$ cat ~/map/pi-open-tui.md

pi-open-tui

Polished terminal interface for pi: model/thinking header, runtime-aware footer, framed editor, turn metrics (TPS / TTFT / stalls / cost), and 50+ runtime detectors — all configurable from /open-tui.

extensions✓ Oct 16

Facts

repository: github.com/OldSuns/pi-open-tui ↗
GitHub Stars: ★ 111
Forks: 31
license: MIT
npm / mo: —
last push: Oct 2, 2026

install

pi install npm:pi-open-tui

## TL;DR

A polished terminal interface extension for pi — configurable header and footer with Git state and runtime detection for 50+ runtimes, turn telemetry, and an interactive /open-tui settings dialog in English and Simplified Chinese.

## Key points

$The pi header shows model, thinking level, working directory, and slash-command hints; the responsive footer shows Git state, detected runtime, context usage, token counts, cost, and extension status.
$Project awareness for 50+ runtimes plus detailed Git states: ahead/behind, staged, modified, untracked, stashed, and detached HEAD.
$Turn telemetry reports TPS, time to first token, duration, stalls, tokens, and a list-price rate; TPS is computed from provider-reported output tokens over total generation time, with tool execution between turns excluded.
$Interactive settings through /open-tui with General, Appearance, Footer, and Telemetry tabs — cursorStyle (block, bar, underline), icons.mode (auto, nerd, ascii), footer segments, and telemetry toggles, stored in ~/.pi/agent/open-tui.json.
$ASCII icons are built in, so a Nerd Font is optional; the fullscreen wheel-speed setting uses a version-guarded compatibility shim that falls back to pi's default scrolling when the runtime field is absent.
$Requires pi 0.80 or later and a terminal with UTF-8 and color support; you can try it for one session with pi -e npm:pi-open-tui.
$Builds on ideas from pi-haiku, pi-claude-code-tui, pi-zentui, and pi-tps, with logo frames derived from pi's official install script.

## FAQ

Q How do I try it without installing?

Run pi -e npm:pi-open-tui to load the extension for a single session; pi install npm:pi-open-tui makes it permanent.

Q Icons render as boxes — what should I do?

Install a Nerd Font and select it in the terminal profile (in VS Code and Windows Terminal, configure the profile rather than just installing at the OS level), then set icons.mode to nerd in /open-tui — or use ascii mode, which needs no patched font. The default auto mode detects the terminal environment, not the installed font file.

Q Where do settings live?

In ~/.pi/agent/open-tui.json, edited via the /open-tui dialog; settingsLanguage switches the dialog between en and zh.

## References

## Related entries

Last updated: Aug 31, 2026