pi (pi.dev coding agent)

Field	Value
Format	JSONL transcript
Default store path	`~/.pi/agent/sessions/<encoded-project>/<timestamp>_<uuid>.jsonl`
Env override	`DEJA_PI_ROOT`
deja parser	`internal/sources/pi.go`
Last verified	2026-07-19

Discovery

pi stores session transcripts under ~/.pi/agent/sessions/. Each project directory uses the same ---encoded path scheme as Claude Code, e.g. --Users-max-code-deja-vu-- for /Users/max/code/deja-vu. Within each project directory, session files are named <ISO-timestamp>_<UUID>.jsonl.

File layout

Each .jsonl file is a single session. The first line is always a session header:

{"type":"session","version":3,"id":"<uuid>","timestamp":"<ISO-8601>","cwd":"<absolute-path>"}

Subsequent lines are typed events:

`type`	Description
`session`	Session header (first line only)
`model_change`	Model/provider switch
`thinking_level_change`	Thinking level adjustment
`message`	User prompt, assistant response, or tool result

Message records

Messages use a wrapper envelope:

{
  "type": "message",
  "id": "<hex>",
  "parentId": "<hex-or-null>",
  "timestamp": "<ISO-8601>",
  "message": {
    "role": "user|assistant|toolResult",
    "content": [{"type": "text", "text": "..."}],
    "timestamp": 1784448616190
  }
}

Roles

`message.role`	deja maps to
`user`	`user`
`assistant`	`assistant`
`toolResult`	skipped (tool output, not conversational)

Content

message.content is an array of typed blocks. deja extracts text from blocks where "type": "text". Blocks with "type": "thinking" or "type": "toolCall" are skipped.

Timestamps

Both ISO-8601 strings ("timestamp" in the envelope) and Unix milliseconds ("timestamp" inside message) are observed. The parser uses the envelope timestamp.

Session identity

The id field from the session header line is used as the session ID. The UUID also appears in the filename.

MCP

pi does not include built-in MCP but supports it via the pi-mcp-adapter package (pi install npm:pi-mcp-adapter). The adapter reads ~/.pi/agent/mcp.json with the standard mcpServers shape. deja install pi writes to that file.

Known quirks and drift

Project directory encoding uses -- prefix and suffix (e.g. --Users-max-code-foo--) compared to Claude Code's single - prefix. The resolveEncodedPath function handles both.
Version field observed: 3. No version migration behavior is known.
The parentId chain forms a tree, not a flat list; deja ignores the tree structure and processes messages in file order.

Last verified: 2026-07-19

deja reads this format and nineteen others, and turns what it finds into memory your agents can search. See the harness matrix for what is wired where, or install it and search your own history.