pi edit-session-in-place

A pi extension that lets you rewind to an earlier user message in the current branch, then either edit it in place or delete it and continue from there.

Compatibility

Requires Pi 1.0.0 or later and Node.js >=24.15.0. Development and standalone/packed qualification use the official Pi 1.0.0 cohort. CI records the maintained fitchmultz/pi fork's exact revision and qualifies supported hosts; an older fork is truthfully recorded as unattempted, not passing. Pi core packages are optional wildcard peers: the extension uses the host's bundled runtime rather than installing another copy.

What it does

• Adds /edit-turn and the Ctrl+Shift+E shortcut
• Lets you choose an earlier user message from the current branch
• Press Ctrl+A in the picker to also show assistant messages
• Rewinds pi to that point in the same session file
• Loads edited user text back into the main editor, or writes an edited assistant response onto a new branch
• Treats an empty submit as delete this message and continue from here

Install

pi install npm:pi-edit-session-in-place

Or from GitHub:

pi install https://github.com/fitchmultz/pi-edit-session-in-place

Use /reload after updating extension source; restart Pi after changing dependencies or the host runtime.

Usage

Run /edit-turn or press Ctrl+Shift+E.

Message picker

• Shows earlier user messages from the current branch, oldest → newest, with the newest selected
• Ctrl+A toggles assistant messages into the same picker
• ↑/↓ move one message; PageUp/PageDown jump; mouse clicks select

Editor

• Enter submits; Shift+Enter inserts a newline
• Ctrl+X clears the entire message
• Escape cancels without changing history
• Ctrl+G opens $VISUAL/$EDITOR when set; parse or launch failures are reported as warnings
• Other controls use Pi's native CustomEditor/editor bindings, including undo and multiline paste; the embedded editor does not register main-session resend or interrupt actions

Submitting an empty user message deletes it: pi rewinds to just before that message and leaves the main editor empty. Submitting an empty assistant message creates a branch that keeps everything before that response, including tool results, custom messages, compactions, and metadata, without the selected response.

Behavior notes

• Interactive TUI mode only; non-interactive and RPC modes do not show the picker
• Later messages on the abandoned branch stay in the session file and remain reachable through /tree
• Assistant rewriting uses Pi's private SessionManager mutation methods because the public extension context is read-only. An unsupported runtime fails closed before navigation. A cancellation or failure after append may leave an abandoned attempt in the append-only tree; the prior branch is restored when possible, and a context-neutral custom entry saves the position so reopening resumes the same conversation
• Editing a message that contains images keeps only its text; the extension asks before dropping images
• Image-only and whitespace-only messages are not offered
• Queued messages must be cleared before using the command
• Repeated shortcuts or /edit-turn invocations are ignored while an edit is running, including while an interrupted response settles
• The shortcut's draft is restored on cancellation or a rejected editing callback; successful edits and deletes replace it
• Replacement, fork, resume, reload and shutdown dispose pending dialogs and discard outgoing draft ownership. No late callback may restore that draft into the incoming session or navigate using a stale context
• External editing uses a private temporary file and asynchronous terminal handoff; disposal stops its child, resumes terminal input once and ignores late completion
• Canonical context_edit entries intentionally are not used for rewinding: they alter earlier context while retaining later turns, which is not this command's edit/delete-and-continue behavior
• The shortcut follows Pi's focus and shortcut-conflict rules. Custom editors built on Pi's CustomEditor receive it natively

Development

npm ci --ignore-scripts
npm run check

• npm test runs node --test directly on TypeScript, including real createAgentSession() navigation and InteractiveMode shortcut/editor/pointer/replacement/external-editor tests in both TUI modes, without model calls or operator UI changes
• npm run typecheck runs tsc (no emit)
• npm run check runs both plus npm pack --dry-run; check:compat and prepublishOnly call it

For interactive testing, load the source directly: pi -e ./extensions/edit-session-in-place.ts.

The required compatibility / compatibility check records and builds supported fork revisions, then runs the shared fitchmultz/.github qualification against official Pi and the fork: package contracts, a fresh Git install, an npm tarball install, and the real bundled Pi CLI. PI_COMPAT_EXPECTED_VERSION and PI_COMPAT_EXPECTED_PACKAGE_DIR let the tests assert which host they imported; without them the tests assert the pinned official version in local node_modules.