Pi Inngest

Pi + Inngest

Use this when implementing, reviewing, or debugging joelclaw flows where Inngest orchestrates work and Pi provides model execution, tool execution, or harness-native agent behavior.

This skill is joelclaw-specific. It assumes Inngest and Pi are first-class local infrastructure, not incidental dependencies.

When to Use

Load this skill when the task mentions:

• Pi inside Inngest
• pi-ai, @earendil-works/pi-ai, or legacy @mariozechner/pi-ai
• launching pi from an Inngest function
• step.waitForEvent around agent work
• detached Pi CLI children
• link ingest pi/workflow.* events
• service-account Pi auth
• OpenAI Codex OAuth/subscription auth from Pi
• choosing between Pi CLI and direct pi-ai

Also use it when an Inngest function needs LLM context work and the current path is drifting into ad hoc API keys, polling loops, or mystery subprocesses.

Core Rule

Inngest owns durability. Pi owns agent/model execution.

Do not blur that boundary:

• Inngest functions should emit and wait on events, persist claim-check files, and record terminal outcomes.
• Pi CLI should be treated as an external actor, not an in-process library.
• Direct pi-ai is allowed only for bounded model calls where Pi session/harness behavior is not needed.
• Never smuggle raw model API keys into a Pi subprocess when machine OAuth auth is available.

Decision Guide

Bench receipt from 2026-06-20:

• Direct pi-ai in step.run: 2/2 ok, ~5.5-6.5s wall, usage surfaced around 368 tokens / ~$0.0077 per call.
• Detached Pi CLI + result event: 2/2 ok, ~8.0-9.1s wall, wrote pi-session/, pi-output.txt, and pi-result.json.
• Receipt root: /Users/joel/.local/state/joelclaw-central/tmp/pi-runner-bench/e36f592d-786a-4c15-ba1d-affb5820bbdf.

Takeaway: use direct pi-ai for bounded source-context summarization. Use detached Pi CLI when harness parity, tools, session artifacts, or isolation matter.

Service Account Auth Contract

joelclaw Central services should use the macOS joelclaw service account for durable machine-owned auth where practical.

Current local facts:

• Central Inngest runs as com.joelclaw.central.inngest under user joelclaw.
• Joel-user clients/canaries may still run as Joel when they write Joel-side Brain files.
• Pi auth is file-backed by auth.json in Pi's agent dir.
• Pi agent dir is resolved by PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR; otherwise Pi uses ~/.pi/agent for the current OS user.
• The verified model lane for this work is openai-codex/gpt-5.6-sol.

For durable service access:

1. Prefer a real service-owned Pi agent dir, usually:

/Users/joelclaw/.pi/agent

2. Set this explicitly in launchd/env for any service that calls Pi or pi-ai:

PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR=/Users/joelclaw/.pi/agent

3. Keep auth.json owned by joelclaw and mode 0600 or stricter. Never print it.

4. Verify auth without printing tokens:

sudo -u joelclaw \
  PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR=/Users/joelclaw/.pi/agent \
  node --input-type=module <<'NODE'
import { AuthStorage, ModelRegistry } from '@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent';
import { getModel } from '@earendil-works/pi-ai';

const provider = 'openai-codex';
const model = getModel(provider, 'gpt-5.6-sol');
const registry = ModelRegistry.create(AuthStorage.create());
const auth = await registry.getApiKeyAndHeaders(model);
console.log(JSON.stringify({
  provider,
  status: registry.getProviderAuthStatus(provider),
  ok: auth.ok,
  hasApiKey: Boolean(auth.apiKey),
  hasHeaders: Boolean(auth.headers && Object.keys(auth.headers).length),
  error: auth.error,
}, null, 2));
NODE

Expected safe shape:

{
  "provider": "openai-codex",
  "status": { "configured": true, "source": "stored" },
  "ok": true,
  "hasApiKey": true
}

Do not rely on Joel's personal ~/.pi/agent/auth.json from a Central service unless the service intentionally runs as Joel. Do not copy auth across accounts casually. If a one-time migration is unavoidable, record it as an explicit operator action, preserve 0600 permissions, and verify via the safe status check above.

