pi-deepseek-hours

DeepSeek peak/off-peak billing hours footer indicator for the Pi coding agent.

Shows whether DeepSeek API usage is currently billed at the peak rate or the off-peak rate (50% off), with a live countdown to the next transition. The schedule comes straight from DeepSeek's official pricing docs:

"Off-peak rates are half of the peak rates. Peak hours are 01:00 - 04:00 and 06:00 - 10:00 UTC, Monday through Friday (all other hours are off-peak)." — https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing

Rate card (Flash series) — effective 12:00 Beijing time, 2026-09-10, off-peak unit prices are $0.003 / 1M input tokens (cache hits), $0.15 / 1M input tokens (cache misses) and $0.6 / 1M output tokens; peak-hour prices are double the off-peak rates. The peak/off-peak schedule above is unchanged.

Install

# install from npm
pi install npm:pi-deepseek-hours

# or copy the single file into your global extensions dir
cp src/deepseek-hours.ts ~/.pi/agent/extensions/

Then /reload (or restart).

Usage

The indicator appears in the footer only while a DeepSeek model is the active provider (provider id deepseek). Switch models and it follows automatically.

Command	Effect
/deepseek-hours	Toggle the badge on/off (persisted)
/deepseek-hours badge	Colored status in the built-in footer (default)
/deepseek-hours full	Deprecated alias for badge; the built-in footer already shows other extensions' statuses next to the badge
/deepseek-hours off	No indicator
/deepseek-hours status	Print the current window state as plain text, plus the Flash rate card (e.g. for a quick check or to share with the model)
/deepseek-hours mode	Show the current mode (persisted or default)
/deepseek-hours mode badge|full|off	Set the mode and persist it across restarts
/deepseek-hours mode reset	Back to the default (badge), clears persistence

The mode set via any command above is persisted to ~/.pi/agent/deepseek-hours/mode.json and re-applied on the next session start (/reload included), so the choice survives restarts. full is still accepted and a persisted full still loads, but it always renders as badge (selecting it keeps writing full to the state file). The badge appears in the built-in footer — including Pi 1.0's fullscreen footer dock — alongside other extensions' statuses, so the old custom-footer mode is no longer needed.

What it shows

• OFF-PEAK (green): DSK off-peak (-50%) · next peak 01:00 UTC in 42m
• PEAK (amber): DSK peak (2× off-peak) · off-peak 10:00 UTC in 3h 12m
• Weekend: DSK off-peak (-50%) · next peak Mon 01:00 UTC in 1d

/deepseek-hours status appends the current rate card, with peak prices derived (2× off-peak) in code:

DeepSeek PEAK (2× off-peak rate) · next off-peak 04:00 UTC in 2h · now 02:00 UTC (Mon) · Flash (per 1M tokens): off-peak $0.003 / $0.15 / $0.6 · peak $0.006 / $0.3 / $1.2

• Non-UTC schedules are labeled local instead of UTC; transitions on a later day are prefixed with the weekday.

The countdown refreshes every 30 seconds; the badge only updates when its text actually changes.

Configuration (optional env vars)

The official schedule is hardcoded by default; everything is overridable for schedule changes and testing:

Env var	Meaning	Default
DEEPSEEK_PEAK_WINDOWS	Comma-separated HH:MM-HH:MM peak windows in the schedule timezone	01:00-04:00,06:00-10:00
DEEPSEEK_UTC_OFFSET	Hours added to UTC for the schedule timezone (e.g. 8 for Beijing)	0 (official schedule is UTC)
DEEPSEEK_PROVIDER_IDS	Comma-separated provider ids to match	deepseek
DEEPSEEK_FLASH_RATES	Off-peak Flash unit prices, USD per 1M tokens, as hit,miss,output (peak prices are derived as 2× off-peak)	0.003,0.15,0.6
DEEPSEEK_HOURS_STATE	Mode state file (where /deepseek-hours mode persists)	~/.pi/agent/deepseek-hours/mode.json

Example (Beijing-time schedule):

export DEEPSEEK_UTC_OFFSET=8

If DeepSeek ever changes the windows (or you want to simulate), just set the vars and /reload:

export DEEPSEEK_PEAK_WINDOWS="09:00-12:00,14:00-18:00"   # Beijing peak hours

Invalid values are ignored with a warning — the extension falls back to the defaults and never breaks pi.

How it works

• ctx.ui.setStatus("deepseek-hours", ...) renders the colored badge inside the built-in footer (ANSI colors are honored).
• A 30-second timer recomputes the state; renders only happen when the displayed text changes.
• The provider is detected via ctx.model.provider on model_select / session_start / agent_end events.
• The indicator auto-clears on session_shutdown.

Development / tests

The extension is a single file — no build step. Install the pinned development dependencies, run the suite, and type-check against the Pi types with:

npm ci
npm test
npm run typecheck

Requirements

• Pi coding agent (extension API; tested against 1.0.0)

License

MIT — see LICENSE.