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Show HN: Sidequest is a better /btw for Pi

Sidequest, a new extension for the Pi AI agent, provides a side channel for context-aware questions without disrupting the main conversation. It offers threaded, persistent, and tool-capable interactions, and can be installed via npm or GitHub.

read1 min views1 publishedJun 29, 2026
Show HN: Sidequest is a better /btw for Pi
Image: source

Sidequest gives Pi a side channel: ask context-aware questions without pulling the main conversation off track.

Think of it as a better /btw

: grounded in the active Pi session, threaded, persistent, and tool-capable.

From npm:

pi install npm:pi-sidequest

From GitHub:

pi install git:github.com/peterp/pi-sidequest

For local development:

pi -e /absolute/path/to/pi-sidequest

Or link src/

as an auto-discovered extension directory:

ln -s /absolute/path/to/pi-sidequest/src ~/.pi/agent/extensions/sidequest

Open Sidequest inside Pi:

/sidequest

Default quake console keys:

§
~

Sidequest has two focus areas:

  • selection: choose root or a thread
  • prompt: type and ask the next question

Press Tab

to move between them. The inactive area shows [tab]

in its border.

Use an env var:

PI_SIDEQUEST_QUAKE_KEY='`'

or a config file:

// ~/.pi/agent/sidequest.json
{
  "quakeKey": "`"
}

Multiple keys are supported:

PI_SIDEQUEST_QUAKE_KEYS='§,~,alt+s'
{
  "quakeKeys": ["§", "~", "alt+s"]
}

Sidequest runs its own isolated, tool-capable Pi worker. By default it enables:

read, grep, find, ls, sidequest_web_search, sidequest_web_fetch

Override the allowlist:

PI_SIDEQUEST_TOOLS='read,grep,find,ls,sidequest_web_search,sidequest_web_fetch'

sidequest_web_search

uses Brave Search when BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY

is set. Otherwise it falls back to DuckDuckGo HTML search. sidequest_web_fetch

fetches public HTTP(S) pages and extracts readable text.

From this directory:

npm pack --dry-run
npm publish
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