Bridging Joel auth to the service account

Best options, in order:

1. Independent service login: run Pi OAuth login under joelclaw with PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR=/Users/joelclaw/.pi/agent. This is cleanest but requires an interactive browser/device-code flow.
2. One-time provider bridge: copy only the openai-codex OAuth credential from Joel's Pi auth store into the joelclaw Pi auth store. This grants the service account Joel's subscription-backed Codex access, so treat it as a privileged operator action.
3. Do not symlink auth files across accounts. Shared lock files, refresh races, ownership, and /Users/joel permissions make this fucky and fragile.

Repo helper:

cd /Users/joel/Code/joelhooks/joelclaw-central
scripts/setup-pi-service-auth.sh --dry-run
sudo scripts/setup-pi-service-auth.sh --apply
sudo scripts/setup-pi-service-auth.sh --test

The helper:

• copies only the openai-codex OAuth credential;
• installs a service-readable Pi package wrapper at /Users/Shared/joelclaw/bin/pi because Joel's personal global Pi install lives under /Users/joel/.local/share, which the service account should not depend on;
• sets and tests PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR=/Users/joelclaw/.pi/agent;
• verifies both AuthStorage/ModelRegistry and the Pi CLI as joelclaw without printing tokens.

Utah Sidecar Lesson

Utah's sidecar-management skill has the right shape: small dynamic Inngest functions live in a watched workspace, reconnect automatically, and notify the main agent by event. Steal the shape, not the names.

For joelclaw, the equivalent doctrine is:

• keep core runtime stable;
• let small event handlers/workflows be loaded as sidecar-style functions where practical;
• one function per file;
• no top-level side effects;
• watcher/reconnect beats manual restart for operator iteration;
• functions communicate by events and claim-check paths, not direct session poking;
• use structured logs, because sidecar bugs without logs are archaeology.

This pairs naturally with Pi-Inngest: sidecar functions can choose direct pi-ai for small model steps or detached Pi CLI for harness-native work.

Pattern A: Direct pi-ai in step.run

Use this for bounded model calls where a Pi session is unnecessary.

Implementation Skeleton

Declare package dependencies in the package doing the work. Do not import from a global absolute install path in production code; scratch tests may do that only as a receipt-gathering hack.

import { Inngest } from 'inngest';
import { complete, getModel } from '@earendil-works/pi-ai';
import { AuthStorage, ModelRegistry } from '@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent';

const inngest = new Inngest({ id: 'joelclaw-example' });

async function runPiAiSummary(prompt: string) {
  const model = getModel('openai-codex', 'gpt-5.6-sol');
  const registry = ModelRegistry.create(AuthStorage.create());
  const auth = await registry.getApiKeyAndHeaders(model);

  if (!auth.ok || !auth.apiKey) {
    throw new Error(auth.error || 'missing openai-codex auth');
  }

  const result = await complete(
    model,
    {
      systemPrompt: 'Return concise, grounded JSON only.',
      messages: [{ role: 'user', content: prompt, timestamp: Date.now() }],
      tools: [],
    },
    { apiKey: auth.apiKey, headers: auth.headers },
  );

  const text = result.content
    .filter((part) => part.type === 'text')
    .map((part) => part.text)
    .join('');

  return {
    text,
    usage: result.usage,
    stopReason: result.stopReason,
  };
}

export const summarize = inngest.createFunction(
  { id: 'summarize-with-pi-ai', retries: 2, triggers: [{ event: 'source/summary.requested' }] },
  async ({ event, step }) => {
    return await step.run('complete-pi-ai', async () =>
      runPiAiSummary(event.data.prompt),
    );
  },
);

Rules

• Keep prompts bounded and deterministic.
• Keep calls inside step.run idempotent or make output writes idempotent.
• Surface usage and stopReason in receipts when useful.
• Do not use this path if the work needs Pi tools, filesystem edits via Pi, skills, extensions, or a Pi session log.
• Do not manually read or print auth.json; use AuthStorage / ModelRegistry and print only booleans/status.

Pattern B: Detached Pi CLI + Event Result

Use this for real Pi harness work.

The shape:

1. Inngest receives pi/workflow.requested.
2. A short step.run writes pi-request.json and spawns a detached child/wrapper.
3. The wrapper invokes pi -p @pi-prompt.md with a filtered environment.
4. The child writes pi-result.json and artifacts under a claim-check directory.
5. The wrapper emits pi/workflow.result.ready with { workflowId, sourceId, resultPath }.
6. The parent function uses step.waitForEvent to wait for that result.
7. A result step reads pi-result.json and emits one of:
   • pi/workflow.context.completed
   • pi/workflow.needs_human
   • pi/workflow.failed

Event Names

Use explicit event names. For link ingest, prefer:

pi/workflow.requested
pi/workflow.result.ready
pi/workflow.context.completed
pi/workflow.needs_human
pi/workflow.failed

The wait event must match a stable unique ID, usually data.workflowId.

