Tauren is a transparent AI coding assistant for VS Code, built on Pi, focused on session-based workflows, code traceability and customizability.
Documentation · VS Code Marketplace · Pi documentation
Philosophy
Tauren follows the same direction as Pi, the backend agent engine it builds on:
- full insight into every tool call
- no hidden prompts
- no black magic
If your clanker followed Order 66 again, Tauren will at least show you exactly what happened.
Features
Trace Origin & Session Diffs
Jump from code back to the historical agent session that created it.
Tauren can reconnect:
- current code
- historical agent context
- related Git commits
- reasoning history
Even across refactors and file moves.
From there, session diffs make it easy to inspect exactly what changed during the session.
Customization via Pi extensions
Aiming to stay on par with everything the ecosystem supports. Today it has:
- Widgets, above and below the prompt
- Status lines
- Themeable Custom UI overlays to support questionnaire plugins and the like
- All fully aware of ANSI escape sequences and the Kitty protocol
- Support for TUI-image rendering and other quirks
What else?
Tauren builds on top of the Pi engine's existing capabilities:
- Tree-based session management
- Resumable sessions
- Transparent tool execution
In addition, it brings to the table:
- A keyboard-centric workflow
- Parallel / background sessions
- IDE context
- File attachments (Drag'n'drop, Copy&Paste, Mouse'n'Click)
- Guardrails to restrict the agent to the workspace, if that's your thing
Can it run Doom?
You bet! And because Τ=2*π, it runs it twice:
Requirements / Setup
Install Tauren, open the Tauren sidebar, then use the settings gear to configure provider authentication and model defaults.
If you already use Pi outside VS Code, Tauren can reuse your existing Pi runtime configuration where applicable. Optional CLI setup looks like:
npm install -g @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent
pi
/login
For more detail, see the Tauren setup docs or the Pi documentation.
Using Tauren
Tauren is heavily keyboard-oriented. I recommend: Play around with the Esc-key.
Everything else is mostly discoverable. If not, /hotkeys is your friend.
Development
npm install
npm run compile
Run tests with:
npm test
For local development in VS Code, launch the extension host from the provided VS Code launch configuration.
License
MIT