Pi Agent Board

30s demo | Pi package gallery | npm

Pi Agent Board is a full-screen TUI dashboard for Pi that manages durable background Pi sessions. Use one global board to dispatch work across projects, watch progress, triage summaries and evidence, reply without opening a transcript, and attach to a real interactive session when hands-on work is needed.

What It Does

• Run several Pi tasks at once without losing track of their current state.
• Keep each task as a real, resumable Pi session that survives /reload, closing Pi, or restarting the terminal.
• Triage the latest output, blockers, evidence, and diagnostics before opening a full transcript.
• Reply to a session without attaching; replies sent while a session is busy are preserved for later delivery.
• Fall back to a JSON runner for eligible background work when live PTY support is unavailable.

Write-safety note: Worktree isolation is currently disabled. Multiple sessions in the same repository may run concurrently, so avoid overlapping writes or provide your own isolation.

Requirements

• Pi installed and working.
• Node.js 20 or newer.
• Working Pi provider authentication for real model execution. Agent Board does not have a separate login or credential store.
• PTY support from node-pty for live attach and start & attach. Background work can use a JSON-runner fallback when PTY support is unavailable.

If rows remain in Running, first verify that Pi itself can complete a one-shot model call:

pi --mode json -p --no-session "Reply with exactly: DONE"

A healthy command emits an assistant message_end, then an agent_end event, and exits. See VERIFY.md for the complete no-auth, provider-auth, and PTY checks.

Install

Published package

pi install npm:@zhuxixi/pi-agent-board

Start Pi normally and run /agent-board, or use one of the startup entry points below.

Local checkout

npm install
pi install "$(pwd)"

This installs the current checkout as a Pi package. Remove that path installation with:

pi remove "$(pwd)"

Development auto-discovery

To have Pi load the checkout directly while developing:

ln -s "$(pwd)" ~/.pi/agent/extensions/agent-board
pi

Remove the symlink when you no longer want Pi to auto-load the checkout:

rm ~/.pi/agent/extensions/agent-board

Quick Start

Open the board with /agent-board inside Pi, then:

1. Press i to enter INSERT mode.
2. Type a task.
3. Press Enter to open the Start session dialog.
4. Review or change the working directory (cwd), model, thinking level, and action.
5. Press Enter on Start session to launch the task.

With a draft in the input, Enter opens Start session; with an empty input, Enter attaches/resumes the selected session. The row starts in Queued, then moves through Running to a terminal state such as Needs answer, Needs instructions, Done, Failed, or Stopped.

From the board:

• Press Space to peek at the selected session's summary, blocker, and latest output.
• In Peek, press r to reply without attaching.
• Press v for a read-only transcript, or e for evidence and diagnostics.
• Press Enter, Right, or > to attach to the real Pi session.
• In PTY attach mode, press Ctrl+Left to return to the board at any time (even mid-draft), or Ctrl+\ — the unconditional escape: it detaches regardless of editor state on any terminal that forwards the raw 0x1c byte (raw, kitty, and modifyOtherKeys keyboard modes all work). Left detaches only while the child Pi reports an empty editor; otherwise (draft, or unknown editor state) it is forwarded to the child. Ctrl+] is not a detach key — it is passed through to the child Pi editor. When the host is disconnected, Left always exits. Ctrl+\ caveats: on keyboard layouts where \ sits on AltGr (e.g. German) the chord may never produce the byte — use Ctrl+Left there; in legacy keyboard modes Ctrl+4 emits the same byte and also detaches; and the key is captured from the child while attached, so the child's own Ctrl+\ binding (e.g. the vim terminal-mode prefix) is unavailable. Automatic themes also resolve correctly in attach sessions: the child's background probe (OSC 11) and color-scheme change notifications are forwarded to your real terminal, replies flow back to the child when your terminal answers, and attach re-probes the background once when it settles so the theme is right from the first frame. Set AGENT_BOARD_FORWARD_TERMINAL_QUERIES=0 to disable this (default on); keyboard-protocol negotiation (kitty/DA) is not forwarded — it happens once at child spawn, before attach exists. Ctrl+X opens an in-place delete confirm: press y (or Enter) to archive the row and return to the board with the next row selected — any other key cancels and is passed through to the session. While attached, the child Pi's own Ctrl+X bindings (copy in /tree and fullscreen, clear-all in the models dialog) are captured by this gesture.

