Tau

Tau is a transparent AI coding assistant for VS Code focused on session-based workflows and code traceability.

Philosophy

Tau follows the same direction as Pi, the backend agent engine it builds on:

• full insight into every tool call
• no hidden prompts
• no black magic

If your clanker followed Order 66 again, Tau will at least show you exactly what happened.

Features

Trace Origin & Session Diffs

Jump from code back to the historical agent session that created it.

Tau can reconnect:

• current code
• historical agent context
• related Git commits
• reasoning history

Even across refactors and file moves.

From there, session diffs make it easy to inspect exactly what changed during the session.

What else?

Tau builds on top of Pi's existing capabilities:

• tree-based session management
• plugin ecosystem
• resumable sessions
• transparent tool execution

It also adds parallel session workflows, allowing you to switch between multiple active sessions without losing context.

Requirements / Setup

Install Pi if you haven't already:

npm install -g @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent

Then set it up the same way you would for terminal use:

pi
/login

For more information, read the documentation here.

Using Tau

Tau is heavily keyboard-oriented.

The most important key is probably Esc:

• from the prompt → opens the session list
• from the session list → returns to the current session

Everything else is mostly discoverable. You'll figure out the rest anyway.

Development

npm install
npm run compile

Run tests with:

npm test

For local development in VS Code, launch the extension host from the provided VS Code launch configuration.

License

MIT