# pi ↔ MemPalace MCP bridge

The canonical source of `~/.pi/agent/extensions/mempalace.ts` — the TypeScript
extension that wires [MemPalace](https://github.com/MemPalace/mempalace)'s MCP
server into the [pi coding-agent](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi)
harness. Installs wake-up context injection, per-tool schema passthrough,
and a `/mempalace-diary` slash-command.

This directory **only** holds the bridge. Pi's own base config (keybindings,
environment loader, settings template) lives in the sibling
[`pi-toolkit`](https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/pi-toolkit) repo — split out
2026-05-05 so [`opencode-devbox`](https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/opencode-devbox)
can build slim containers that include pi without dragging in mempalace's
dependencies (~300 MB).

**Jump to:**
- [What it does](#what-it-does)
- [Transport: local vs external](#transport-local-vs-external)
- [Automatic transcript feeding](#automatic-transcript-feeding)
- [The `Type.Unsafe` gotcha](#the-typeunsafe-gotcha)
- [Deploying pi with mempalace on a new machine](#deploying-pi-with-mempalace-on-a-new-machine)
- [Fail-soft, identity, debugging](#fail-soft)

---

## What it does

1. **Connects to MemPalace** and does the MCP handshake (`initialize` +
   `notifications/initialized` + `tools/list`). By default it **spawns
   `mempalace-mcp`** as a local stdio subprocess (`StdioMcpClient`); if
   `$MEMPALACE_REMOTE_URL` is set it instead talks to a shared MemPalace over
   HTTP (`RemoteMcpClient`) and spawns no local process — see
   [Transport](#transport-local-vs-external).
2. **Registers each MCP tool** as a pi tool with its real `inputSchema`
   passed through via `Type.Unsafe(...)` (see gotcha below).
3. **Wake-up auto-injection** (`before_agent_start`, one-shot per fresh
   session): calls `mempalace_status` + `mempalace_diary_read` and
   injects the result as a `mempalace-wakeup` system message so the
   agent orients itself the way `~/.agents/skills/mempalace/SKILL.md`
   describes. Skipped on resume/fork (context is already in the thread).
4. **Automatic transcript feeding** (`session_shutdown`, and a debounced
   `agent_settled`): stages + mines this pi installation's own session
   transcripts into the palace with no user action needed — **as of
   mempalace-toolkit `29e660e` (2026-08-12); see the version gate below,
   because "the extension is installed" does not imply "this copy can feed"**.
   Unlike the diary
   below, this needs no LLM turn — it's a subprocess + a tool call — so it
   *can* run on `session_shutdown` where the diary cannot. See
   [Automatic transcript feeding](#automatic-transcript-feeding).
5. **Manual wind-down** via a `/mempalace-diary [topic]` slash command:
   sends a prompt asking the LLM to call `mempalace_diary_write` with
   an AAAK-formatted entry summarizing the session. This one stays manual
   because it needs the LLM to compose the entry, and `session_shutdown`
   fires too late to drive another LLM turn — a constraint that applies to
   the diary specifically, not to feeding (see above).

## Automatic transcript feeding

> **⚠️ Version gate — requires mempalace-toolkit ≥ `29e660e` (2026-08-12), and "installed" is not
> the same question as "capable".** Feeding was added to this extension on 2026-08-12. A copy baked
> into a container image built before that date has *no* feed path at all — its entire
> `session_shutdown` handler is `client.stop()` — and it fails the only way a memory system must not:
> silently, looking exactly like a healthy run with nothing to do.
>
> **Check the deployed artifact, never the repo.** `/opt/*` in an image is baked at build time and can
> be days behind a bind-mounted clone, and `~/.pi/agent/extensions/mempalace.ts` is usually a symlink
> *into* that baked copy:
>
> ```sh
> grep -c MEMPALACE_FEED "$(readlink -f ~/.pi/agent/extensions/mempalace.ts)"   # 0 = cannot feed
> ```
>
> Zero hits means this machine needs the fallback recipes in
> [`contrib/`](../../contrib/README.md) until it is rebuilt, regardless of what the toolkit repo's HEAD
> looks like. Date the deployed copy with `stat` plus that content probe — not `git log`, which fails
> with *"detected dubious ownership"* inside a root-owned `/opt` tree. As of 2026-08-14 the whole
> pi-devbox fleet fails this check.