Dashboard Workflow

The dashboard has two input modes:

• Normal mode owns dashboard shortcuts such as navigation, peek, attach, and filtering.
• INSERT mode owns text editing. Press i before typing or pasting a task; / is literal while editing a prompt.

When you submit a task, the Start session dialog lets you review:

• cwd: an existing-directory picker with usage-ranked favorites, filesystem browsing, and Tab completion;
• model: models available to Pi, including models scoped by the current directory's Pi settings;
• thinking: a level supported by the selected model;
• action: start in background or start & attach.

Launch preferences are persisted and reused for later sessions. Start & attach requires PTY support; if PTY is unavailable, Agent Board launches the session in the background and shows a warning instead.

Session actions are deliberately confirmation-aware:

• d confirms moving an inactive session to Done. Manual completion is the default.
• h toggles the on-hold state (manual verdict — automated writers are fenced).
• Press x, then y to confirm deleting the selected row. Ctrl+X twice quickly still deletes without confirmation. Archiving removes the row from the board but preserves its underlying Pi session file.
• X archives inactive rows in the selected state; live work is skipped.
• m enters multi-select mode. Use Space to toggle rows, a to select all visible rows, u to clear the selection, d to mark inactive rows Done, or Ctrl+X to delete selected Done rows.

Views and Actions

Shortcuts are scoped to the view where they are available:

Main list

Key	Action
Up / Down	Move the selection.
i	Enter INSERT mode for a new task.
Enter	Open Start session for a draft, or attach/resume when the input is empty.
Right / >	Attach to the selected session.
Space	Open Peek.
v	Open the read-only transcript.
e	Open Evidence / Diagnostics.
/	Enter filter mode.
Ctrl+N	Enter INSERT mode with a pre-filled hello prompt; press Enter to open the Start session dialog.
Ctrl+R	Rename the selected session.
Ctrl+T	Pin or unpin the selected session.
Ctrl+S	Stop the selected active session.
d	Confirm marking the selected inactive session Done.
h	Hold or unhold the selected inactive session.
x, then y	Archive/delete the selected row (confirmation prompt).
Ctrl+X twice quickly	Archive/delete the selected row without confirmation.
X	Delete inactive rows in the selected state.
m	Enter multi-select mode.
!	Open node-pty diagnostics and repair hints.
?	Open the help overlay.
Esc	Clear a draft, or exit when the input is empty.

Peek

Peek shows the selected session's summary, blocker or question, latest output, and available issue/PR references.

Key	Action
r or Enter	Enter reply mode; type a follow-up and press Enter to send it without attaching.
a, Right, or >	Attach to the session.
v	Open the read-only transcript.
e	Open Evidence / Diagnostics.
d	Confirm marking the inactive session Done.
h	Hold or unhold the session.
Up / Down	Move to the previous or next session.
Esc	Return to the main list.

When a Pi question or questionnaire tool is pending, inline reply is rejected; attach to answer that interactive question in the real Pi session.

Transcript

The v view is a read-only projection of the durable Pi session JSONL. It does not interrupt a running worker.

Key	Action
Up / Down	Scroll one line.
PageUp / PageDown	Scroll one page.
Space	Open Peek.
r	Enter reply mode.
Enter or a	Attach to the session.
e	Open Evidence / Diagnostics.
d	Confirm marking the inactive session Done.
h	Hold or unhold the session.
Left / Esc / <	Return to the main list.

Evidence / Diagnostics

The e view shows durable session evidence, including changed files, commands and their outcomes, command output previews, assistant evidence, errors, diagnostics, and artifact paths. Press x to clear diagnostics while preserving the evidence artifacts.

Key	Action
Up / Down	Scroll one line.
PageUp / PageDown	Scroll one page.
r	Enter reply mode.
v	Open the read-only transcript.
Enter, a, or Right	Attach to the session.
x	Clear diagnostics; evidence is preserved.
Left / Esc / <	Return to the main list.

