gentle-pi

gentle-pi

Turn Pi from a powerful coding agent into a controlled development harness.

gentle-pi installs el Gentleman in Pi: a senior-architect operating layer for Spec-Driven Development, focused subagents, strict TDD evidence, reviewable work units, safety guards, and project/user skill discovery.

Pi already has strong tools. gentle-pi adds the discipline for using them well.

gentle-pi is the Pi-native package from the Gentle-AI ecosystem, built by Gentleman Programming: the broader open-source project for turning AI coding agents into disciplined engineering environments with SDD workflows, skills, memory integrations, model routing, and review guardrails across multiple agents.

Follow the project and the community around it:

• GitHub: Gentleman-Programming
• YouTube: Gentleman Programming
• Community Discord: Gentleman Programming

Startup intro collaboration: thanks to @aporcelli for pi-gentle-startup, which inspired the clean-screen startup animation, compact runtime panel, and pink visual treatment.

The problem

Most coding-agent sessions fail for operational reasons, not model reasons:

• the agent jumps into code before requirements are clear;
• architectural decisions disappear into chat history;
• one request quietly becomes a huge multi-area diff;
• tests run late, or not at all;
• reviewers get handed a wall of changes;
• subagents are available, but the parent session has no orchestration discipline;
• project skills exist, but the model forgets to load them.

gentle-pi fixes the workflow around the agent.

What it adds

Capability	What it does
el Gentleman persona	Makes Pi behave like a senior architect and teacher, not a generic chatbot. Spanish responses use Rioplatense voseo by default; neutral mode is saved globally with project overrides.
Configurable startup intro	Adds a rose/text-logo startup intro, compact runtime panel, color presets, and commands to hide or show the decorative parts.
Work routing discipline	Small tasks stay inline. Context-heavy exploration can be delegated. Large or risky changes go through SDD/OpenSpec.
SDD/OpenSpec assets	Installs phase agents and chains for init, onboard, explore, proposal, spec, design, tasks, apply, verify, sync, and archive.
Lazy SDD preflight	Asks once per session for SDD mode, artifact store, PR chaining strategy, and review budget before the first SDD flow.
Subagent orchestration	Keeps one parent session responsible while child agents explore, implement, test, or review with focused context.
Strict TDD support	When project config declares a test command, apply/verify phases must record RED → GREEN → TRIANGULATE → REFACTOR evidence.
Reviewer protection	Surfaces review workload risk before a task turns into an oversized PR.
Per-agent model assignment	Pi-native modal for assigning stronger or cheaper models to specific SDD/custom agents.
Skill discovery registry	Maintains .atl/skill-registry.md from project and user skills so review/comment/PR workflows do not silently miss the right skill.
Skill creation workflow	Provides the gentle-ai-skill-creator/gentle-ai-skill-improver skills, /skill-creation prompt, and packaged style guide for LLM-first skills.
Delivery skills	Includes issue-first PRs, chained PRs, work-unit commits, cognitive docs, comment writing, and Judgment Day review.
Runtime safety	Blocks destructive shell commands, asks for confirmation for sensitive operations, and blocks direct read/write/edit access to sensitive paths.

Install

pi install npm:gentle-pi

Recommended companion packages:

pi install npm:pi-subagents-j0k3r
pi install npm:pi-intercom
pi install npm:gentle-engram
pi install npm:pi-web-access
pi install npm:pi-lens
pi install npm:@juicesharp/rpiv-todo
pi install npm:@juicesharp/rpiv-ask-user-question

Then start Pi in a project:

pi

gentle-pi provides SDD agents as global Pi runtime assets, not per-project setup. The first SDD flow in a session still runs a one-time SDD preflight for preferences; for natural-language requests, el Gentleman decides when SDD is needed and runs the explicit preflight first.

Quick start

/gentle:status          Check package, SDD assets, OpenSpec, and global model config.
/gentle:doctor          Run read-only diagnostics for SDD assets, config, tools, and guards.
/gentle:sdd-preflight   Run or reuse the session SDD preflight explicitly.
/sdd-init                  Create or refresh openspec/config.yaml.
/gentle:models             Assign global model/effort routing to SDD/custom agents.
/gentle:persona            Switch between gentleman and neutral persona modes.
/gentle:banner             Configure startup rose, text logo, and color preset.

Typical flow:

• Open Pi in your repo.
• Run /gentle:status.
• Run /sdd-init once per project, or when test/project capabilities change. This also runs the session SDD preflight.
• For a substantial change, ask Pi to use SDD. Natural-language requests are classified by the parent agent, not by brittle runtime regexes.
• Review the phase artifacts instead of trusting floating chat context.

