An unofficial Pi extension that renders the upstream Thinking Orbs Canvas animations as agent activity states in the terminal.
It uses real 64×64 RGBA PNG frames through Pi's Kitty or iTerm2 image support. Terminals without an image protocol, or systems where the native Canvas renderer cannot load, fall back to a text spinner.
pi install npm:pi-thinking-orbsTry it without installing:
pi -e npm:pi-thinking-orbsAfter installation, start Pi and run /orbs to open the settings menu.
| Activity | Orb state |
|---|---|
| Editor contains visible text while Pi is idle | listening |
| Agent starts | solving |
| Assistant emits text | composing |
| Read and search tools | searching |
| Bash and unclassified tools | working |
| Edit and write tools | shaping |
| Idle editor is empty | hidden |
Parallel tools are tracked independently. The highest-priority active tool wins (shaping → working → searching), and finishing it restores the next active state.
Run /orbs for the interactive menu, or use direct commands:
/orbs status
/orbs on | off
/orbs fps <8-60>
/orbs appearance <auto|dark|light>
/orbs listening <on|off>
/orbs placement <above|below>
/orbs motion <normal|reduced|static>
/orbs preview <all|working|searching|solving|listening|composing|shaping|off>
/orbs retry
/orbs reset
/orbs help
Defaults:
64px · 30 FPS · auto appearance · above editor · normal motion
normal uses the configured FPS, reduced caps image animation at 12 FPS, and static displays a representative frame without an animation timer. preview all shows each state for three seconds and stops when real agent activity begins.
Settings are stored at $PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR/thinking-orbs.json, or ~/.pi/agent/thinking-orbs.json when that environment variable is unset. The extension does not watch the file; run /reload after editing it manually.
Image rendering requires a terminal that supports the Kitty graphics protocol or iTerm2 inline images. Ghostty works directly.
Herdr 0.7.5 requires this setting in ~/.config/herdr/config.toml:
[experimental]
kitty_graphics = trueApply it with:
herdr config check
herdr server reload-configUse /orbs status to see the detected image protocol, Canvas availability, effective FPS, appearance, and fallback reason.
The extension polls the editor every 100 ms only to determine whether trimmed input is empty. It does not store editor text, send network requests, or collect telemetry. Its settings file contains preferences only.
Requirements: Node.js 24 and Pi 0.82.1 or newer.
npm install
npm test
npm run typecheck
npm audit --omit=peer --omit=dev
pi -e ./index.ts --list-modelsRegenerate the Gallery media on macOS with FFmpeg installed:
node scripts/render-demo.mjsThe demo uses the same MODE_DRAWS and resolvePreset() painters as the extension. It renders six states at 30 FPS with the macOS Menlo and Helvetica Neue system fonts, without recording terminal content or desktop data.
This extension is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.
The animation painters and presets come from thinking-orbs, also licensed under MIT. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
This is an unofficial integration and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Jakub Antalik or the Pi maintainers.