pi Agent for VS Code
Unofficial extension. This project is community-built and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the pi agent project.
This is a prerelease version, please report any feedback and issues to help improve it!
Run your local pi coding agent directly inside VS Code.
vscode-pi is a sidebar extension that launches your installed pi binary in RPC mode and turns it into a VS Code-native chat workflow. It adds streaming transcript rendering, tool output UI, session restore/history, model switching, and file context-aware prompts.
All while staying lightweight and true to pi's minimalism-focused philosophy.
Tested on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
Features
- Sidebar chat built for long-running coding sessions
- Streaming markdown answers with syntax highlighting
- Rich tool rendering for read, write, edit, bash, images, and subagents
- Including interactive Mermaid diagrams
- Message queuing and steering
- Supports your pi prompts and skills, e.g. "/commit"
- Session manager with search, rename, delete, and forking
@ file and folder mentions from the current workspace- Easy-to-use model selector and thinking-level controls
- Context window tracking and manual compaction
- Smart merging of tool blocks
Requirements
- VS Code or VSCodium
- A local
pi installation available on PATH or pi.binaryPath setting
- A configured pi agent directory with at least one provider/model in
models.json
If you don't have pi installed, the extension can install it for you using npm.
This requires you to have npm installed and available in your environment.
It can also create a basic auth.json file, but having a preconfigured pi installation is preferred. The onboarding process of the extension is a work-in-progress.
Getting Started
- Install pi:
npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
- Install this extension.
- Configure pi to your liking.
- Open the
PI AGENT view in the activity bar and start a chat.
Repository
Commands
| Command |
Description |
pi: Focus Chat Input |
Focus the sidebar composer |
pi: New Session |
Start a new chat session |
pi: Switch Model |
Open model switching |
pi: Compact Context |
Compact the current session context |
pi: Cycle Model |
Cycle through available models |
pi: Cycle Thinking Level |
Cycle through thinking levels |
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
pi.binaryPath |
pi |
Path to the local pi executable |
pi.agentDir |
empty |
Override pi's agent directory |
pi.thinkingLevel |
medium |
Default reasoning level |
pi.autoCompact |
true |
Enable automatic context compaction |
pi.fontSize |
13 |
Chat font size in pixels |
pi.showLabels |
true |
Show You and Pi labels |
pi.showThinking |
true |
Show assistant thinking blocks |
pi.context.autoAttach |
true |
Auto-attach editor context to prompts |
pi.context.includeEditor |
true |
Include active editor metadata in prompt context |
pi.context.includeSelection |
true |
Include selected text in prompt context |
pi.context.includeDiagnostics |
true |
Include diagnostics in prompt context |
pi.context.includeGit |
true |
Include git status in prompt context |
Notes
- The extension is a UI layer built on top of pi. Live pi state remains the source of truth.
Troubleshooting
pi is not detected
- Make sure
pi is installed and available on your shell PATH.
- If it is installed somewhere custom, set
pi.binaryPath to the absolute path.
- If the extension reports an incompatible version, update your local
pi install first.
Sessions or history look wrong
- Check
pi.agentDir. The extension uses the resolved agent directory for both runtime startup and session-history file access.
- If you switch agent directories, restart the extension host or run the pi restart action so the running process and file-backed history stay aligned.
Models are missing
- Confirm your pi agent directory contains a valid
models.json.
- Make sure your provider configuration and API keys are set where pi expects them.
Provider requests fail
- Re-check the provider credentials stored in your pi config or VS Code-backed secrets.
- After updating a key, restart pi from the extension so the spawned process picks up the new environment.
License
PRERELEASE LICENSE WITH PLANNED MIT RELEASE
Copyright (c) 2026 Cem Dervis
All rights reserved.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
This software is currently distributed as a prerelease under the terms of this license.
It is intended from the outset that, once the software exits prerelease, the stable release
of the software will be made available under the MIT License.
Until then, all prerelease versions remain subject to this prerelease license unless a specific
version is explicitly relicensed by the copyright holder.
Permission is granted to download, install, and use this software in executable form, free of
charge, for any lawful purpose during the prerelease phase.
You may not:
- modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the software, except where applicable law expressly permits this despite this restriction;
- redistribute, sublicense, rent, lease, lend, sell, or otherwise make the software available to any third party;
- remove or alter any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices.
No source code is provided, and no right to access, receive, modify, or distribute the source
code is granted under this license.
This software is licensed, not sold. All rights not expressly granted are reserved by the
copyright holder.
This software is provided "AS IS", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including
without limitation warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and
noninfringement. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the copyright holder shall not be
liable for any claim, damages, or other liability arising from or related to the software or
its use.
MIT transition:
Once the copyright holder designates a release of the software as stable or final, that release
will be made available under the MIT License, unless stated otherwise by the copyright holder.
For the avoidance of doubt, prerelease versions distributed under this license remain under this
license unless and until the copyright holder explicitly relicenses those specific versions.
By downloading, installing, or using the software, you agree to this license.