PTY attach

PTY attach opens the real interactive Pi session. Ctrl+Left detaches and returns to the board regardless of editor state, and Ctrl+\ is the unconditional escape — a single raw ASCII byte (0x1c) that terminals forward unchanged in raw mode (kitty CSI-u and modifyOtherKeys encodings included), honored no matter what the child editor reports. Left detaches only while the child Pi reports an empty editor; while you are editing text — or when the child's editor state is unknown (e.g. the child extension is missing) — Left is forwarded to the Pi editor. A disconnected host can always be exited with Left. Ctrl+] is not a detach key — it is passed through to the child Pi editor. Ctrl+\ caveats: on keyboard layouts where \ sits on AltGr (e.g. German) the chord may never produce the byte — use Ctrl+Left there; in legacy keyboard modes Ctrl+4 emits the same byte and also detaches; and the key is captured from the child while attached, so the child's own Ctrl+\ binding (e.g. the vim terminal-mode prefix) is unavailable. While attached, PageUp, PageDown, Home, End, and the mouse wheel scroll local scrollback; whenever that viewport cannot move — the session holds the alternate screen (pi's fullscreen default), or there is no local history to travel — the wheel is forwarded to the session instead, which scrolls its own transcript: the same fallback the paging keys use. The attach viewport only scrolls scrollback the hosted session actually produced: rows that a snapshot hydration had to scroll out of the local window are not history, and the wheel is forwarded to the session instead of consuming those rows. Mouse drag or double-click selects and copies text, clicks open detected links, and middle-click paste is available on systems with the required X11 tooling. Ctrl+X opens an in-place delete confirm: press y (or Enter) to archive the row and return to the board with the next row selected — any other key cancels and is passed through to the session. While attached, the child Pi's own Ctrl+X bindings (copy in /tree and fullscreen, clear-all in the models dialog) are captured by this gesture.

Automatic light/dark themes work in attach sessions too. The child Pi's background-color probe (OSC 11) and its color-scheme change notification switch are forwarded to your real terminal; replies and notifications flow back to the child when your terminal answers — a terminal that never answers keeps the dark fallback. Attach also re-probes the background once when it settles, so the theme is correct from the first frame without re-selecting it in /settings. All of this is on by default; set AGENT_BOARD_FORWARD_TERMINAL_QUERIES=0 to disable it. Not covered: keyboard-protocol negotiation (kitty flags / DA1) is not forwarded — the child negotiates once at spawn, before any attach client exists, and forwarding it would retune the shared real-terminal keyboard stack — so modifier-key encoding can still differ from a directly-run Pi (the modifyOtherKeys fallback applies).

The attach surface can forward terminal clipboard and image/file passthrough sequences. These behaviors can be disabled individually in Configuration. Cold hosts may briefly show a loading/reconnect surface while their PTY becomes ready.

States, Grouping, and Filters

Agent Board separates a session's semantic task state from whether a worker process is currently alive. An exited worker can therefore leave a durable row that is still resumable or attachable.

Display state	Meaning
Queued	A run has been scheduled but has not started processing.
Running	The session is actively processing.
Needs answer	The session is waiting for user input or an answer to a question.
Needs instructions	The run ended without being marked complete and needs the next directive.
On hold	The user parked this session intentionally (manual verdict, h to toggle). Automated writers can't push it to Done; queued follow-ups do not wake it.
Done	The user marked the inactive session complete; this is the default completion path.
Failed	The worker or host ended with an error.
Stopped	The user stopped the active work.

Rows are grouped by state. When a state contains sessions from multiple directories, rows are grouped by folder within that state. Pinned rows and folders come first, then creation order remains stable; activity does not reshuffle the list. New agent activity is marked unread with stronger row glyphs and header/footer counts. Replies sent while a session is busy enter a durable FIFO follow-up queue and are delivered when the session is ready; a qN badge shows queued follow-ups.

Press / to enter filter mode. Filter tokens are case-insensitive and can be combined with free-text terms:

s:running
s:hold
review:ready
diag:stalled
evidence:error
queued:true
steer:awaiting-approval

• s:<state> matches a state prefix, including display-label aliases such as needs-answer.
• review:ready finds sessions with review-ready evidence.
• evidence:error finds sessions whose evidence contains errors.
• queued:true (also yes or 1) finds sessions with queued follow-ups.
• steer:<state> filters by a persisted steering state.
• Bare words match name, summary, and working directory; multiple words use AND matching.

diag:stalled can consume persisted stalled diagnostics, but the current runner does not provide a general provider-stall detector. It should not be read as a complete automatic stall-detection feature.

