pi-split-view

A pi coding agent TUI extension that owns the whole "split the main window" surface: a top band of live panels (thinking | tool usage), an optional right files dock with an edit-diff subpanel, and a response-only transcript mode — composed as one clean layout layer over pi's native transcript and editor.

╭ Thinking ──────────────────────────────────────╮ ╭ Tool Usage ───────────╮
│ …live reasoning stream…                        │ │ ✓ bash {"command":…   │
│                                                │ │ ✓ read  path/file.ts  │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────╯ ╰───────────────────────╯
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
 transcript (or response-only view)                     ╭ Files (3) ──────╮│
 >                                                      │ w src/panel.ts  ││
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │ ✎ diff preview  ││
 model · context · status                               ╰─────────────────╯

Example

Features

• Thinking panel — live reasoning stream (coalesced flushes, bounded buffers), newest window with full history left in the transcript.
• Tool Usage panel — every tool call with status/output preview, compact or full detail; history is rebuilt from the session branch on resume/branch switch.
• Files panel — right dock in fullscreen (or a passive overlay in regular mode) listing read/written/seen files newest-first, with a live edit-diff subpanel (hide the subpanel with /split-diff and keep just the list); a compact status widget below the editor.
• Response-only mode — swaps the transcript for a response-only ScrollView (user + assistant text, pi's own components) with a dim dashed rule between successive assistant answers (/split-divider, config answerDivider), reusing pi's editor dock verbatim; native parity for scrollback and scroll-offset semantics.
• Measurement-safe composition — one layout layer owns the whole frame; discarded intrinsic-measure passes are O(1); panels cache on (version, width) with LRU bounding; theme changes recompose; startup composes before the first paint.
• Resize-aware geometry, display-column-correct truncation everywhere (CJK/emoji safe), bounded storage caps, and honest per-command feedback.

Commands

Toggles are session-local by default (concurrent windows don't clobber each other); only /split-save writes the config file.

Persisting your layout

Tweaks you make with the toggle commands last for the current window only. When the layout looks right, run /split-save to store it as the startup defaults for new windows (which panels are on, band height, tools width, tool detail mode, the diff subpanel and the answer divider). /split then toggles between bare pi and that saved layout.

The band and the dock need pi's fullscreen mode ("tuiMode": "fullscreen" in settings); the files panel falls back to an overlay in regular mode.

Install

The three files are plain TypeScript loaded by pi's extension discovery — no build step.

# install as a pi package (npm or git)
pi install npm:pi-split-view
pi install git:github.com/Hugo-W/pi-split-view
# try it once without installing
pi -e npm:pi-split-view

# or copy the sources into your pi agent extensions dir
cp split-view.ts layout-manager.ts ui-panels-config.ts ~/.pi/agent/extensions/
# (restart pi, or /reload if already running)

Or load it once without installing:

pi --tui-mode fullscreen -e /path/to/split-view.ts

Requires the pi coding agent (full screen TUI mode recommended).

Development

npm install
npm run typecheck   # tsc --noEmit, checked against pi 1.2.0

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

Files

• split-view.ts — the whole extension: panels, buffers, commands, composition
• layout-manager.ts — shared single-layer layout ownership around pi's base root
• ui-panels-config.ts — validated startup-default config (~/.pi/agent/ui-panels.json)

License

MIT