little-coder 1.3.0 → 1.4.0

package/.pi/extensions/branding/index.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+import type { ExtensionAPI, Theme } from "@mariozechner/pi-coding-agent";
+import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import { basename, dirname, join } from "node:path";
+import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
+
+// Replace pi's built-in startup header + terminal title with little-coder
+// branding. The interactive TUI's "pi vX.Y.Z" logo, the "Pi can explain its
+// own features..." onboarding line, and the "π - <cwd>" terminal title all
+// come from pi's APP_NAME / built-in header; this extension swaps them for
+// little-coder's own identity using the public ExtensionUIContext hooks.
+//
+// Pairs with `.pi/settings.json` setting `"quietStartup": true`, which
+// suppresses pi's built-in header AND the loaded-resources dump (the long
+// list of extension paths, skills, prompts, themes that used to flood the
+// screen on launch). Power users can still run `little-coder --verbose` to
+// override quietStartup and see the resource list.
+//
+// Implementation pattern follows the bundled pi example at
+// `node_modules/@mariozechner/pi-coding-agent/examples/extensions/custom-header.ts` —
+// the factory returns a duck-typed Component (`render(width): string[]` +
+// `invalidate()`), so no deep imports from pi-tui are needed.
+
+const TAGLINE = "A coding agent tuned for small local models";
+
+function readVersion(): string {
+  // .pi/extensions/branding/index.ts → up 3 → package root (where package.json lives).
+  // The same path math works in the local checkout (loaded via tsx) and in the
+  // installed npm package layout (node_modules/little-coder/.pi/extensions/branding/).
+  try {
+    const here = dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
+    const pkgPath = join(here, "..", "..", "..", "package.json");
+    const pkg = JSON.parse(readFileSync(pkgPath, "utf-8"));
+    if (typeof pkg?.version === "string" && pkg.version.length > 0) return pkg.version;
+  } catch {
+    // best-effort; fall through
+  }
+  return "0.0.0";
+}
+
+const VERSION = readVersion();
+
+function buildHeader(theme: Theme): string[] {
+  const logo =
+    theme.bold(theme.fg("accent", "little-coder")) +
+    theme.fg("dim", ` v${VERSION}`);
+  const tagline = theme.fg("muted", TAGLINE);
+  const dim = (s: string) => theme.fg("dim", s);
+  const sep = theme.fg("muted", " · ");
+  const hints = [
+    `${dim("esc")} interrupt`,
+    `${dim("ctrl-l/ctrl-c")} clear/exit`,
+    `${dim("/")} commands`,
+    `${dim("!")} bash`,
+    `${dim("ctrl-r")} more`,
+  ].join(sep);
+  return ["", logo, tagline, "", hints, ""];
+}
+
+function setTitleForCwd(setTitle: (t: string) => void, cwd: string): void {
+  setTitle(`little-coder - ${basename(cwd)}`);
+}
+
+export default function (pi: ExtensionAPI) {
+  // session_start fires on initial load AND on every session switch,
+  // so registering once covers both. Pi's own updateTerminalTitle() runs
+  // during init/switch, so re-asserting our title here is what keeps
+  // "π - <cwd>" from sneaking back in.
+  pi.on("session_start", async (_event, ctx) => {
+    if (!ctx.hasUI) return;
+
+    ctx.ui.setHeader((_tui, theme) => ({
+      render(_width: number): string[] {
+        return buildHeader(theme);
+      },
+      invalidate() {},
+    }));
+
+    setTitleForCwd(ctx.ui.setTitle.bind(ctx.ui), ctx.cwd);
+  });
+}

package/.pi/settings.json

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 {
+  "quietStartup": true,
   "compaction": { "enabled": true },
   "retry": { "enabled": true, "maxRetries": 2 },
   "little_coder": {

package/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -2,6 +2,25 @@
 
 All notable changes to little-coder are documented here. The format follows [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/), and little-coder's public interface (CLI, providers, tools, skills) follows semver starting at `v0.0.1` post-rename.
 
