$ cat ~/map/pi-for-vscode.md

Pi for VS Code

VS Code extension hosting the real pi TUI in the sidebar over a pseudo-terminal — not a chat-panel reimplementation.

tools✓ Sep 16

Facts

repository: github.com/yicLionel/pi-for-vscode ↗
GitHub Stars: ★ 1
Forks: 0
license: MIT
npm / mo: —
last push: Sep 15, 2026

install

Download the VSIX from the GitHub releases page (pi-for-vscode-<version>.vsix), optionally verify it against the SHA256SUMS.txt from the same release, and run code --install-extension pi-for-vscode-*.vsix — there is no Marketplace listing

## TL;DR

A VS Code extension that hosts the real pi TUI in the sidebar — xterm.js over a node-pty pseudo-terminal — so slash commands, keybindings, themes, /login, session resume, mouse reporting, and tool-approval prompts behave exactly as in a terminal, because it is one.

## Key points

$A real TUI, not a reimplementation: the sidebar runs the actual pi TUI through xterm.js over a genuine pseudo-terminal, so nothing is simulated — slash commands, pi's own keybindings, themes, /login, session resume, mouse reporting, bracketed paste, and full-screen TUIs all behave as they do in the terminal.
$Multiple sessions and code hand-off: Pi: New Pi Terminal (Editor Tab) opens an independent session beside the code; Pi: Send Selection to Pi inserts the current selection into the prompt, Pi: Send Current File Reference to Pi drops an @path mention, and path:line:col references in pi's output become clickable links that open at the exact position.
$Finding pi in a GUI environment: auto-detection searches PATH, Homebrew, npm and pnpm globals, Volta, asdf, nvm, and ~/.local/share/pi-node before falling back to the login shell's PATH; because pi is a Node script and GUI-launched VS Code often has no node on PATH, the extension reads the shebang and resolves a matching interpreter (preferring the node bundled next to pi); Windows .cmd and .bat shims are wrapped in cmd.exe /c.
$A PTY without native compilation: the terminal layer uses N-API prebuilt binaries that are ABI-independent, so the same pty.node loads under both system Node and VS Code's Electron extension host — no Xcode Command Line Tools, no Visual Studio Build Tools.
$Environment isolation: when VS Code itself was launched from a pi session, inherited variables such as PI_SESSION_ID and PI_SESSION_FILE are stripped before spawning the child pi so its session handling is not corrupted.
$Theme-, font-, and clipboard-aware: terminal colours come from VS Code's terminal CSS variables and follow editor font and cursor settings, updating live on theme switches; copy and paste go through the VS Code clipboard API so they also work in remote, WSL, and web contexts.
$Configurable startup: settings cover executablePath, extra launch arguments such as --model or --continue, environment variables for API keys, autoStart, working-directory mode, font family and size, scrollback, and whether sending a selection auto-presses Enter.

## FAQ

Q Is the extension available on the VS Code Marketplace?

No. It is distributed through GitHub Releases as a VSIX — download pi-for-vscode-<version>.vsix from the latest release, optionally check it against the SHA256SUMS.txt published alongside it, and install it with code --install-extension.

Q Why a webview with a PTY instead of VS Code's built-in terminal API?

The stable VS Code API has no sidebar location for createTerminal, so a webview plus a real pseudo-terminal is the honest way to get a genuine TUI in the Activity Bar — the extension ships the same pi interface the terminal would.

Q Pi fails to start in a container, remote, or WSL — what should I check?

Set pi-for-vscode.executablePath explicitly. Auto-detection cannot see host paths from inside a container, and the troubleshooting section of the README also points to the Show Logs output channel, which records the resolved executable, interpreter, working directory, and pid.

## References

## Related entries

## Guides

Last updated: Sep 16, 2026