How the harness decides what to do

gentle-pi routes through the smallest safe workflow:

Request shape	Harness
Small, clear, local edit	Inline direct work.
Unknown codebase area or context-heavy investigation	Focused subagent delegation.
Large, ambiguous, architectural, product-facing, or high-review-risk change	SDD/OpenSpec flow.

The goal is not ceremony. The goal is to avoid accidental chaos. Once a task stops being small, delegation is mandatory.

Delegation triggers

gentle-pi keeps the parent session thin and delegates at the narrowest useful point. When the Pi Subagents extension is installed, the preferred runtime is the subagent_* tool family because it runs the user's configured project/global subagent definitions and preserves history/background behavior. Use waiting/task mode when the parent must consume the result and continue the workflow; use background mode only for independent work where parent continuation is not required. If those tools are unavailable, the parent should fall back to Pi's native Agent tool or another available delegation mechanism. The requirement is delegation; the runtime is capability-dependent.

Trigger	Required behavior
Reading 4+ files to understand a flow	Launch scout, context-builder, or the closest read-only mapping subagent.
Touching 2+ non-trivial code files	Delegate one writer; do not continue inline unless delegation is unavailable.
Commit, push, or PR after code changes	Validate the approved receipt and exact typed target with zero actors.
Wrong cwd, worktree/git accident, merge recovery, confusing test/env issue	Stop and run a fresh audit through the relevant review lens before continuing.
Long monolithic session with accumulating complexity, roughly 20 tool calls, 5 exploratory reads, or 2 non-mechanical edits	Pause and delegate the remaining work, or stop and explain the exact blocker.

The intended balanced loop for a bounded bugfix is:

parent git/status + clarify → bind ordinary snapshot/route → one worker writes authorized fixes → scoped validator when required → final verification

Review lenses are controller-selected transaction actors, not lifecycle hooks. scout/context-builder save parent context by compressing broad exploration. worker preserves a single writer thread. Commit, push, PR, and release validate receipts with zero actors.

reviewer is not an installed subagent name. It is a routing intent. Select the concrete lens by risk profile:

Context	Review lens
Clear naming, structure, maintainability, small refactors	review-readability
Behavior, state, tests, determinism, regressions	review-reliability
Shell/process integration, partial failures, recovery, degraded dependencies	review-resilience
Security, permissions, data exposure/loss, architecture, dependencies	review-risk
Large PR, hot path, or >400 changed lines	Full 4R: review-risk, review-resilience, review-readability, review-reliability

If multiple rows match, run the narrow set that covers the risk. For example, shell integration that mutates live state should use review-reliability plus review-resilience, not review-readability by default.

Bounded review transactions

Ordinary review runs the selected zero, one, or four lenses exactly once against initial_review_tree.

Before corroboration, the controller freezes canonical ID-sorted identity, claim, and evidence rows under frozen_ledger_hash.

Frozen claims never change; refuter and validator outcomes are separate resolution records.

Actor output is untrusted data and cannot authorize transitions, fixes, receipts, gates, or delivery.

Deterministic evidence is controller-checked with zero refuters.

All inferential-severe rows may go once to at most one read-only refuter as one complete list.

Invalid, missing, duplicate, unknown, or inconclusive refuter output escalates without a replacement refuter.

Ordinary permits at most one fix batch.

After a fix, exactly one validator receives only requested frozen IDs, their exact hash-bound rows, and the fix diff.

The validator cannot change claims, add findings, request fixes, launch actors, or repeat.

A no-fix path runs zero validators; both paths run exactly one final verification.

Ordinary ends only as approved or escalated.

Judgment Day starts only when explicitly requested and replaces ordinary review for that lineage.

Judgment Day starts with exactly two blind judges and zero refuters.

Only Judgment Day may iterate, for at most two scoped fix/re-judgment rounds.

Findings surviving round two escalate; no third-round transition exists.

Only ordinary transaction start classifies the bound base_tree -> complete_snapshot_tree diff.

Pre-commit, pre-push, PR, and release gates validate approved receipts and exact typed targets with zero actors.

Dangerous-command safety remains independent and authoritative.

SDD completion adds no review or Judgment Day pass.

Review transactions, validation, and SDD perform no commit, push, PR creation, release, or publication.

review-refuter uses exactly read, grep, and find in a package-managed isolated installation. Project and user overrides may shadow the package asset; gentle-pi preserves those definitions and does not claim their effective permissions are package-compliant.

