Plan mode

“Plan mode” — where the agent proposes a plan and waits for approval before touching your code — is deliberately not built into Pi. It’s a popular addition, available both as a built-in example extension and as polished third-party packages with review UIs.

Alternatives

1. Built-in plan-mode example extension

The Pi repository ships a plan-mode example extension. It’s the canonical, minimal implementation — copy it into your extensions directory (or install from git) and tweak to taste.

# Drop the example into ~/.pi/agent/extensions/ and /reload,
# or install the repo as a git package:
pi install git:github.com/earendil-works/pi

Benefits

• Official, minimal, easy to read and customize.
• No third-party trust required.

Drawbacks

• It’s an example — you’re expected to adapt it.
• No fancy review UI.

2. @plannotator/pi-extension

Interactive plan review with annotations. Lets you annotate the agent’s messages, review code/PRs, and approve plans with inline notes.

pi install npm:@plannotator/pi-extension

Benefits

• Rich review experience — annotate rather than just approve/reject.
• Doubles as a code/PR review aid.

Drawbacks

• Heavier than a bare plan gate.
• The annotation workflow is opinionated.

3. pi-agent-flow

A flow-state transition extension that structures the session into phases (e.g. plan → execute), giving you plan-mode-like discipline as part of a broader state machine.

pi install npm:pi-agent-flow

Benefits

• Phase transitions enforce a deliberate workflow.
• More than plan/execute — models your whole flow.

Drawbacks

• Conceptually larger; overkill if you only want an approval gate.

Which should I pick?

• Want the simplest, official approach: the built-in plan-mode example.
• Want to review and annotate plans/PRs: @plannotator/pi-extension.
• Want structured phases across the whole session: pi-agent-flow.

Related: oversight

For automated oversight of a long-running agent, see @a5c-ai/babysitter-pi under Permissions & safety.