Evidence and Code References

Evidence is collected locally from session events. Agent Board can extract issue and pull-request references from that evidence and show badges such as #40 or ▸#45 on rows; Peek includes the provider, confidence, source, and URL when available. Built-in GitHub/GitLab-style providers are available, and an optional per-store providers.json can extend the provider rules. The AGENT_BOARD_CODE_REFS=off setting disables extraction.

For internal code platforms (non-github/gitlab hosts) or custom CLIs, add a per-store providers.json so claim/action rules exist and sessions stop depending on the low-confidence mention fallback. Example — an internal CLI (acli) with claim-strength issue rules:

{
  "providers": [
    {
      "name": "acode",
      "hosts": ["acode.internal.example.com"],
      "rules": [
        { "pattern": "acli\\s+issue\\s+update\\s+#?(\\d+)(?=[\\s\\S]*--assignee)", "kind": "issue", "strength": "claim" },
        { "pattern": "acli\\s+issue\\s+(?:note|comment|close)\\s+#?(\\d+)", "kind": "issue", "strength": "action" },
        { "pattern": "acli\\s+issue\\s+(?:show|view)\\s+#?(\\d+)", "kind": "issue", "strength": "view" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

hosts matches the repo's remote host; rules follow the same pattern/kind/strength shape as the built-in gh/glab tables (strength: claim > action > view), and the #N capture group supplies the number. Validation errors from a broken file surface in the diagnostics panel and never break extraction — an invalid file is simply ignored.

Attach and Fallback Behavior

When PTY support is healthy, Agent Board uses an interactive PTY host for attach and start-and-attach. If PTY support is unavailable, eligible managed sessions can still run in the background through the JSON runner; start-and-attach falls back to background launch with a warning. Adopted external foreground sessions require PTY to continue safely. Press ! in the dashboard for diagnosis and repair hints.

On Windows, PTY host control uses a named pipe and spawned child console windows are hidden. Terminal behavior can still vary between terminal emulators.

Entry Points

Entry point	What it does
/agent-board	Opens the dashboard from an interactive Pi session. Use this command path to attach to managed sessions.
pi /agent-board	Starts Pi by invoking the dashboard command. Quitting the standalone dashboard shuts down Pi instead of dropping into a normal chat session.
pi --agent-board	Opens the dashboard through the extension startup flag. This startup path cannot attach to a managed session; use /agent-board from a normal Pi session for attach.
/bg [prompt]	Adopts the current interactive Pi session into Agent Board. An optional prompt is added to its follow-up queue before the dashboard opens.

The board is global across projects by default. Rows are stored under ~/.pi/agent/agent-board/; archiving a row removes it from the board but preserves the underlying Pi session file.

Persistence, Safety, and Limitations

Agent Board stores its durable roster and per-session artifacts under ~/.pi/agent/agent-board/ by default. Set AGENT_BOARD_ROOT to use another location. The store includes the roster, launch preferences, per-session metadata and state, Pi session JSONL, run status/events, evidence, diagnostics, and (for PTY hosts) a replayable screen log.

Rows and session history survive Pi reloads, Pi restarts, and worker exits. When the dashboard opens, it reconciles stale runner or host records and keeps resumable sessions visible. Archiving a row removes it from the board but does not delete its underlying Pi session file.

Worktree isolation is currently disabled. Agent Board does not automatically create or manage Git worktrees. Multiple sessions in the same repository may run concurrently, so avoid overlapping writes or provide your own isolation before starting parallel coding tasks.

Other current limitations:

• Agent Board runs locally; it does not provide cloud execution, multi-user coordination, or shared dashboards.
• Real model output still depends on Pi provider authentication and network access.
• The --agent-board startup path opens the dashboard but cannot attach to a managed session; use /agent-board from a normal Pi session for attach.
• Pending Pi question or questionnaire tools must be answered in the attached interactive session; inline reply is rejected while one is pending.
• PTY-dependent features require a working node-pty installation. Background work can use the JSON-runner fallback when PTY is unavailable, but start & attach then becomes background-only.