The bridge feeds this pi installation's own session transcripts into the
palace by itself — no scheduler, no cron, no manual invocation. It fires on
`session_shutdown` (covers quit, `/new`, `/resume`, `/fork`) and on a
debounced `agent_settled` (covers a long session that later crashes, since a
hard kill runs no shutdown handler at all).

The work is split across two processes, and the reason is a hard constraint,
not a style choice: **the palace is single-writer.** A live pi session
always holds it through this extension's own `mempalace-mcp` subprocess, so
an unattended `mempalace mine` from anywhere else fails outright with
`palace ... is held by PID <n>`. The bridge therefore:

1. Runs `mempalace-pi-session --prepare --reason <trigger> --wing <wing>` as a
   subprocess. This does every palace-free step — parse pi's JSONL, apply
   the quality threshold, stage the export, and (remote mode only) `rsync`
   it to the palace host — and prints one line, `MINE_SOURCE=<path>`,
   without ever touching the palace.
2. Calls the `mempalace_mine` MCP tool **through this extension's own
   client** on that path. Going through the client that already holds the
   lock is the only way to write during a live session, and it automatically
   targets whichever palace the bridge is pointed at — local stdio or a
   shared remote one.

`mempalace-pi-session` (in this repo's `bin/`) is the actual exporter and
owns the quality gate, the remote transport, and every flag — see its
`--help` for the full reference; this section only covers the extension's
side of the wiring.

**Env knobs (extension side):**

| Var | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| `MEMPALACE_FEED` | `1` | Set `0` to disable automatic feeding entirely. |
| `MEMPALACE_FEED_BIN` | `mempalace-pi-session` | Helper to run. |
| `MEMPALACE_FEED_WING` | `wing_conversations` | Target wing — passed to both the exporter and the `mempalace_mine` call. |
| `MEMPALACE_FEED_DEBOUNCE_MS` | `600000` (10 min) | Minimum gap between mid-session (`agent_settled`) feeds. Bounds crash loss to one window instead of a whole session. |
| `MEMPALACE_FEED_PREPARE_TIMEOUT_MS` | `120000` | Kills a wedged `--prepare` subprocess. |
| `MEMPALACE_FEED_MINE_TIMEOUT_MS` | `30000` | Caps the `mempalace_mine` call so a stalled palace can't hang session exit. |

**Remote palace:** if `$MEMPALACE_REMOTE_URL` is set (see
[Transport](#transport-local-vs-external)), `mempalace_mine`'s source path is
expanded on the *server*, which cannot see this machine's transcripts —
that's exactly why step 1 above rsyncs first in that mode. Configure the
inbox with `MEMPALACE_PI_SSH_TARGET` (required for remote feeding — feeding
is silently skipped without it), `MEMPALACE_PI_SSH_CONFIG`, and
`MEMPALACE_PI_REMOTE_PATH`; see `mempalace-pi-session --help`.

**Concurrency:** overlapping triggers coalesce — a `session_shutdown` landing
while a debounced tick is still running joins that in-flight feed instead of
racing it. `mempalace-pi-session` itself also takes a non-blocking `flock`,
so even two independent invocations (e.g. this extension and the
container-start catch-up some devbox images run) never race each other;
losing that race is harmless because the next trigger re-exports from
scratch.

## Transport: local vs external

The bridge speaks the same MCP protocol over two interchangeable transports,
chosen at load time:

- **Local (default)** — spawns `mempalace-mcp` as a stdio subprocess; the palace
  lives wherever that process opens it (default `~/.mempalace`). This is the
  hardened path with per-request timeouts and respawn/self-heal (below).
- **External** — set `MEMPALACE_REMOTE_URL` to a MemPalace HTTP endpoint (e.g.
  `https://mempalace.jordbo.se/mcp`, the live fleet primary — full path
  including `/mcp`, no trailing slash) and the bridge connects over HTTP
  instead, spawning no local process. Use this to share **one** palace across
  several harnesses/containers (pi + opencode + native).
  `MEMPALACE_REMOTE_TOKEN`, if set, is sent as `Authorization: Bearer <token>`.
  Use `https://` for anything crossing a network — the plaintext `http://`
  example that stood here until 2026-08-14 predated the reverse proxy.

  The two transports are **either/or**, decided once at load time: with the URL
  set, writes go **only** to the remote palace. There is no dual-write, no
  local mirror, and no local `mempalace-mcp` process at all.