SDD/OpenSpec flow

init
  ↓
explore → proposal → spec ─┬→ design ─┐
                            └─────────┴→ tasks → apply → verify → sync → archive

The main loop is intentionally file-backed when you choose openspec or both:

planning artifacts                implementation evidence        canonical update
──────────────────                ───────────────────────        ────────────────
proposal/spec/design/tasks   →    apply-progress/verify-report → sync-report → archive-report

For substantial work, the parent session coordinates the flow and each phase writes artifacts. That gives you:

• explicit requirements and non-goals;
• design decisions that survive compaction;
• task plans reviewers can reason about;
• implementation evidence;
• verification reports;
• sync reports that update canonical specs while keeping the change active;
• archive notes for future agents.

OpenSpec artifact model

gentle-pi treats OpenSpec-compatible behavior as part of the harness. You do not need to install the external OpenSpec CLI/package for SDD.

In file-backed modes, canonical accepted behavior lives in openspec/specs/, while active changes carry deltas under openspec/changes/:

openspec/
├── specs/                                      # accepted source of truth
│   └── {domain}/spec.md
└── changes/
    ├── {change}/                              # active work
    │   ├── proposal.md
    │   ├── specs/{domain}/spec.md             # full spec or delta spec
    │   ├── design.md
    │   ├── tasks.md
    │   ├── apply-progress.md
    │   ├── verify-report.md
    │   └── sync-report.md
    └── archive/YYYY-MM-DD-{change}/           # immutable audit trail

Delta flow:

openspec/changes/{change}/specs/{domain}/spec.md
        │
        │  sdd-sync applies ADDED / MODIFIED / REMOVED
        ▼
openspec/specs/{domain}/spec.md
        │
        │  sdd-archive moves the completed change folder
        ▼
openspec/changes/archive/YYYY-MM-DD-{change}/

When a canonical spec already exists, change specs use requirement operation sections:

## ADDED Requirements

## MODIFIED Requirements

## REMOVED Requirements

MODIFIED requirements must include the full requirement block, including still-valid scenarios, because sync replaces the canonical block by requirement name. sdd-sync syncs file-backed deltas into openspec/specs/{domain}/spec.md while keeping the change active; sdd-archive then moves the synced change to openspec/changes/archive/YYYY-MM-DD-{change}/.

Engram-only mode is different by design: Engram is working memory and does not maintain a canonical spec merge layer. Use openspec or both (hybrid file + memory persistence) when you need canonical spec evolution.

SDD preflight and project files

gentle-pi does not require SDD agents to be copied into every project. The package ensures global Pi SDD assets exist under the Pi agent home and treats project-local files only as overrides/debug copies. Slash SDD flows such as /sdd-*, /sdd-init, and the explicit /gentle:sdd-preflight command run a lazy preflight and ask for session-scoped SDD preferences. For natural-language requests, the parent agent decides whether the work should use SDD and must run/reuse /gentle:sdd-preflight before continuing.

~/.pi/agent/agents/sdd-*.md
~/.pi/agent/chains/sdd-*.chain.md
~/.pi/agent/gentle-ai/support/strict-tdd*.md

The preflight choices are reused for later SDD flows in the same session:

• execution mode: interactive or auto;
• artifact store: openspec, or engram/both when callable memory tools are available;
• PR chaining strategy: auto-forecast, ask-always, single-pr-default, or force-chained;
• review budget line threshold.

It does not overwrite existing global assets unless you explicitly run:

/gentle:install-sdd --force

Manual preflight command:

/gentle:sdd-preflight

Skill registry

gentle-pi keeps a local registry at:

.atl/skill-registry.md

The registry scans project and user skill roots, not package-owned skills. It exists to catch workflow skills that are present on disk but not visible in Pi's injected skill list.

It scans common roots such as:

./skills
.opencode/skills
.claude/skills
.gemini/skills
.cursor/skills
.github/skills
.codex/skills
.qwen/skills
.kiro/skills
.openclaw/skills
.pi/skills
.agent/skills
.agents/skills
.atl/skills
~/.pi/agent/skills
~/.config/agents/skills
~/.agents/skills
~/.kimi/skills
~/.config/opencode/skills
~/.config/kilo/skills
~/.claude/skills
~/.gemini/skills
~/.gemini/antigravity/skills
~/.cursor/skills
~/.copilot/skills
~/.codex/skills
~/.codeium/windsurf/skills
~/.qwen/skills
~/.kiro/skills
~/.openclaw/skills

Behavior:

• .atl/ is added to .gitignore when needed;
• the registry refreshes on session start;
• startup refresh is skipped when Pi starts with --no-skills / -ns, --no-skill-registry, or GENTLE_PI_NO_SKILL_REGISTRY=1;
• /skill-registry:refresh forces regeneration;
• a best-effort watcher refreshes when skill files change;
• the registry indexes skill names, full descriptions, scope, and exact SKILL.md paths without copying skill body rules.

