The extension failed to load outright on older pi installs:
Failed to load extension ".../mcpctl-pi.ts":
Cannot find module '@earendil-works/pi-ai'
pi doesn't resolve an extension's bare specifiers the ordinary way — it
hands jiti a hard-coded alias table built from its own dependencies, and
that table differs between pi distributions. `@earendil-works/pi-coding-
agent` (0.84.1) aliases both the `@earendil-works/*` and legacy
`@mariozechner/*` names; `@mariozechner/pi-coding-agent` (0.73.1) aliases
only the old ones. Neither resolves the other's namespace, so a single
import outside the intersection takes the whole extension down: every
tool, the /mcpctl command, and the status line, all gone.
The only thing we used from pi-ai was `StringEnum`, a six-line wrapper
over `Type.Unsafe`. Inlined as a local `stringEnum` with byte-identical
output, so `typebox` — aliased by every published pi — is now the sole
bare runtime import. The call site also passes `description` through,
which the pi-ai version was silently dropping.
Guarded in tests/config/pi-extension-embed.test.ts: any runtime import in
the embedded sources that isn't `node:`, relative, or typebox now fails.
Verified against both installs with the same active project: 0.73.1
reproduced the error verbatim before the change and loads cleanly after,
and 0.84.1 keeps registering the gate tool exactly as before.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014tsRTqhEC7YYYYaP3cBqo8
The pi extension shipped in `src/pi-ext/` was covered by no tsconfig and no
eslint config, so nothing ever checked it against pi's API. Pointing tsc at
the published @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent types found the command surface
to be inert.
Fixes:
- `/mcpctl` did nothing. `ctx.ui.select` takes `string[]` and returns the
chosen string; it was called with `{value,label}` objects, so the menu
rendered five `[object Object]` rows and `choice === "status"` never
matched any branch. Labels are now plain strings mapped back to actions.
- The headless branch returned a status string from a handler typed
`Promise<void>`; pi drops it. Reports via notify instead.
- "Sync skills" omitted `--agent pi`, writing into ~/.claude/skills — in an
integration whose stated purpose is to not depend on ~/.claude — and said
so in its own success message. It also ran execSync with `stdio: "inherit"`,
painting raw output over pi's TUI, and interpolated the project name into a
shell string. Now execFile with `--agent pi` and captured output.
- Tool results typed `content[].type` as `string`; pi's AgentToolResult wants
the `"text"` literal.
- `callTool` asserted `Promise<unknown>` to `ToolCallResult`.
- Sanitising MCP tool names to `[a-z0-9_]` can collide (`docs.search` vs
`docs-search`). The colliding tool was silently never registered but still
reported active, so its calls were forwarded to the first tool. Names are
now disambiguated and tracked with the MCP tool they forward to.
- `registerWithPi` rewrote settings.json even when nothing changed. Since
parsing strips `//` comments, a no-op run destroyed them.
Guards, so this class of bug can't return:
- `src/pi-ext/tsconfig.json` checks the extension against the real published
pi types (dev dependency, not a shim — a shim drifting from the published
API is the exact failure being guarded). Wired into `pnpm typecheck`.
- eslint now covers `src/pi-ext/*.ts` like every other source file.
- A test fails if the embedded copy in `config/pi-extension.ts` is stale;
editing the sources without regenerating silently shipped old code.
Also: the branch added `config pi` without regenerating shell completions
(the committed-completions test was failing), and the doc advertised
`mcpctl pi sync-skills`, which does not exist. Both corrected, plus a note
on the session-token vs `mcpctl_pat_` bearer difference that would bite
against an authenticated `mcplocal serve`.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_017BMXdb2qZbPSh8Q7XpTyjB