  ⚠️ **Consequence: once `MEMPALACE_REMOTE_URL` is set, the `mempalace` CLI on
  that machine is no longer a valid way to inspect or feed the palace the agent
  is using.** The CLI has no remote support whatsoever — its only selector is
  `--palace <path>` — so it reads and writes the LOCAL on-disk archive. After a
  flip that archive is frozen, yet `mempalace status` / `mempalace search`
  still report a plausible drawer count and look exactly like success: a
  false-positive machine. Memories filed with the CLI post-flip land in the
  dead archive, not in the shared palace. Use the agent's own palace tools
  (which go over HTTP), and mine backfills **on the palace host**.

  **Setting these for a *native* pi install — there is no `.env` to edit.**
  Worth stating plainly, because the obvious guess is wrong: **pi loads no
  dotenv file and has no `env` block in `settings.json`**, and this extension
  reads `process.env` and nothing else (`createClient()` →
  `process.env.MEMPALACE_REMOTE_URL`). A native install therefore inherits
  whatever **the shell that launches `pi`** exports — that is the only hook.
  So export them from your shell rc, or from a file it explicitly sources:

  ```sh
  # ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc) — if you keep secrets in ~/.config/pi/.env,
  # nothing sources it for you; do it yourself:
  set -a; [ -f ~/.config/pi/.env ] && . ~/.config/pi/.env; set +a
  ```

  Two traps. A pi launched from a **GUI** (Spotlight, dock, an editor's
  terminal that spawns a non-login shell) does not necessarily read that rc, so
  it can silently stay on the local palace. And exporting the variable in the
  shell where you *edited* the rc does not affect an already-running pi — the
  transport is chosen once at extension load. Confirm the result the same way
  as a container flip: ask the agent for `mempalace_status` and check the
  reported palace path is the **remote** host's, not your own
  `$HOME/.mempalace/palace` — see
  [`docs/phase-1-exposure-runbook.md`](../../docs/phase-1-exposure-runbook.md) §3.8.

  Serve such an endpoint with `mempalace serve --host 172.17.0.1 --port 8765`
  (the `pi-devbox` / `opencode-devbox` repos ship a
  `docker-compose.mempalace.yml` for exactly this).

  **The HTTP transport is authenticated as of mempalace 3.6.0** — earlier docs
  here said otherwise, from the v1.3.0 era. `serve` mints a bearer token, keeps
  it 0600, passes it via the environment (never argv), compares it with
  `hmac.compare_digest`, and **refuses to bind a non-loopback host without one**
  unless `--allow-insecure`. It also pins `Host` and allowlists `Origin`
  (anti-DNS-rebinding), and can terminate TLS itself.

  Two binds to avoid. `0.0.0.0` publishes the palace to the whole LAN. And
  `127.0.0.1` is the trap that looks safe: the Host pin is enforced *only* on
  loopback binds, so behind a tunnel every proxied request 403s — and
  token auto-minting is gated on the bind being non-loopback, so it starts with
  **no authentication at all**, no warning. Bind the docker0 gateway
  (`172.17.0.1`): reachable from the host and its containers, not from the LAN.
  See
  [`docs/phase-1-exposure-runbook.md`](../../docs/phase-1-exposure-runbook.md).

  Implementation note: the HTTP client (`RemoteMcpClient`) is **vendored** from
  [`pi-extensions`](https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/pi-extensions)'
  `mcp-loader.ts`. A `MCP-STREAMABLE-HTTP-CLIENT-SYNC` token keeps the two
  copies from drifting — [`scripts/check-mcp-client-sync.sh`](../../scripts/check-mcp-client-sync.sh)
  fails if they diverge (it skips gracefully when the `pi-extensions` checkout
  isn't present).

## Fail-soft

If `mempalace-mcp` can't be spawned (PATH missing, binary crashes at
startup, …) the extension logs to stderr and returns early. pi keeps
working without palace tools rather than refusing to start.

**In remote mode the triggers differ but the outcome is identical.** An
unreachable server, a DNS failure, or an HTTP 401 from a wrong/expired token
all end the same way: after bounded retries the extension prints
`mempalace-mcp unavailable after retries; continuing without palace tools` and
**does not register the palace tools**.

It is **fail-closed, not fail-local**: it does *not* quietly fall back to the
local palace, so a remote outage can never scatter memories into a local copy
nobody will look at again. The practical corollary, worth knowing before you
debug the wrong layer: **"the agent has no `mempalace_*` tools" is the
expected symptom of a server, token, or DNS fault**, not of a broken install.
Diagnose it with a direct `curl` to `MEMPALACE_REMOTE_URL` — see
[`docs/phase-1-exposure-runbook.md`](../../docs/phase-1-exposure-runbook.md)
§3.8. The design rationale for de-registering rather than degrading is in
[`docs/rfc-001-global-palace.md`](../../docs/rfc-001-global-palace.md) §2 and §4.1.

