A quick reference drawn from Pi’s own docs and the lessons in this course.
For deeper context on any item, follow the links to the relevant lesson or to the official docs.
Slash commands
Type these inside Pi’s prompt. Type / on its own to see the full list of available commands, including any prompt templates and skills you’ve installed.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/login, /logout | Manage OAuth or API-key credentials for a model provider |
/model | Switch models for this session (Ctrl+S in the picker saves it as the default) |
/thinking [level] | Set the thinking level |
/scoped-models | Enable/disable models for Ctrl+P cycling |
/settings | Thinking level, theme, message delivery, transport |
/resume | Pick from previous sessions |
/new | Start a new session |
/name <name> | Set the current session’s display name |
/session | Show session file, ID, messages, tokens, and cost |
/tree | Jump to any point in the session and continue from there — see Branching |
/trust | Save a project trust decision for future sessions |
/fork | Create a new session from a previous user message |
/clone | Duplicate the current active branch into a new session |
/compact [prompt] | Manually compact context, optionally with custom instructions |
/copy | Copy the last assistant message to the clipboard |
/export [file] | Export the session to HTML or JSONL |
/import <file> | Import and resume a session from a JSONL file |
/share | Upload the session and get a viewer link (a private GitHub gist, or a Radius artifact if you’re signed in to Radius) |
/bug [description] | Prepare a private bug report for the Pi developers |
/mcp | Inspect, sign in to, reconnect, enable, or disable MCP servers |
/reload | Reload keybindings, extensions, skills, prompt templates, themes, and context files |
/hotkeys | Show all keyboard shortcuts |
/changelog | Display version history |
/quit | Quit Pi |
/skill:name | Manually invoke an installed skill |
/<template-name> | Run a prompt template you’ve defined |
Prompt syntax
Special characters that change how a prompt is interpreted.
| Syntax | What it does |
|---|---|
@<path> | Fuzzy-search and reference a project file; its contents are added to the conversation (e.g. Explain @src/index.ts) |
!<command> | Run a shell command and send its output to the model as part of the conversation |
!!<command> | Run a shell command without sending its output to the model |
Keyboard shortcuts
The full set is customizable via ~/.pi/agent/keybindings.json — these are the defaults. Run /hotkeys inside Pi any time for the live list.
Images and files
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
Ctrl+V (Alt+V on Windows) | Paste an image from the clipboard |
| Drag and drop | Drag an image file into a terminal that supports it |
Tab | Complete a file path |
Ctrl+G | Open the current input in an external editor |
Models and thinking
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
Ctrl+L | Open the model selector |
Ctrl+P / Shift+Ctrl+P | Cycle forward/backward through scoped models |
Shift+Tab | Cycle thinking level |
Ctrl+T | Collapse or expand thinking blocks |
Ctrl+S (in /model or /thinking) | Save the selection as the default |
Fullscreen transcript
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
Ctrl+Shift+F (Ctrl+F on Windows) | Search the transcript |
PageUp / PageDown | Scroll the transcript |
Ctrl+Home / Ctrl+End | Jump to the start or end of the transcript |
Ctrl+O | Collapse or expand tool output |
Sessions and tree
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
Ctrl+X | Copy the last assistant message, or the selected message in /tree |
Ctrl+O (in tree view) | Cycle the tree filter mode |
Shift+L (in tree view) | Set or clear a label on the selected entry |
Ctrl+R (in session picker) | Rename a session |
Ctrl+D (in session picker) | Delete a session |
Application
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
Escape | Cancel or abort the current response |
Ctrl+C | Clear the editor |
Ctrl+D | Exit Pi (when the editor is empty) |
Ctrl+Z | Suspend Pi to the background (not on native Windows) |
CLI flags
Pass these when starting pi from your terminal. For the full list, see the command line docs.
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
-p, --print | Print a single response and exit, instead of starting an interactive session |
--mode json | Output events as JSON lines |
--mode rpc | RPC mode over stdin/stdout, for process integration |
-c, --continue | Continue the most recent session |
-r, --resume | Browse and select a session at startup |
--name <name>, -n <name> | Set the session display name at startup |
--provider <name> | Choose a provider, e.g. anthropic, openai, google |
--model <pattern> | Choose a model, e.g. sonnet:high or openai/gpt-4o |
--no-context-files, -nc | Disable AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md discovery |
--tools <list>, -t | Choose exactly which tools are enabled, e.g. read,grep,find,ls |
--exclude-tools <list>, -xt | Disable specific tools |
--no-builtin-tools, -nbt | Disable built-in tools, keep extension/custom tools |
--no-mcp | Start without MCP servers |
--tui-mode regular | Use the terminal’s normal scrollback instead of fullscreen |
--approve, -a | Trust project-local settings for one run |
--no-approve, -na | Ignore project-local settings for one run |
Shell commands
Run these from your terminal, outside a Pi session. Agents can run them through bash too.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
pi mcp add <name> -- <command> [args...] | Add a local MCP server (add -l for the current project) |
pi mcp add <name> --url <url> | Add a remote MCP server |
pi mcp list | Connect to every MCP server and show its tools and errors |
pi mcp login <name> | Sign in to an OAuth MCP server |
pi install <source> | Install a Pi package, e.g. npm:pi-web-access |
pi update | Update Pi (pi update --all also updates packages) |
pi config | Choose which package and built-in resources load |
File paths
Where Pi looks for config and customization files. Global paths apply to every project; per-project paths apply only inside that project (and only load once the project is trusted).
Global
| Path | What it is |
|---|---|
~/.pi/agent/settings.json | Main config: default provider/model, project trust default, compaction tuning |
~/.pi/agent/AGENTS.md | Custom instructions loaded at the start of every session |
~/.pi/agent/extensions/ | Global extensions |
~/.pi/agent/skills/, ~/.agents/skills/ | Global skills |
~/.pi/agent/prompts/ | Global prompt templates |
~/.pi/agent/themes/ | Global themes |
~/.pi/agent/mcp.json | MCP servers available in every project |
~/.pi/agent/models.json | Custom model/provider definitions |
~/.pi/agent/keybindings.json | Custom keyboard shortcuts |
~/.pi/agent/trust.json | Saved project trust decisions |
~/.pi/agent/sessions/ | Saved sessions, as JSONL |
~/.pi/agent/auth.json | Stored OAuth tokens and API keys from /login |
Per-project
| Path | What it is |
|---|---|
AGENTS.md (or CLAUDE.md) | Project-specific instructions, typically committed to Git |
.pi/settings.json | Project-specific config overrides |
.pi/mcp.json | Project-specific MCP servers |
.pi/extensions/ | Project-specific extensions |
.pi/skills/, .agents/skills/ | Project-specific skills |
.pi/prompts/ | Project-specific prompt templates |
.pi/themes/ | Project-specific themes |
Where to look next
- Pi’s own docs are the canonical reference for everything above.
- The keybindings docs cover every default binding and how to remap them.
- The command line docs and slash command docs list every CLI flag and slash command.
- The Glossary defines the terms used throughout this cheatsheet and the lessons.