pi-powerline-footer

Customizes the default pi editor with a powerline-style status bar, welcome overlay, and AI-generated "vibes" for loading messages. Inspired by Powerlevel10k and oh-my-pi.

Features

Working Vibes — AI-generated themed loading messages. Set /vibe star trek and your "Working..." becomes "Running diagnostics..." or "Engaging warp drive...". Supports any theme: pirate, zen, noir, cowboy, etc.

Welcome overlay — Branded splash screen shown as centered overlay on startup. Shows gradient logo, model info, keyboard tips, loaded AGENTS.md/extensions/skills/templates counts, and recent sessions. Auto-dismisses after 30 seconds or on any key press.

Rounded box design — Status renders directly in the editor's top border, not as a separate footer.

Live thinking level indicator — Shows current thinking level (thinking:off, thinking:med, etc.) with color-coded gradient. High and xhigh levels get a rainbow shimmer effect inspired by Claude Code's ultrathink.

Smart defaults — Nerd Font auto-detection for iTerm, WezTerm, Kitty, Ghostty, and Alacritty with ASCII fallbacks. Colors matched to oh-my-pi's dark theme.

Git integration — Async status fetching with 1s cache TTL. Automatically invalidates on file writes/edits. Shows branch, staged (+), unstaged (*), and untracked (?) counts.

Context awareness — Color-coded warnings at 70% (yellow) and 90% (red) context usage. Auto-compact indicator when enabled.

Token intelligence — Smart formatting (1.2k, 45M), subscription detection (shows "(sub)" vs dollar cost).

Installation

pi install npm:pi-powerline-footer

Restart pi to activate.

Usage

Activates automatically. Toggle with /powerline, switch presets with /powerline <name>.

Preset	Description
default	Model, thinking, path (basename), git, context, tokens, cost
minimal	Just path (basename), git, context
compact	Model, git, cost, context
full	Everything including hostname, time, abbreviated path
nerd	Maximum detail for Nerd Font users
ascii	Safe for any terminal

Environment: POWERLINE_NERD_FONTS=1 to force Nerd Fonts, =0 for ASCII.

Working Vibes

Transform boring "Working..." messages into themed phrases that match your style:

/vibe star trek    → "Running diagnostics...", "Engaging warp drive..."
/vibe pirate       → "Hoisting the sails...", "Charting course..."
/vibe zen          → "Breathing deeply...", "Finding balance..."
/vibe noir         → "Following the trail...", "Checking the angles..."
/vibe              → Shows current theme, mode, and model
/vibe off          → Disables (back to "Working...")
/vibe model        → Shows current model
/vibe model openai/gpt-4o-mini → Use a different model
/vibe mode         → Shows current mode (generate or file)
/vibe mode file    → Switch to file-based mode (instant, no API calls)
/vibe mode generate → Switch to on-demand generation (contextual)
/vibe generate mafia 200 → Pre-generate 200 vibes and save to file

Configuration

In ~/.pi/agent/settings.json:

{
  "workingVibe": "star trek",                              // Theme phrase
  "workingVibeMode": "generate",                           // "generate" (on-demand) or "file" (pre-generated)
  "workingVibeModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5",        // Optional: model to use (default)
  "workingVibeFallback": "Working",                        // Optional: fallback message
  "workingVibeRefreshInterval": 30,                        // Optional: seconds between refreshes (default 30)
  "workingVibePrompt": "Generate a {theme} loading message for: {task}",  // Optional: custom prompt template
  "workingVibeMaxLength": 65                         // Optional: max message length (default 65)
}

Modes

Mode	Description	Pros	Cons
generate	On-demand AI generation (default)	Contextual, hints at actual task	~$0.000015/msg, 500ms latency
file	Pull from pre-generated file	Instant, zero cost, works offline	Not contextual

File mode setup:

/vibe generate mafia 200    # Generate 200 vibes, save to ~/.pi/agent/vibes/mafia.txt
/vibe mode file             # Switch to file mode
/vibe mafia                 # Now uses the file

How file mode works:

1. Vibes are loaded from ~/.pi/agent/vibes/{theme}.txt into memory
2. Uses seeded shuffle (Mulberry32 PRNG) — cycles through all vibes before repeating
3. New seed each session — different order every time you restart pi
4. Zero latency, zero cost, works offline

Prompt template variables (generate mode only):

• {theme} — the current vibe theme (e.g., "star trek", "mafia")
• {task} — context hint (user prompt initially, then agent's response text or tool info on refresh)
• {exclude} — recent vibes to avoid (auto-populated, e.g., "Don't use: vibe1, vibe2...")

How it works:

1. When you send a message, shows "Channeling {theme}..." placeholder
2. AI generates a themed message in the background (3s timeout)
3. Message updates to the themed version (e.g., "Engaging warp drive...")
4. During long tasks, refreshes on tool calls (rate-limited, default 30s)
5. Cost: ~$0.000015 per generation (60 tokens @ haiku pricing)

Thinking Level Display

The thinking segment shows live updates when you change thinking level:

Level	Display	Color
off	thinking:off	gray
minimal	thinking:min	purple-gray
low	thinking:low	blue
medium	thinking:med	teal
high	thinking:high	🌈 rainbow
xhigh	thinking:xhigh	🌈 rainbow

Path Display

The path segment supports three modes:

Mode	Example	Description
basename	powerline-footer	Just the directory name (default)
abbreviated	…/extensions/powerline-footer	Full path with home abbreviated and length limit
full	~/.pi/agent/extensions/powerline-footer	Complete path with home abbreviated

Configure via preset options: path: { mode: "full" }

Segments

pi · model · thinking · path · git · subagents · token_in · token_out · token_total · cost · context_pct · context_total · time_spent · time · session · hostname · cache_read · cache_write

Separators

powerline · powerline-thin · slash · pipe · dot · chevron · star · block · none · ascii

Theming

Colors are configurable via pi's theme system. Each preset defines its own color scheme, and you can override individual colors with a theme.json file in the extension directory.

Default Colors

Semantic	Theme Color	Description
pi	accent	Pi icon
model	primary	Model name
path	muted	Directory path
gitClean	success	Git branch (clean)
gitDirty	warning	Git branch (dirty)
thinking	muted	Thinking level
context	dim	Context usage
contextWarn	warning	Context usage >70%
contextError	error	Context usage >90%
cost	primary	Cost display
tokens	muted	Token counts

Custom Theme Override

Create ~/.pi/agent/extensions/powerline-footer/theme.json:

{
  "colors": {
    "pi": "#ff5500",
    "model": "accent",
    "path": "#00afaf",
    "gitClean": "success"
  }
}

Colors can be:

• Theme color names: accent, primary, muted, dim, text, success, warning, error, borderMuted
• Hex colors: #ff5500, #d787af

See theme.example.json for all available options.