## Identity

`agent_name` for diary calls comes from `$MEMPALACE_AGENT_NAME`, defaulting
to `"pi"`. First diary write against that identity creates `wing_<name>`
in the palace. Set the env var if you want to run pi under a distinct
identity on a given machine (e.g. `pi-laptop` vs `pi-server`).

## Stall protection (per-request timeout)

Every JSON-RPC request to `mempalace-mcp` carries a timeout. Without it, a
wedged server (classically: an OrbStack/virtiofs cold-open of a large
`chroma.sqlite3` or an HNSW load) leaves the awaiting promise pending
*forever*, which freezes the pi TUI — ESC cancels the LLM stream, not a
pending tool `execute()`. On timeout the extension rejects the request
**and** kills the stalled child (SIGTERM→SIGKILL), so pi gets a clear
error instead of hanging. This is a per-REQUEST timeout, not a process-lifetime
one — the long-lived server is only killed when a request genuinely stalls.

- `MEMPALACE_MCP_TIMEOUT_MS` — tool-call/request timeout. Default `60000`.
  Kept short on purpose: a *query* taking this long is genuinely wedged.
- `MEMPALACE_MCP_INIT_TIMEOUT_MS` — `initialize` + `tools/list` handshake
  timeout. Default `300000`. Deliberately generous: a genuine first
  cold-open over virtiofs can legitimately take minutes, and killing a
  still-progressing init only to respawn and re-pay the same cold cost is
  strictly worse than waiting.
- Set either to `0` to disable (legacy unbounded behavior).

### Self-heal (respawn instead of a permanent latch)

A stall-kill (or any crash) used to be a **permanent** latch: `available`
flipped off and stayed off until you restarted pi. It is now self-healing —
the next tool call transparently respawns `mempalace-mcp` and retries.

- Respawns use **capped exponential backoff** so a persistently-broken
  server can't hot-loop: `MEMPALACE_MCP_MAX_RESPAWNS` attempts (default
  `2`; set `0` to disable self-heal and keep the old fail-fast latch),
  with `MEMPALACE_MCP_RESPAWN_BACKOFF_MS` (default `1000`) doubled per
  attempt.
- The budget **resets on any successful JSON-RPC response** — proof the
  server is actually live — so a server that recovers regains full
  patience, while one that keeps dying hits the cap and stays down (then
  restart pi).
- Why the long init timeout and bounded respawn compose rather than
  overlap: once a server has opened the palace once, the OS page cache is
  warm, so respawn cold-opens are fast. The long init timeout prevents
  killing a healthy *first* cold-open; the respawn handles a genuinely
  dead server cheaply afterwards. (Note the HNSW deserialize is CPU work
  that isn't page-cacheable across spawns, which is exactly why we can't
  rely on respawn-warming alone and keep the generous init budget.)
- The initial startup is tolerant too: if the very first `start()` fails,
  the extension runs the same bounded respawn before falling back to
  fail-soft (pi keeps working without palace tools).

## Debugging

- `MEMPALACE_EXT_DEBUG=1` — surface `mempalace-mcp` stderr into pi's
  stderr. Without this, stderr is drained silently so a misbehaving
  server doesn't flood the TUI.
- If a tool call fails with a generic "Internal tool error", spawn
  `mempalace-mcp` manually with raw JSON-RPC on stdin to read the
  server-side error — much faster than guessing.

## The `Type.Unsafe` gotcha

Earlier versions of this extension registered every MCP tool with
`parameters: Type.Object({}, { additionalProperties: true })`, which
discarded each tool's real `inputSchema`. The LLM then saw no parameter
names and had to guess, leading to bugs like `mempalace_diary_read`
being called with `agent=` instead of the required `agent_name=` and
crashing the Python server with `TypeError: missing 1 required
positional argument`.

The fix (≈ lines 160-170) is to wrap the incoming JSON Schema with
`Type.Unsafe<...>(tool.inputSchema)`. TypeBox schemas are plain JSON
Schema at runtime plus a `Symbol` marker, so wrapping an
externally-sourced schema with `Unsafe` is sufficient — no conversion
to a full TypeBox tree is needed, and the LLM now sees every tool's
real parameter names.