Configuration

Set these variables before starting Pi. Model-backed features fall back gracefully where noted, so disabling them does not prevent the core dashboard from working.

Variable	Default / values	Purpose
AGENT_BOARD_ROOT	~/.pi/agent/agent-board/	Override the durable store location.
AGENT_BOARD_AUTO_STATE	enabled; off disables	Enable automatic terminal-state refinement after a turn.
AGENT_BOARD_AUTO_STATE_MODEL	gpt-4o; off uses heuristics	Model for classifying the terminal state of a finished turn.
AGENT_BOARD_AUTO_STATE_NO_DONE	unset = manual Done; 0, false, off, or no restores auto-Done	Keep completion manual by default, or restore automatic Done classification.
AGENT_BOARD_SUMMARY_MODEL	gpt-4o; off disables	Generate short row summaries. Heuristic summaries remain available as a fallback.
AGENT_BOARD_TITLE_MODEL	openai-codex/gpt-5.5; off disables	Generate a short session title after dispatch. The initial slug remains if generation fails.
AGENT_BOARD_TITLE_THINKING_LEVEL	low; off omits the option	Thinking level used by title generation.
AGENT_BOARD_CODE_REFS	enabled; off disables	Extract issue/PR badges from session evidence.
AGENT_BOARD_DISABLE_PTY	unset; 1 disables	Disable PTY host and attach mode.
AGENT_BOARD_FORCE_PTY	unset; 1 forces the PTY path	Force the PTY availability path when diagnosing or controlling fallback behavior.
AGENT_BOARD_ATTACH_MOUSE	enabled; 0, off, or false disables	Disable attach-view mouse handling and use terminal-native selection instead.
AGENT_BOARD_ENABLE_MOUSE_SCROLL	enabled; 0 disables	Compatibility switch to disable attach-view mouse scrolling.
AGENT_BOARD_WHEEL_LINES	1, clamped to 1..50	Lines scrolled per mouse-wheel notch in the attach view (regular TUI mode; in fullscreen the TUI's own wheel accelerator decides the line count).
AGENT_BOARD_MAX_WARM_HOSTS	4, clamped to 0..50	Maximum number of idle PTY hosts retained for faster attach.
AGENT_BOARD_WARM_HOST_TTL_MS	600000 (10 minutes); 0 disables TTL eviction	How long an idle warm host may remain before it is evicted.
AGENT_BOARD_ATTACH_NATIVE_PASTE	enabled; 0 disables	Disable X11 PRIMARY selection copy and middle-click paste integration.
AGENT_BOARD_FORWARD_OSC52	enabled; 0 disables	Disable OSC 52 clipboard sequence forwarding from an attached session.
AGENT_BOARD_FORWARD_IMAGES	enabled; 0 disables	Disable terminal image/file passthrough forwarding from an attached session.
AGENT_BOARD_IME_FIX	enabled; 0 disables	Disable the attach-view IME cursor coalescer if your terminal has compatibility problems.
AGENT_BOARD_TERMINAL_SNAPSHOT	enabled; 0 forces legacy	Force the pre-phase-4 attach path (screen.log replay + jiggle); escape hatch / rollback switch for the snapshot+subscribe attach protocol.
AGENT_BOARD_REPLY_GUARD	enabled; 0, off, or false disables	Discard terminal reply fragments (device attributes, kitty flags, cell size, DCS) that pi-tui delivers as input, and forward color replies whole. While a reply head is open, up to 64 bytes / 250ms of following input is absorbed.

AGENT_BOARD_TERMINAL_SNAPSHOT=0 routes attach onto the legacy fallback family: the screen.log replay tail plus the shrink-and-hold jiggle redraw. These paths exist only for pre-protocol runners and as a rollback hatch — they are not part of the snapshot+subscribe protocol path (issue #91 phase 4). They will be retired once the installed runner fleet is on the snapshot protocol baseline (detectable on the wire via hello protocol fields).

Older AGENT_VIEW_* names are still read in selected compatibility paths. Prefer AGENT_BOARD_* for new setups. Internal child markers are managed by Agent Board and are not user settings.

