Settings

Pi uses JSON settings files with project settings overriding global settings.

Location	Scope
~/.pi/agent/settings.json	Global (all projects)
.pi/settings.json	Project (current directory)

Edit directly or use /settings for common options.

All Settings

Model & Thinking

Setting	Type	Default	Description
defaultProvider	string	-	Default provider (e.g., "anthropic", "openai")
defaultModel	string	-	Default model ID
defaultThinkingLevel	string	-	"off", "minimal", "low", "medium", "high", "xhigh"
hideThinkingBlock	boolean	false	Hide thinking blocks in output
thinkingBudgets	object	-	Custom token budgets per thinking level

thinkingBudgets

{
  "thinkingBudgets": {
    "minimal": 1024,
    "low": 4096,
    "medium": 10240,
    "high": 32768
  }
}

UI & Display

Setting	Type	Default	Description
theme	string	"dark"	Theme name ("dark", "light", or custom)
quietStartup	boolean	false	Hide startup header
collapseChangelog	boolean	false	Show condensed changelog after updates
doubleEscapeAction	string	"tree"	Action for double-escape: "tree", "fork", or "none"
editorPaddingX	number	0	Horizontal padding for input editor (0-3)
autocompleteMaxVisible	number	5	Max visible items in autocomplete dropdown (3-20)
showHardwareCursor	boolean	false	Show terminal cursor

Compaction

Setting	Type	Default	Description
compaction.enabled	boolean	true	Enable auto-compaction
compaction.reserveTokens	number	16384	Tokens reserved for LLM response
compaction.keepRecentTokens	number	20000	Recent tokens to keep (not summarized)

{
  "compaction": {
    "enabled": true,
    "reserveTokens": 16384,
    "keepRecentTokens": 20000
  }
}

Branch Summary

Setting	Type	Default	Description
branchSummary.reserveTokens	number	16384	Tokens reserved for branch summarization

Retry

Setting	Type	Default	Description
retry.enabled	boolean	true	Enable automatic retry on transient errors
retry.maxRetries	number	3	Maximum retry attempts
retry.baseDelayMs	number	2000	Base delay for exponential backoff (2s, 4s, 8s)
retry.maxDelayMs	number	60000	Max server-requested delay before failing (60s)

When a provider requests a retry delay longer than maxDelayMs (e.g., Google's "quota will reset after 5h"), the request fails immediately with an informative error instead of waiting silently. Set to 0 to disable the cap.

{
  "retry": {
    "enabled": true,
    "maxRetries": 3,
    "baseDelayMs": 2000,
    "maxDelayMs": 60000
  }
}

Message Delivery

Setting	Type	Default	Description
steeringMode	string	"one-at-a-time"	How steering messages are sent: "all" or "one-at-a-time"
followUpMode	string	"one-at-a-time"	How follow-up messages are sent: "all" or "one-at-a-time"
transport	string	"sse"	Preferred transport for providers that support multiple transports: "sse", "websocket", or "auto"

Terminal & Images

Setting	Type	Default	Description
terminal.showImages	boolean	true	Show images in terminal (if supported)
terminal.clearOnShrink	boolean	false	Clear empty rows when content shrinks (can cause flicker)
images.autoResize	boolean	true	Resize images to 2000x2000 max
images.blockImages	boolean	false	Block all images from being sent to LLM

Shell

Setting	Type	Default	Description
shellPath	string	-	Custom shell path (e.g., for Cygwin on Windows)
shellCommandPrefix	string	-	Prefix for every bash command (e.g., "shopt -s expand_aliases")

Model Cycling

Setting	Type	Default	Description
enabledModels	string[]	-	Model patterns for Ctrl+P cycling (same format as --models CLI flag)

{
  "enabledModels": ["claude-*", "gpt-4o", "gemini-2*"]
}

Markdown

Setting	Type	Default	Description
markdown.codeBlockIndent	string	" "	Indentation for code blocks

Resources

These settings define where to load extensions, skills, prompts, and themes from.

Paths in ~/.pi/agent/settings.json resolve relative to ~/.pi/agent. Paths in .pi/settings.json resolve relative to .pi. Absolute paths and ~ are supported.

Setting	Type	Default	Description
packages	array	[]	npm/git packages to load resources from
extensions	string[]	[]	Local extension file paths or directories
skills	string[]	[]	Local skill file paths or directories
prompts	string[]	[]	Local prompt template paths or directories
themes	string[]	[]	Local theme file paths or directories
enableSkillCommands	boolean	true	Register skills as /skill:name commands

Arrays support glob patterns and exclusions. Use !pattern to exclude. Use +path to force-include an exact path and -path to force-exclude an exact path.

packages

String form loads all resources from a package:

{
  "packages": ["pi-skills", "@org/my-extension"]
}

Object form filters which resources to load:

{
  "packages": [
    {
      "source": "pi-skills",
      "skills": ["brave-search", "transcribe"],
      "extensions": []
    }
  ]
}

See packages.md for package management details.

Example

{
  "defaultProvider": "anthropic",
  "defaultModel": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
  "defaultThinkingLevel": "medium",
  "theme": "dark",
  "compaction": {
    "enabled": true,
    "reserveTokens": 16384,
    "keepRecentTokens": 20000
  },
  "retry": {
    "enabled": true,
    "maxRetries": 3
  },
  "enabledModels": ["claude-*", "gpt-4o"],
  "packages": ["pi-skills"]
}

Project Overrides

Project settings (.pi/settings.json) override global settings. Nested objects are merged:

// ~/.pi/agent/settings.json (global)
{
  "theme": "dark",
  "compaction": { "enabled": true, "reserveTokens": 16384 }
}

// .pi/settings.json (project)
{
  "compaction": { "reserveTokens": 8192 }
}

// Result
{
  "theme": "dark",
  "compaction": { "enabled": true, "reserveTokens": 8192 }
}