static	the animal, once — no animation
dot	a single . sweeping left ↔ right
scanner	a ▓ block dragging a fading ▒░ trail, ping-pong
equalizer	a scrolling ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ audio wave
orbit	rotating ◐◓◑◒
moon	lunar phases 🌑→🌘
ecg	heartbeat ♥♥♡ rhythm
clock	spinning 🕐→🕛
dice	rolling ⚀→⚅

Subjects: auto (default — each mode's own subject: plain dots for the abstract modes, penguin for dance, breathing, and static) · penguin · dog · cat · otter · duck · frog · fox · panda · crab · snail · turtle · unicorn. Animals apply to dance, pulse, breathing, and static.

Message: working (default — pi's trailing Working text) · none (hides the border message and the footer's working… suffix; the transient interrupt hint still reappears when pi needs it).

Colors: auto (per-mode theme defaults) · a theme token (accent, success, warning, error, dim, muted) · a custom #RRGGBB (truecolor with ANSI-256 fallback). The color applies to the top-line frames and the footer's working icon. Emoji frames (moon, clock, emoji animals) keep their native colors — terminals ignore ANSI color on emoji.

Where things appear: during a turn, the editor's top border shows the animated frame next to pi's Working message (the penguin walks the line doing its pose cycle), while the footer's status segment shows a single static icon (🐧 working… when dancing; ✓ done when the turn completes).

Custom penguin glyph

/statusline penguin glyph renders the penguin as a single character (U+E900) patched into your terminal font — crisp at any size, and ANSI-colorable (it follows color, unlike emoji). It needs a one-time font setup on your machine:

python tools/penguin-font.py <your-terminal-font.ttf> <penguin.gif> --out-dir out

Install the output font and select it as your terminal font (e.g. in Windows Terminal settings), then /statusline penguin glyph. Without the patched font, U+E900 renders as a missing-glyph box — so this style is machine-local, not something the package can ship. The tool traces the GIF's alpha mask to TrueType outlines (monochrome silhouette); regenerate src/penguin.ts poses from the same GIF with tools/penguin-gif-frames.py.

Traversal modes re-fit their span when the terminal resizes (frames are regenerated live). Regenerate the penguin poses from any GIF with python tools/penguin-gif-frames.py <gif> --out src/penguin.ts (requires Pillow).

Commands

• /statusline — open a themed settings menu (no args); selecting a setting opens its choices. Type a subcommand to jump directly to its choices, or press Tab for argument completions: theme <name> · layout <name> · directory <auto|full|short> · separator <name> · density <name> · nerd <on|off|auto> · context <percent|remaining|used> · contextbar <on|off> · pr|skill|activity <on|off> · indicator <animal|mode> · animal <auto|name> · message <working|none> · color <auto|token|#RRGGBB> · penguin <emoji|ascii|glyph> · import-legacy · status · settings · help
• /footer — alias for /statusline

The extension also registers a statusline model tool that returns the current statusline text (handy for scripting and non-UI sessions).

Settings

One dedicated file, global + project merge (project wins):

• global: <agentDir>/timmyjl12_pi_statusline/config.json
• project: <cwd>/.pi/timmyjl12_pi_statusline/config.json

The old <agentDir>/pi-statusline.json belongs to another extension and is never read or overwritten at runtime. Use /statusline import-legacy (or python.exe tools/import_legacy_config.py from this repo) to copy its supported customizations into this package's settings while keeping the active multiline default. Run /statusline to change settings; the folder and file are created on the first successful change.

{
	"theme": "auto",
	"layout": "multiline",
	"directoryMode": "auto",
	"density": "cozy",
	"separator": "none",
	"nerd": null,
	"contextBar": true,
	"contextMode": "percent",
	"indicator": "pulse",
	"indicatorAnimal": "auto",
	"indicatorMessage": "working",
	"indicatorColor": "auto",
	"penguinStyle": "emoji",
	"showPr": true,
	"showSkill": true,
	"showActivity": true,
	"transparentBackground": false
}

Optional legacy-compatible settings: segmentText (per-segment prefix, suffix, and model truncation), extensionStatusIcons (status key → icon, with exact → wildcard → alias → * precedence), icons (base icon glyphs), and segmentPalette (per-segment fg/bg; bg: "transparent" is supported).

directoryMode: "auto" shows the full directory path in multiline and a shortened path in other layouts; "full" or "short" overrides either.

Custom layouts use segments with "line_break" row splits (sets layout: "custom" unless an explicit preset layout is also given):

{
	"layout": "custom",
	"segments": ["model", "cwd", "branch", "line_break", "context", "tokens", "time"]
}

customBlocks selects the custom theme:

{
	"theme": "custom",
	"customBlocks": {
		"header": { "fg": "#090c0c", "bg": "#a3aed2" },
		"meter": { "fg": "#a0a9cb", "bg": "#1d2230" }
	}
}

Nerd Font icons auto-detect iTerm / WezTerm / Kitty / Ghostty / Alacritty (and Ghostty inside tmux); override with "nerd": true|false or STATUSLINE_NERD_FONTS=1/0. When no Nerd Font is detected, the powerline and round separators automatically fall back to dots (the half-circle glyphs only exist in Nerd Fonts, so any other font shows boxes).

Debugging

Only settings inside the package-specific folder apply. Unsupported keys in that folder's config.json are listed by /statusline status; malformed files produce a session-start warning. The old pi-statusline.json is ignored.

Silent by default. To trace failures (subprocesses, settings loads, footer lifecycle), enable debug logging — logs go to stderr, never stdout:

PI_STATUSLINE_DEBUG=1 pi

Lines look like [pi-statusline:git] <timestamp> <message> {"json"}. User-visible problems additionally surface in /statusline status and as notification toasts.

Segments

brand · provider · model · thinking (shown once) · cwd (full/contracted by directory mode) · path (same directory mode) · branch · git (worktree ⁺, conflicts ⚑, ⇡ahead ⇣behind, +staged ~modified ?untracked) · diff (unstaged lines added/deleted) · stash (saved stash entries) · commit (shortSha + longer subject) · remote (host/owner/repo) · pr (clickable #n via gh, draft-aware) · tools (active built-in/extension/MCP tool + fan-out count and cumulative uses N) · activity (Act: thinking|responding|bash x2|idle) · skill (last explicit skill) · context (eighth-block bar + percent/remaining/used, warns >70%, errors >90%) · tokens (↑↓ +/min rate) · cache (R + W + CH%) · cost (adaptive precision) · time · session (elapsed) · hostname · turn · worktree · statuses (other extensions).

Git state refreshes on events (session start, prompt submit, agent end, file-mutating tool calls, model change), debounced and coalesced, plus a slow 20 s fallback. Rendering itself never spawns a process. Every git call runs with optional locks disabled (--no-optional-locks, GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0), so it cannot contend with your own git add/commit for index.lock. Only the git fields the active layout shows are fetched. PR state uses a 5 min TTL. Footer rerenders are throttled to ~100ms during streaming, and settings files are re-checked by async mtime at most every 5 s.

Attribution

• Base design, palettes, responsive fitting, dedicated settings file: @narumitw/pi-statusline (MIT).
• Theme-token mode, rich git/PR/context segments, presets, nerd detection, working indicator: @yorch/pi-statusbar (MIT).
• Live activity/skill tracking, throttled scheduler, statusline tool: feniix/pi-extensions pi-statusline (MIT).

License

MIT — see LICENSE.