Do not match only sourceId when multiple workflows can run for the same source.

Inngest Skeleton

export const piWorkflowCli = inngest.createFunction(
  {
    id: 'pi-workflow-cli',
    retries: 0,
    triggers: [{ event: 'pi/workflow.requested' }],
  },
  async ({ event, step }) => {
    const { workflowId, sourceId } = event.data;

    await step.run('start-detached-pi-cli', async () => {
      const requestPath = await writePiRequestClaimCheck(event.data);
      spawnDetachedPiWrapper({ workflowId, sourceId, requestPath });
      return { workflowId, sourceId, requestPath };
    });

    const resultEvent = await step.waitForEvent('wait-for-pi-workflow-result', {
      event: 'pi/workflow.result.ready',
      timeout: '4m',
      match: 'data.workflowId',
    });

    if (!resultEvent) {
      const failure = await step.run('write-timeout-failure', async () =>
        writePiWorkflowFailureContext({ workflowId, sourceId, reason: 'timeout' }),
      );
      await step.sendEvent('emit-pi-workflow-failed', {
        name: 'pi/workflow.failed',
        data: failure,
      });
      return failure;
    }

    const result = await step.run('read-pi-result', async () =>
      readJson(resultEvent.data.resultPath),
    );

    await step.sendEvent('emit-terminal-pi-event', routePiResultToEvent(result));
    return result;
  },
);

Pi Wrapper Rules

• Use spawn, not execFile, for long Pi sessions. execFile(pi) has hung under Node pipe capture on this machine.
• Detach the child from the Inngest function process when the work may be long.
• Give the Pi subprocess only the env it needs:
  • HOME
  • USER / LOGNAME
  • PATH
  • SHELL
  • PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR
  • harmless display/color/session env if needed
• Do not pass INNGEST_EVENT_KEY, webhook secrets, Discord tokens, or broad service env into the pi subprocess.
• The wrapper may hold Inngest dispatch auth to emit pi/workflow.result.ready; the Pi CLI child should not need it.
• Write all large or detailed outputs as files, then send event claim-check paths.

CLI Invocation Defaults

For link-ingest style context work:

pi \
  --model openai-codex/gpt-5.6-sol \
  --thinking low \
  --no-extensions \
  --no-context-files \
  --no-skills \
  --no-prompt-templates \
  --no-themes \
  --session-dir "$WORKFLOW_DIR/pi-session" \
  --name "Link Ingest Context" \
  --tools read \
  -p "@$WORKFLOW_DIR/pi-prompt.md"

Tighten or expand tools intentionally. Default to read-only for source-context work.

Failure Handling

Every Pi-Inngest path needs a terminal event.

• Direct pi-ai errors should fail the step or emit a typed failure event with a claim-check receipt.
• Detached Pi CLI start failures must write failure context and emit pi/workflow.failed.
• Timeout failures must write a timeout receipt before emitting failure.
• Global Inngest failure handlers can add observability, but they are not a replacement for workflow-level terminal events.

For Discord-facing flows, keep progress quiet:

• registry/manifest progress only during work.
• Discord gets terminal indexed/failed or focused HITL only.

Testing Checklist

Before calling a Pi-Inngest implementation done:

1. Verify service auth without printing secrets.
2. Run a direct pi-ai smoke if that path is used.
3. Run a detached Pi CLI child smoke if that path is used.
4. Prove step.waitForEvent resumes from pi/workflow.result.ready.
5. Prove timeout writes a failure claim-check and emits terminal failure.
6. Verify the Pi child environment does not include unnecessary service secrets.
7. Check logs/receipts and keep reusable findings in Brain.

Useful local receipts from the link-ingest runner work live in:

/Users/joel/.brain/projects/joelclaw-link-ingest-2026-06-17.svx
/Users/joel/Code/joelhooks/joelclaw-central/.brain/projects/link-ingest-router-2026-06-17.svx

Documentation Rule

Use this skill for reusable implementation doctrine.

Use Brain for live project memory and receipts.

Use repo scripts/tests for executable proofs.

Do not bury operational truth only in chat transcripts. Chat is compost, not storage. 🐀