If you ever need to re-loosen the schema for debugging, fall back to
the `Type.Object({}, { additionalProperties: true })` default only for
that specific tool, not globally.

---

## Deploying pi with mempalace on a new machine

This is the "pi + memory" recipe. For pi without mempalace, see
[`pi-toolkit`'s README](https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/pi-toolkit/src/branch/main/README.md#deploying-pi-on-a-new-machine).

### 0. Prerequisites

- Shell: zsh + oh-my-zsh recommended (both toolkits install loaders into
  `~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/`; bash works too, installers print the manual
  `source` snippet).
- `git`, `node` ≥ 20, `uv`, `tmux` ≥ 3.2, pi installed upstream.
- AWS credentials reachable via `AWS_PROFILE` — only if using
  `amazon-bedrock` as pi's provider.

### 1. Dotfiles (if you keep one)

Brings `~/.config/pi/.env` (AWS creds, git-crypt encrypted), tmux CSI-u
extended keys, and other machine state:

```bash
git clone <your-dotfiles> ~/src/dotfiles
cd ~/src/dotfiles
git-crypt unlock <key>
./provision.sh --profile <profile>    # or your equivalent tool
```

### 2. Install pi upstream

```bash
brew install pi-coding-agent       # macOS
# or see https://github.com/earendil-works/pi for Linux
pi --help                          # creates ~/.pi/agent/
```

### 3. Install pi-toolkit (base pi config)

```bash
git clone ssh://git@gitea.jordbo.se:2222/joakimp/pi-toolkit.git ~/pi-toolkit
cd ~/pi-toolkit && ./install.sh
```

Symlinks `keybindings.json`, copies `pi-env.zsh` into
`~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/`, and prints the `settings.json` bootstrap command.

### 4. Bootstrap pi settings

```bash
cp ~/pi-toolkit/settings.example.json ~/.pi/agent/settings.json
$EDITOR ~/.pi/agent/settings.json   # eu./us./anthropic: prefix
```

### 5. Install mempalace CLI + this toolkit

```bash
uv tool install mempalace
git clone ssh://git@gitea.jordbo.se:2222/joakimp/mempalace-toolkit.git ~/mempalace-toolkit
cd ~/mempalace-toolkit && ./install.sh
```

Detects pi, symlinks `mempalace.ts` into `~/.pi/agent/extensions/`.
Also detects pi-toolkit artifacts and prints a green check (or a warning
telling you to install pi-toolkit first if you skipped step 3).

### 6. Register mempalace MCP with opencode (if applicable)

Skip if this box is pi-only. Otherwise:
- Install [`opencode-toolkit`](https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/opencode-toolkit) so `~/.config/opencode/.env` is sourced into every shell (GitHub / Gitea / other MCP server tokens).
- Register the mempalace MCP server in `~/.config/opencode/opencode.json` — see [root README § Registering mempalace with opencode](../../README.md#registering-mempalace-with-opencode-or-other-mcp-clients).

### 7. First run

```bash
exec zsh
pi   # should start with defaults; wake-up injection shows palace status
```

If the wake-up doesn't print, run `MEMPALACE_EXT_DEBUG=1 pi` to surface
`mempalace-mcp` stderr.

### Verification checklist

```bash
# MCP bridge in place
ls -la ~/.pi/agent/extensions/mempalace.ts    # → this repo

# pi-toolkit artifacts also in place
ls -la ~/.pi/agent/keybindings.json           # → pi-toolkit
ls -la ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/pi-env.zsh         # cp from pi-toolkit

# Env loaded
zsh -ic 'echo $AWS_PROFILE $AWS_REGION'

# Palace reachable
mempalace status
```

### Uninstall

```bash
cd ~/mempalace-toolkit && ./install.sh --uninstall --yes   # bridge only
cd ~/pi-toolkit        && ./install.sh --uninstall --yes   # pi base config
# Leaves pi itself, mempalace CLI, and ~/.config/pi/.env alone.
```

---

## File layout

```
mempalace-toolkit/
└── extensions/
    └── pi/
        ├── README.md        ← this file
        └── mempalace.ts     ← symlinked into ~/.pi/agent/extensions/
```

Pi base config (keybindings, env loader, settings template) lives in
[`pi-toolkit`](https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/pi-toolkit). `install.sh`
detects pi via `~/.pi/agent/extensions/` and runs a `check_pi_toolkit`
probe that warns if pi-toolkit's artifacts are missing.