Megagem

A Pi skill plus a companion Pi extension that coordinate coding workers in Herdr. You keep talking to the main Pi chat; Pi hands bounded tasks to visible worker tabs (Pi, Claude or Codex), replies at once, and comes back with a verified result when the worker settles. You can give Pi new instructions while workers run, and you can open or intervene in any worker tab.

Requirements

• Herdr CLI and a running Herdr server. Start Pi inside a Herdr pane (HERDR_ENV=1); Megagem refuses to touch Herdr from outside it.
• Pi, plus any worker CLI you want to use (Pi, Claude or Codex), installed and authenticated.
• Installing creates no workspaces and starts no workers; that only happens when you ask.

Install

pi install npm:pi-megagem        # or add -l for a project-local install

For development, install from a local checkout instead: pi install . (from the repository root).

Run /reload in a running Pi session afterwards. With only the skill loaded, /skill:megagem status works but there is no automatic feedback.

Use

/skill:megagem In C:\path\to\project, implement the login and verify the tests

/skill:megagem is the only entry point (there is no /megagem alias). Pi finds or creates the project's workspace, picks a suitable worker, dispatches without waiting, and answers with one line per task:

task assigned to api/login — claude sonnet, effort medium

• api/login are the real Herdr workspace/tab labels; claude sonnet, effort medium are the agent, model and thinking level used for that task.
• Only the leading phrase is translated. Labels, agent, model identifiers and the thinking term (thinking for Pi, effort for Claude, reasoning for Codex) never are.
• Herdr does not expose model or thinking level, so Pi prints what it actually passed at startup. If that cannot be verified the line says so (for example codex model unverified, reasoning unverified) instead of guessing.
• Every reply follows the language you write in, whatever that language or variant is, including regional languages and dialects. If it is ambiguous (mixed languages or no identifiable language), Pi uses your most recent earlier message, otherwise English.

The assignment is not a completion claim. Edits are always delegated to a worker; Pi inspects and verifies but does not implement files itself, never approves worker prompts or bypasses permissions, and never closes your tabs. Conflicting edits are serialized in one worker; independent tasks get separate tabs. If you intervene in a worker tab, automation for it pauses until you say you are done. The full rules live in skills/megagem/SKILL.md.

Automatic feedback

When a worker dispatched by Megagem settles or blocks in an interactive Pi session, the extension does not start the coordinator turn immediately. It shows a persistent banner naming the worker agent, its live Herdr workspace/tab labels and the state (for example Worker agent reviewer (api / login) finished (settled). Press Enter to see the result.), then waits for you:

• Enter releases the notice and wakes Pi, which checks the live Herdr state, files and tests and reports the verified result or blocker in the main chat. A settled state alone is never proof of success.
• Ctrl+X closes the notice without waking Pi, for when you prefer to read the worker tab directly.

Several pending notices are released (or dismissed) together, oldest first. If you are already typing a message, Enter submits your message and leaves the notice in place. In RPC/print/JSON there is no banner, so delivery stays immediate.

The banner follows PI_MEGAGEM_LANG (a short code such as it); with no setting it detects the language of your last message and otherwise uses English. Adding a language means adding one entry to extensions/banner-text.ts; the coordination logic holds no language catalogue.

If Pi answers the released message with nothing visible, the extension reminds it once; if that fails too, you get a warning plus a saved alert saying the result is not verified. Closing Pi stops monitoring; reopening the session restores pending watches, but a banner that was still waiting for Enter is not restored.

Quiet mode

/quiet-mode [on|off|status] (no argument toggles) hides all tool calls and outputs in the Pi chat so you read only the conversation. It is off by default, applies immediately, and survives /reload and resume. It changes drawing only: tools still run, approvals and the session history are untouched, and a failed tool still shows one line (without output). Not hidden: ! shell commands, thinking blocks (Ctrl+T), the startup header, images in tool results, and Pi notifications.

Troubleshooting

Development

node --test tests/*.test.mjs

The tests are deterministic: monitor and dispatch logic, the empty-reply guard, the deferred completion banner (defer, Enter release, Ctrl+X dismiss, non-interactive fallback, notice language), quiet-mode parsing/rendering (using Pi's real ToolExecutionComponent when Pi is found via PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR or the global npm prefix) and the language/assignment-format rules. They do not exercise a real worker or live Herdr.

Layout: skills/megagem/SKILL.md (workflow), extensions/megagem-feedback.ts (dispatch tool, monitor, guard, delivery), extensions/pending-notice.ts (banner state and key handling), extensions/banner-text.ts (localized banner text), extensions/megagem-quiet.ts (quiet mode), tests/. Maintainer notes and the manual verification scenarios (run only in an isolated Herdr session, never on live workspaces) are in AGENTS.md.