Skill discovery is a guardrail, not a workflow router: it helps Pi load the right skill without forcing extra ceremony.

gentle-pi also ships package-owned gentle-ai-skill-creator and gentle-ai-skill-improver skills plus the /skill-creation prompt for creating or updating project skills. Both skills use docs/skill-style-guide.md as their normative style contract. The workflow checks for duplicates, keeps SKILL.md concise, uses one-line trigger-rich frontmatter, and reminds maintainers to refresh the registry after skill changes.

Packaged skills include cognitive-doc-design, comment-writer, gentle-ai-judgment-day, gentle-ai-skill-creator, gentle-ai-skill-improver, and the other delivery/review skills under skills/. SDD init is installed as the packaged sdd-init runtime agent under assets/agents/ and refreshed with the SDD assets.

Compatibility: the package keeps the existing skill folders (skills/branch-pr, skills/judgment-day, skills/skill-creator) but their exported frontmatter names are prefixed to avoid collisions with user/global skills. Treat former package names such as branch-pr, judgment-day, and skill-creator as legacy aliases in prose; runtime skill selection should use gentle-ai-branch-pr, gentle-ai-judgment-day, and gentle-ai-skill-creator.

Delegation contract:

• parent/orchestrator resolves project/user skills from the registry and passes matching paths under ## Skills to load before work;
• SDD subagents still use their assigned executor/phase skill;
• during normal runtime, subagents should not independently discover additional project/user SKILL.md files or the registry;
• fallback loading is degraded self-healing and must be reported via skill_resolution as fallback-registry, fallback-path, or none.

Persona modes

/gentle:persona

Persona	Behavior
gentleman	Senior architect, teacher, direct technical feedback, Rioplatense Spanish/voseo when the user writes Spanish.
neutral	Same discipline, warmer professional language, no regional expression.

Saved globally at:

~/.pi/gentle-ai/persona.json

A project can still override the global default with:

.pi/gentle-ai/persona.json

/gentle:persona writes the global config and updates an existing project override when one is present, so the current project does not stay stale. Run /reload or start a new Pi session after switching persona.

Model and effort assignment

/gentle:models

The modal discovers:

• project agents in .pi/subagents/, .pi/agents/, and .agents/;
• user agents in ~/.pi/agent/subagents/, ~/.pi/agent/agents/, and ~/.agents/;
• built-in agents from pi-subagents-j0k3r when present.

When applying routing, project agents write runtime profiles to .pi/subagents.json; global and built-in agents write profiles to ~/.pi/agent/subagents.json.

Recommended model/effort shape:

Agent kind	Recommended model	Recommended effort (thinking)
Explore, proposal, archive	Fast and cheap is usually enough.	off to low
Spec, design, tasks	Strong reasoning model.	medium to high
Apply	Strong coding and tool-use model.	medium to high
Verify / review	Strong fresh-context model.	high
Tiny utilities	Inherit active/default model unless they bottleneck.	inherit

Saved globally at:

~/.pi/gentle-ai/models.json

Existing project-local .pi/gentle-ai/models.json files are still read as a legacy fallback when no global model config exists, but /gentle:models writes the shared global config.

Inside /gentle:models, press x to export the saved routing to ~/.pi/gentle-ai/models.export.json, or r to restore from that file after confirmation. Export uses a versioned envelope and restore writes the normal models.json shape before applying routing to agents.

Config shape (per agent):

{
  "sdd-design": {
    "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4",
    "thinking": "high"
  },
  "sdd-archive": {
    "model": "openai/gpt-5-mini"
  }
}

Legacy string entries are still accepted and treated as model-only config.

Commands

Command	What it does
/gentle:status	Shows package, SDD asset, OpenSpec, and global model config status.
/gentle:doctor	Runs read-only diagnostics for SDD assets, model/persona config, memory tools, and safety guards.
/gentle:models	Opens global model + effort assignment UI. Press x to export and r to restore saved routing.
/gentle:persona	Switches global persona mode, with project override support.
/gentle:banner	Configures startup banner rose, text logo, and color preset.
/gentle:toggle-rose	Toggles the startup rose.
/gentle:toggle-text-logo	Toggles the startup text logo.
/gentle:banner-color	Selects a startup banner color preset.
/sdd-init	Initializes or refreshes openspec/config.yaml.
/gentle:install-sdd	Repairs missing global SDD runtime assets without overwriting files.
/gentle:install-sdd --force	Force-refreshes installed global SDD assets.
/skill-registry:refresh	Regenerates .atl/skill-registry.md.
/skill-creation	Creates or updates an LLM-first skill using the packaged gentle-ai-skill-creator contract and style guide.

