PiLot Studio lives in the VS Code Activity Bar as a webview sidebar. The same interface can also open in an editor tab. It has four persistent areas: the header, the icon rail, the active panel, and the status line.

The header is the control strip above the panels.

Model summary. Shows the current model, its provider, and the active thinking level. Click it to open the model picker.
Favorites. A star button appears when you have favorite models, giving you a quick-select list.
New session. Starts a fresh conversation without leaving the current tab.
Rename session. Renames the active session. Sessions also get an automatic name from the first messages.
Thinking level. Changes the reasoning level for the current model. The list is clamped to the levels the model advertises.
Help / Tour. Opens the onboarding tour.
Updates. Appears when a newer PI release or package update is available. Click it to run the update flow.
Light badge. Shown while Light Mode is active.

On narrow sidebars some labels collapse to icons; hover a control to see its name.

The icon rail

The left rail switches panels. Hovering an icon shows its title, and the number keys switch tabs while focus is not inside a text field.

Key	Panel	What it is for
`1`	Conversation	The chat transcript and composer.
`2`	History	All sessions in the current workspace.
`3`	Models	The model catalog, search, and favorites.
`4`	Providers	API keys, OAuth sign-in, and custom providers.
`5`	Capabilities	Built-in tools, presets, and custom tool names.
`6`	Packages	Installed PI packages and the npm package marketplace.
`7`	Skills	Loaded skills, their sources, and extra skill paths.
`8`	System Prompt	The live system prompt for the active session.
`9`	Preferences	PiLot settings, codemode settings, shortcuts, and config files.
`0`	MCP Servers	Global and project MCP servers, tools, and exposure.

The rail's visual order is Conversation, History, Models, Providers, Capabilities, Packages, MCP, Skills, System Prompt, and Preferences. MCP sits between Packages and Skills but keeps the 0 shortcut.

The composer

The composer at the bottom of the Conversation panel is where prompts start.

Enter sends. Shift+Enter inserts a newline.
@ opens workspace file autocomplete. The selected path is inserted as an @mention; the file contents are added to the prompt when it is sent.
/ opens slash-command autocomplete. Use the arrow keys to move, Tab or Enter to accept.
Attach opens a file picker and inserts the selected workspace paths as mentions.
Images can be dropped onto the composer or pasted from the clipboard. PNG, JPG, GIF, and WebP are accepted, up to six images per prompt and 10 MB each.
Voice starts local dictation when the microphone button is enabled.
Search opens in-chat search (Ctrl+F), with F3 and Shift+F3 to move between matches.
Prompt Templates opens the built-in template library.
Export opens the session export dialog (HTML, Markdown, or JSONL).
Stop replaces Send while a response is streaming.

Above the composer, a token strip reports input, output, cache-read, and total tokens for the session. The context indicator shows how much of the model's context window is in use; click it to compact the session manually.

Context badges

When a session has resources, a Context strip appears at the top of the chat. It shows counts for context files, skills, extensions, prompt templates, and tools loaded into the session. Hover a badge to see the paths or names.

Context files are PI's AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md discovery results. They are separate from the @ mentions you type; mentions are per-prompt, while context files are part of the session's resource set.

Status line

The bottom status line mirrors the PI terminal interface:

current working directory,
Git branch when the folder is a repository,
session name,
and transient statuses reported by extensions and tools.

Editor tabs

Two commands open the same chat in an editor tab instead of the sidebar:

PiLot Studio: Open Current Session in Editor (pi-agent.openCurrentSessionInEditor)
PiLot Studio: New Chat in Editor (pi-agent.newChatInEditor)

This is useful on a second monitor or when you want the chat beside the file you are editing. The sidebar and the editor panel operate on the same session.

Light Mode

Light Mode is a reduced runtime for local models. It is equivalent to starting PI with:

pi --no-skills --no-extensions --no-context-files --no-prompt-templates --no-themes --tools read,bash,edit,write

While it is active:

skill, extension, package, prompt-template, and theme discovery are skipped;
Auto Context is forced off;
the default tool set is restricted to read, bash, edit, and write;
the header shows a Light badge and the status bar shows PI Light;
changing the toggle restarts the current session with its transcript preserved.

An explicit review or custom tool preset keeps its own tool behavior; the Light Mode restriction applies to the default preset. Turn Light Mode off in Preferences → Agent Behavior or with the PiLot Studio: Toggle PI Light Mode command.

Layout tips

Drag the Activity Bar view wider to give the transcript more room. The layout responds down to a narrow sidebar.
Use the editor tab when you need two chats side by side.
Press Escape to close dialogs, dropdowns, and the search bar.
The Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts section lists the shortcuts that work outside the composer.

The PiLot Studio workspace

Header