+## [v1.4.0] — 2026-05-16
+
+Startup UI rebrand. The TUI's opening frame now reads as **little-coder**, not as pi. Pi remains the substrate; the chrome above it just stops pretending it's the product.
+
+### Added
+- **New `.pi/extensions/branding/` extension.** Calls `pi.ui.setHeader()` and `pi.ui.setTitle()` on every `session_start` event to install a little-coder banner: `little-coder vX.Y.Z` (logo) + `A coding agent tuned for small local models` (tagline, verbatim from the README opening line) + a compact keybinding-hint row. The terminal title goes from `π - <cwd>` to `little-coder - <cwd>`. Implementation pattern follows pi's bundled `examples/extensions/custom-header.ts` — the factory returns a duck-typed Component (`render(width): string[]`), so no deep imports of pi-tui internals are required.
+- **Startup screenshot in README.** A real `docs/assets/startup.svg` captured from a live `little-coder` startup, rendered via [charm.sh `freeze`](https://github.com/charmbracelet/freeze). Embedded near the top of the README so the first thing a visitor sees is the actual product, not a description of it.
+
+### Changed
+- **`.pi/settings.json` now ships `"quietStartup": true`.** This is what suppresses pi's built-in loaded-resources block — the long list of extension paths, skills, prompts, themes that previously flooded the screen on every launch. Power users who want the inventory back can pass `little-coder --verbose`, which sets pi's `verbose: true` and overrides `quietStartup`.
+- **Pi's "Pi can explain its own features..." onboarding string is gone.** The branding extension's `setHeader` replaces pi's built-in header entirely, so the line never renders.
+
+### Notes for upgraders
+- No API, settings, or skill-pack breaks. CLI flags unchanged.
+- If you'd customized pi's startup output via your own `models.json` / `.pi/settings.json` override, your changes still apply — the only new top-level key in shipped `.pi/settings.json` is `quietStartup`, and pi's override semantics preserve per-key user values.
+- To restore the original pi-style startup (the `pi vX.Y.Z` logo and the loaded-resources list), run `little-coder --verbose`. There's no way to disable the branding extension from the user side short of editing the installed package, but the rebrand is purely the startup frame — no functional difference.
+
+---
+
 ## [v1.3.0] — 2026-05-16
 
 First functional release of Phase 2 (iterative improvement on real-world coding tasks). Three concrete sharp edges that surfaced while actually using the Mac → Linux LAN setup, plus a quality-of-life cleanup on the pi update banner. Minor version bump because three of the four changes are new behavior, all backwards-compatible.

package/README.md

@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 **A coding agent tuned for small local models, built on top of [pi](https://pi.dev).**
 
+![little-coder startup view](docs/assets/startup.svg)
+
 The research story behind all this — why scaffold–model fit matters, how a 9.7 B Qwen beat frontier entries on Aider Polyglot, and what the load-bearing mechanisms actually do — is written up on Substack: **[*Honey, I Shrunk the Coding Agent*](https://open.substack.com/pub/itayinbarr/p/honey-i-shrunk-the-coding-agent)**. Start there if you want the "why"; stay here for the "how".
 
 ## How it relates to pi
@@ -290,9 +292,10 @@ The benchmarks harness (`benchmarks/`) is dev-only and not shipped with the npm
 little-coder/
 ├── .pi/
 │   ├── settings.json               # per-model profiles + benchmark_overrides (terminal_bench, gaia)
-│   └── extensions/                 # 20 TypeScript extensions, auto-discovered by pi
+│   └── extensions/                 # 21 TypeScript extensions, auto-discovered by pi
+│       ├── branding/               # little-coder startup header + terminal title (replaces pi's built-in)
 │       ├── llama-cpp-provider/     # data-driven provider registration from models.json — ships llamacpp, ollama, lmstudio (+ user override file)
-│       ├── write-guard/            # Write refuses on existing files — the whitepaper invariant
+│       ├── write-guard/            # Write refuses on existing files; rewrites root-bare /foo.md paths to cwd
 │       ├── extra-tools/            # glob, webfetch, websearch (pi ships grep/find)
 │       ├── skill-inject/           # per-turn tool-skill selection (error > recency > intent)
 │       ├── knowledge-inject/       # algorithm cheat-sheet scoring (word=1.0, bigram=2.0, threshold=2.0)

package/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "little-coder",
-  "version": "1.3.0",
+  "version": "1.4.0",
   "description": "A pi-based coding agent optimized for small local language models. Reproduces the whitepaper's scaffold-model-fit adaptations as pi extensions.",
   "homepage": "https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder",
   "repository": {