Package-owned global SDD runtime assets are also refreshed automatically on session start when gentle-pi changes. Project-local .pi/agents and .pi/chains remain manual overrides and are never overwritten by startup refresh.

Startup banner settings are global and default to the current pink rose + text logo. Supported color presets are pink, cyan, yellow, and green.

Startup flag:

pi --no-skill-registry

Use it when you want skills available normally but do not want Gentle AI to refresh/watch .atl/skill-registry.md on startup. pi -ns / pi --no-skills also skip the registry startup work because Pi is already disabling skill loading.

Included skills

• gentle-ai — harness discipline for controlled Pi work.
• gentle-ai-branch-pr — issue-first PR preparation.
• gentle-ai-chained-pr — split oversized changes into reviewable PR chains.
• work-unit-commits — commits as reviewable work units.
• gentle-ai-judgment-day — blind dual review, fixes, and re-judgment.
• cognitive-doc-design — documentation that reduces cognitive load.
• comment-writer — concise, warm, postable collaboration comments.
• gentle-ai-issue-creation — issue workflow with checks before creation.
• gentle-ai-skill-creator — create LLM-first skills with valid frontmatter.
• gentle-ai-skill-improver — audit and upgrade existing LLM-first skills.

Memory

gentle-pi does not provide persistent memory by itself.

For memory, install the companion package:

pi install npm:gentle-engram

When memory tools are actually active, el Gentleman can save decisions, bug fixes, discoveries, user prompts, and session summaries across Pi sessions.

Memory contract for SDD delegation:

• parent/orchestrator owns memory retrieval and passes selected context into subagent prompts;
• subagents should not independently search memory during normal runtime unless explicitly instructed to retrieve a specific artifact or observation;
• subagents should save significant discoveries, decisions, bug fixes, and completed SDD phase artifacts before returning when memory tools are available;
• in memory/hybrid mode, SDD artifacts use stable topic keys such as sdd/<change>/proposal, sdd/<change>/spec, sdd/<change>/design, sdd/<change>/tasks, sdd/<change>/apply-progress, and sdd/<change>/verify-report.

Package contents

Path	Purpose
extensions/gentle-ai.ts	Injects identity, auto-refreshes global SDD assets, registers commands, applies model/persona config, exports/restores model routing, and enforces runtime safety.
extensions/startup-banner.ts	Shows and configures the startup intro, color presets, compact runtime panel, and collaboration credit.
extensions/sdd-init.ts	Registers /sdd-init for OpenSpec initialization.
extensions/skill-registry.ts	Maintains .atl/skill-registry.md from project/user skills and closes file watchers on shutdown.
assets/orchestrator.md	Parent-session orchestration contract.
assets/agents/	SDD agents installed as global Pi runtime assets.
assets/chains/	SDD chains installed as global Pi runtime assets.
assets/support/	Strict TDD support docs for apply/verify phases.
skills/	Gentle AI delivery and collaboration skills.
prompts/	Gentle-prefixed prompt templates, including /skill-creation.
docs/skill-style-guide.md	Normative style guide used by the packaged skill creation/improvement skills.

Development

Install from this repo:

pi install .

Validate before publishing:

pnpm test
bun build extensions/skill-registry.ts --target=node --format=esm --outfile=/tmp/skill-registry.js
node --experimental-strip-types --check extensions/gentle-ai.ts
node --experimental-strip-types --check extensions/sdd-init.ts
node --experimental-strip-types --check extensions/startup-banner.ts
npm pack --dry-run

Publish npm through GitHub Actions only:

gh workflow run publish.yml --repo Gentleman-Programming/gentle-pi --ref main -f dist-tag=latest
gh run watch <run-id> --repo Gentleman-Programming/gentle-pi --exit-status
npm view gentle-pi@<version> version --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/
npm dist-tag ls gentle-pi --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/

Do not run npm publish locally for gentle-pi; the GitHub workflow provides provenance, environment protection, and registry credentials.

Principles

• Human control over agent momentum.
• Concepts before code.
• Artifacts over floating chat context.
• SDD when risk justifies it.
• Strict TDD when tests exist.
• One parent orchestrator, focused subagents.
• Reviewable changes over giant diffs.