PiLot Studio

Your AI coding companion for VS Code

Bring the power of PI directly into your editor with a modern, intuitive interface. Chat with your AI assistant, navigate your coding history, and supercharge your workflow—all without leaving VS Code.

Works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Work smarter, not harder

PiLot Studio brings the PI coding agent into VS Code so you can:

• Code faster — Let AI handle boilerplate, refactoring, and repetitive tasks
• Understand any codebase — Get instant explanations and project analysis
• Stay in flow — No context switching between your editor and browser
• Work your way — Supports multiple AI providers with model selection and customizable behavior

Key Features

💬 AI Chat, right in your editor

Interactive conversations with PI in a native VS Code panel. Ask questions, get code explanations, and iterate without breaking focus.

🌳 Navigate your history

A conversation tree lets you branch, revisit, and organize past sessions. Pick up where you left off or explore different approaches.

🤖 Your choice of AI

Supports Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and compatible providers, with quick model cycling and adjustable thinking levels.

🎙️ Voice dictation

Talk to your AI with built-in speech-to-text powered by Whisper. Works completely offline—your audio never leaves your device.

🔧 Full control over tools

Enable, disable, or restrict PI's capabilities per session. Fine-tune what the AI can and can't do.

📦 Extend with packages

Install extensions, skills, and prompt templates from the PI community to make PI even more powerful.

📎 Smart context

Paste files, drag-and-drop images, or type @ to mention files in your workspace. The AI automatically understands what you're working on.

Getting Started in 5 minutes

1. Install PI

Follow the PI installation guide to set up the pi CLI on your machine.

2. Install PiLot Studio

Search for "PiLot Studio" in the VS Code Extensions marketplace and click Install.

3. Add your API key

Set your AI provider API key as an environment variable:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
# or
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

You can also configure this through the PiLot Studio settings panel.

4. Open PiLot Studio

Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+P (Cmd+Shift+Alt+P on macOS), then start chatting.

That's it! You're ready to code with AI.

Keyboard Shortcuts

(macOS: use Cmd instead of Ctrl)

Right-Click Commands

No need to memorize keyboard shortcuts—just right-click in VS Code:

• Explain Code with PI — Highlight code, right-click, and get an instant explanation
• Refactor Code with PI — Select code and let AI suggest improvements
• Analyze Project with PI — Right-click any folder to analyze your entire project
• Add File to Chat — Attach any file to your conversation with one click

Configuration

Everything is configurable under pi-agent.* settings. Key options:

Runtime

• Binary path — Custom location for the pi executable
• Agent directory — Where PI stores its data
• Auto-update — Keep PI up to date automatically
• Offline mode — Use PI without network access

Session

• Thinking level — Control how deep PI reasons (off → minimal → low → medium → high → xhigh → max)
• Auto-compact — Automatically manage conversation context
• Auto-retry — Retry on transient errors automatically

Tools

• Tool preset — Restrict what PI can do (default, review, none, or custom)

Context

• Auto-attach editor context — PI automatically sees what you're working on
• Include diagnostics — Surface errors and warnings to the AI
• Include git status — Give PI awareness of recent changes

Dictation

• Enable microphone — Toggle voice input on or off
• Choose model — Switch between lightweight and high-accuracy Whisper models

Troubleshooting

PI not detected?

• Ensure pi is installed and available on your PATH
• Set pi-agent.binaryPath if it's in a non-standard location

API requests failing?

• Verify your API key is set and correct (environment variable or PI config)
• Restart the extension after updating keys

Dictation unavailable?

• Make sure microphone access is enabled for VS Code in your OS settings
• Enable pi-agent.voice.enabled in settings

Sessions look wrong?

• Check that pi-agent.agentDir points to the correct directory
• Restart the extension after changing agent directories

Development

Built with Svelte 5, Vite 8, and TypeScript 6.

# Setup
pnpm install

# Build everything
pnpm run build

# Watch mode for development
pnpm run webview:dev

Or run the full test suite with pnpm test.

Privacy First

PiLot Studio respects your privacy:

• Voice dictation runs completely offline — your audio never leaves your machine
• Your API keys stay yours — managed by PI, not by us
• No telemetry unless you explicitly enable diagnostics

Contributing

Got an idea or found a bug?

• Open an issue at github.com/Printaga/PiLot/issues
• Submit a pull request with improvements

We welcome all contributions!

License

Apache-2.0