@mikefreno/pi-image-paths

Image file paths in pi's chat input become attached images — the path collapses to a marker as you type, and the picture is drawn below the sent message.

Packages

Package details

extension

Install @mikefreno/pi-image-paths from npm and Pi will load the resources declared by the package manifest.

npm repo home report

$ pi install npm:@mikefreno/pi-image-paths

Package: @mikefreno/pi-image-paths
Version: 0.1.1
Published: Oct 21, 2026
Downloads: 687/mo · 6/wk
Author: mikefreno
License: MIT
Types: extension
Size: 20 KB
Dependencies: 0 dependencies · 2 peers

Pi manifest JSON

{
  "extensions": [
    "./index.ts"
  ]
}

Security note

Pi packages can execute code and influence agent behavior. Review the source before installing third-party packages.

README

pi-image-paths

Drop a screenshot into pi's chat input — by path, by drag and drop, or pasted whole from anywhere — and the picture becomes a real attachment instead of a long line of text.

pi install npm:@mikefreno/pi-image-paths

you › look at ~/Desktop/Screenshot\ 2026-10-21\ at\ 10.42.11.png — why is the header clipped?
       ↓
you › look at [Image #1] — why is the header clipped?
      ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
      █  (the screenshot, drawn in the chat)  █
      ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

What it does

Piece	Mechanism
Collapses the path as you type	A terminal-input listener re-reads the editor when it is idle: every token run that resolves to an image file is rewritten in place to `[Image #N]`, the way pi collapses big pastes into `[paste #N]`. Dropping three files at once flips all three.
Attaches on send	The `input` event resolves the markers it wrote, then looks for any image path still in the prompt (pasted whole, RPC mode, rewritten too late), attaches every file it finds, and leaves `[Image #N]` in the text.
Draws what was sent	Pi renders image blocks on tool results but never on user messages, so the sent images ride in a custom session entry that a registered entry renderer draws with pi-tui's inline-image component. The entry is appended one macrotask after `message_end` — pi persists the user message after extension handlers return — which puts the picture directly below the message in the live chat and in the session log.

Supported: png, jpg/jpeg, gif, webp, bmp; ~ expansion; backslash-escaped spaces, surrounding quotes, file:// drops; bare filenames relative to the working directory; and paths with unescaped spaces, which are joined word by word and disambiguated against the filesystem. URLs are left alone, and a path that does not exist is reported as a warning instead of eating the prompt.

Settings

The drawing honours pi's own settings, live:

Setting	Effect
`terminal.showImages` (default `true`)	Off: no entry is appended and nothing is drawn — the images still reach the model.
`terminal.imageWidthCells` (default `60`)	Width the picture is drawn at.
`terminal.images` (default `auto`)	No inline-image protocol: the renderer stays out of the way and the transcript keeps only the marker.

Custom entries stay out of the model context, so the model still sees each image exactly once. The image data is stored in the entry as well as in the message, which roughly doubles a session's image bytes on disk.

Modes other than the interactive TUI attach images but draw nothing, and append no entries.

Develop

npm test        # node:test, driving the extension through a stand-in for pi
npm run typecheck
scripts/release-tag.sh   # bump, tag and push; the v* tag publishes to npm