pi-mono/packages/coding-agent/examples
Michael Renner aba42ae6b9
fix(coding-agent): make subagent progress and failures reliable (#8250)
The shipped subagent example could say a child was done while it was
still working, lose the useful part of process failures, and return a
normal-looking tool result when the delegated work had actually failed.
Single and chain output could also exceed the normal tool limit.

This also adds a dedicated regression suite covering progress state,
cancellation, process failures, output limits, cwd-based agent
selection, and persisted tool-result error state.

After this change:

- queued, running, completed, failed, and aborted work stay distinct
throughout the run;
- interrupting the parent run preserves partial child results, stops
queued work from starting, and escalates when a child ignores SIGTERM;
- signal exits, spawn failures, provider errors, stderr, and assistant
output remain visible instead of collapsing to `(no output)`;
- failed subagents become failed tool results, so the parent model can
react instead of treating them as successful calls;
- single and chain results stay within the normal 50 KB / 2,000-line
limit;
- project agents are selected and confirmed from each task's actual
working directory rather than the dispatcher's directory.

## Further potential improvements

These are useful follow-ups, but they are separate product and storage
decisions rather than part of the failure-handling fixes in this PR.

<details>
<summary>Potential follow-ups</summary>

### Keep persisted transcripts bounded

Subagent tool results persist the full child message history in
`details`, which can make parent session files large and slow to reload.
A follow-up could compact that history or spill it to disk.

### Define an aggregate parallel-output budget

Parallel mode still gives every task its own 50 KB budget. A follow-up
could keep every task represented while enforcing one overall
tool-result limit.

### Report child usage to the calling session

Per-child token and cost usage is visible in result cards but is not
added to the calling session's totals.

### Isolate malformed agent definitions

One malformed YAML agent can still break discovery for every valid agent
in the same directory.

### Limit subagent recursion

A nesting limit would prevent accidental process and paid-request
multiplication when subagents can invoke the subagent tool again.

* https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/issues/8195

### Add a configurable timeout

Unattended runs would benefit from a generous opt-in timeout for
children that never complete.

</details>

## Related issues

### Spawn failures lose their diagnostics

This directly addresses the reported case where a nonexistent child
working directory produces `(no output)` instead of the actual spawn
error. The regression suite includes that same reproduction.

* https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/issues/8129

### Persisted child history can bloat sessions

This PR intentionally keeps full child history in tool-result details,
so session compaction or spill-to-disk remains follow-up work rather
than something fixed here.

* https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/issues/7452
2026-11-04 11:24:12 +01:00
..
extensions fix(coding-agent): make subagent progress and failures reliable (#8250) 2026-11-04 11:24:12 +01:00
sdk feat(coding-agent): list MCP servers instead of their tools in codemode 2026-09-30 13:54:02 +02:00
README.md feat(coding-agent): remove the experimental server stack and the client, protocol, and server packages 2026-10-12 10:41:59 +00:00
rpc-client.ts feat: build with TypeScript 7 and run sources with plain node 2026-09-25 13:14:33 +02:00
rpc-extension-ui.ts feat: build with TypeScript 7 and run sources with plain node 2026-09-25 13:14:33 +02:00
tsconfig.json feat(chord): remove Chord v1 (/old, /old/node), its tests and docs 2026-11-03 12:11:22 +00:00

Examples

Example code for the pi-coding-agent SDK, process integration, and extensions.

CLI integration

rpc-client.ts uses the typed RpcClient to run Pi in a child process, stream events, and wait for the run to settle.

Build the coding-agent package before running it from a repository checkout:

node examples/rpc-client.ts "Explain this repository"

Directories

sdk/

Programmatic usage via createAgentSession(). Shows how to customize models, prompts, tools, extensions, and session management.

extensions/

Example extensions demonstrating:

  • Lifecycle event handlers (tool interception, safety gates, context modifications)
  • Custom tools (todo lists, questions, subagents, output truncation)
  • Commands and keyboard shortcuts
  • Custom UI (footers, headers, editors, overlays)
  • Git integration (checkpoints, auto-commit)
  • System prompt modifications and custom compaction
  • External integrations (SSH, file watchers, system theme sync)
  • Custom providers (Anthropic with custom streaming, GitLab Duo)

Documentation