What is pi-vsc?

Pintra is a VS Code and VSCodium extension that brings an AI coding agent called Pi into the editor as a chat sidebar. Instead of building its own AI logic, Pintra spawns the separate pi runtime as an external program and talks to it through a JSON lines protocol, meaning it sends and receives structured messages line by line. That runtime is not included with the extension, so a user needs to install and log into pi on their own machine once before Pintra can drive it from inside the editor. Once connected, Pintra streams the agent's tool output and its reasoning as it works, so a user can watch what the assistant is doing rather than waiting for a single final answer. The extension keeps a record of session history and shows usage statistics, and it gives the user controls over which model and reasoning settings the agent uses. Other features listed include the ability to fork a conversation into a new branch, review diffs when the agent edits or writes files, autocomplete for slash commands, a chat view that can open as a full editor tab rather than only a sidebar, and the ability to export a conversation as an HTML file. The project is aimed at developers who already use, or want to try, the Pi coding agent and prefer working with it inside VS Code rather than a separate terminal or interface. Setup requires installing the pi runtime as a prerequisite, which is a small extra step beyond installing the extension itself from the VS Code Marketplace or the Open VSX registry. Pintra is released under the MIT license, which is a permissive license that generally allows free use, modification, and distribution. It also embeds the MIT licensed pi coding agent package through its documented RPC interface. The README does not describe internal architecture beyond this integration, and bug reports or feature requests are directed to the project's GitHub issues page.