[Pi Series 5] Installable pi packages 1: productivity basics

In the previous post, we covered how to install, check, update, and remove pi packages. Now we can look at packages that are useful right away.

This post focuses on general-purpose productivity packages.

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Packages covered in this post

pi install npm:pi-resource-center
pi install npm:@eko24ive/pi-ask
pi install npm:pi-docparser

Their roles are:

Package	Role
pi-resource-center	Browse and manage packages, extensions, skills, prompts, and themes
@eko24ive/pi-ask	Let the agent ask structured questions instead of guessing
pi-docparser	Parse PDFs, Office documents, images, CSV files, and more

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1. pi-resource-center

Install

pi install npm:pi-resource-center

Reload inside pi after installation.

/reload

Use

Open the resource browser.

/resource

You can also open categories directly.

/resource packages
/resource skills
/resource extensions
/resource prompts
/resource themes

To rescan resources:

/resource sync

When it is useful

As you use pi, packages, extensions, skills, and prompts can accumulate. Checking them through /resource is easier than opening settings files manually.

It is especially useful when you want to:

• see which packages are installed,
• enable or disable a specific extension,
• distinguish project scope from user scope,
• add or remove packages through a TUI flow.

If you are just starting to use pi packages, this is one of the first packages to install.

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2. @eko24ive/pi-ask

Install

pi install npm:@eko24ive/pi-ask

You can also install from GitHub.

pi install git:github.com/eko24ive/pi-ask

Then reload or restart pi.

Use

Open settings.

/ask-settings

If the agent asked questions in plain text, extract them from the latest assistant message and open the ask UI.

/answer

Reopen the previous answer form:

/answer:again

Replay a real ask_user form:

/ask:replay

When it is useful

When an LLM agent meets an ambiguous requirement, it often guesses. pi-ask helps the agent ask structured questions instead.

For example, you may get a terminal UI question like:

Who is the target reader for this post?
1. Complete beginners
2. Developers who have already used LLM coding tools
3. Lead developers evaluating team adoption

This is especially useful when:

• there are multiple implementation directions,
• you need to decide tone, audience, or scope for writing,
• deletion or renaming requires user confirmation,
• guessing would be risky.

Check installation

If this command works, the package is loaded.

/ask-settings

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3. pi-docparser

Install

pi install npm:pi-docparser

You can also install from GitHub.

pi install git:github.com/maxedapps/pi-docparser

Then reload or restart pi.

Use

Check host dependencies for document parsing.

/docparser:doctor

You can check a specific file too.

/docparser:doctor @./slides.pptx

To summarize a document, ask naturally.

@./docs/report.pdf Summarize this PDF.

For OCR from an image or scanned document:

@./scans/receipt.jpg Extract the text from this image.

Supported formats

Type	Examples
Documents	PDF, DOCX, ODT, RTF
Presentations	PPT, PPTX, ODP
Spreadsheets	XLS, XLSX, CSV, TSV
Images	PNG, JPG, TIFF, WebP, SVG

Depending on the file type, Office document or image conversion may require LibreOffice, ImageMagick, or Ghostscript. If something fails, run /docparser:doctor first.

When it is useful

This is useful for anyone who works with educational materials, reports, problem sheets, or meeting documents.

• Summarize PDF lecture materials
• Review DOCX documents
• Extract structure from PPTX slides
• Inspect CSV/XLSX data
• OCR image-based worksheets

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Recommended starting set

This is a practical starter set:

pi install npm:pi-resource-center
pi install npm:@eko24ive/pi-ask
pi install npm:pi-docparser

Then check them:

/resource
/ask-settings
/docparser:doctor

Not every project needs document parsing. If you only need pi-docparser in one project, install it locally.

pi install npm:pi-docparser -l

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Summary

Purpose	Install	Use
Manage packages and resources	pi install npm:pi-resource-center	/resource
Structured question UI	pi install npm:@eko24ive/pi-ask	/ask-settings, /answer
Document parsing and OCR	pi install npm:pi-docparser	/docparser:doctor, document requests

In the next post, we will look at web research packages and more advanced package-selection criteria.