The providers.json file under the configured store root can extend the built-in issue/PR reference providers; see the Evidence and Code References section for the feature overview.

Troubleshooting

Rows stay in Running

First verify that Pi itself can complete a one-shot model call:

pi --mode json -p --no-session "Reply with exactly: DONE"

The command should emit an assistant reply, then an agent_end event, and exit. If it hangs before the assistant reply, fix Pi provider authentication or network access first. Agent Board cannot produce live model results until Pi works independently.

node-pty unavailable

Press ! in the dashboard to open the diagnostic panel and follow its repair hints. Common causes include a missing native node-pty binary, a Node/architecture mismatch, a missing or non-executable macOS spawn-helper, or macOS quarantine. You can temporarily set AGENT_BOARD_DISABLE_PTY=1 to use background JSON-runner behavior where supported.

Attach is slow or keeps reconnecting

A cold PTY host may briefly show a loading or reconnecting surface while it starts. Check the PTY status in the dashboard with !; stale hosts are diagnosed separately from active task workers. If the host never becomes healthy, repair node-pty or use background mode for eligible managed sessions.

IME candidate window is stuck at the window edge (Windows WezTerm)

On Windows WezTerm with a WSL2 backend, the IME candidate window may stay pinned to the right edge instead of following the text cursor in an attached session. Windows WezTerm only tracks the IME candidate position from the visible hardware cursor, and Pi hides the hardware cursor by default — the block cursor you see in the editor is drawn content, not the hardware cursor. Linux terminals are not affected.

Make the hardware cursor visible, either way:

export PI_HARDWARE_CURSOR=1    # machine-local, e.g. ~/.zshrc.local

or set "showHardwareCursor": true in Pi's settings.json (syncs across machines if the config is version-controlled; harmless on Linux).

Trade-off: the real terminal cursor becomes visible inside the TUI. This is cosmetic only.

Start & attach falls back to background

Start & attach requires PTY support. When PTY is unavailable, the task is still dispatched in the background and the dashboard displays a warning. Repair PTY and retry attach from the normal /agent-board command path.

Inline reply is rejected

A pending Pi question or questionnaire requires the real interactive session. Attach to the row and answer it there; ordinary replies can be sent from Peek and are queued while a session is busy.

Sessions in the same repository conflict

Worktree isolation is not enabled. Stop overlapping writers, separate their working directories, or create and manage Git worktrees yourself before running concurrent coding tasks.

See VERIFY.md for no-auth checks, extension loading checks, provider checks, persistence checks, and the manual dashboard flow.

Development

For local development:

npm install
npm run verify

npm run verify runs typecheck, the perf gate (npm run test:perf), tests, coverage, and a package dry-run. The A11 perf assertions are opt-in — they skip under npm test / npm run test:coverage and only measure via npm run test:perf (issue #121). The same checks run in CI on Node 22 and Node 24. See VERIFY.md for the full verification checklist and known environment-dependent limitations.

Publishing

Releases run through scripts/release.mjs and are published by CI when a GitHub Release is created. The flow checks the parts that are easy to get wrong — the changelog range, tag ancestry against main, and drift from a late merge — instead of assuming them. See docs/RELEASE.md for the full process, the one-time npm trusted-publisher setup, and failure recovery.

node scripts/release.mjs precheck          # gate: clean main, nothing in flight
node scripts/release.mjs prepare minor     # changelog + verify + bump + tag + release branch
node scripts/release.mjs open-pr 0.9.0     # push the branch and tag, open the release PR
# merge the PR with a merge commit, then:
node scripts/release.mjs finish 0.9.0      # GitHub Release → CI publishes to npm

After publishing, users install the scoped package with:

pi install npm:@zhuxixi/pi-agent-board

The Pi package gallery uses the pi.video and pi.image URLs from package.json.

Further Reading

• Manual verification — static checks, Pi loading, provider authentication, persistence, and dashboard flows.
• Release process — release commands, trusted publishing setup, and failure recovery.
• Product requirements — original product scope and design context.
• Progress log — implementation checkpoints and known environment notes.
• Exploration notes — Pi API and integration research.