Migrating Pi Sych configuration from v7 to v8

This is a manual configuration change, not a runtime migration. Keep the configuration file, remove settings Pi or separately loaded resources now own, and retain only Pi Sych behavior and paths.

Configuration files and precedence

Pi Sych reads global settings from <Pi configuration root>/pi-sych/config.json and an optional project override from <projectRoot>/.pi/pi-sych/config.json. The project file overrides only fields it supplies; compaction fields merge individually. A project can therefore select another literature database without losing the global compaction policy. Unknown keys are errors.

The v8 configuration shape is:

{
  "version": 2,
  "compaction": {
    "custom": true,
    "thresholdTokens": 150000
  },
  "completionReassessment": false,
  "literatureDatabase": "library.sqlite"
}

compaction.custom controls whether Pi Sych supplies its task-centred custom summary for compaction requests. Set it to false to leave compaction to Pi. When enabled, Pi Sych’s proactive trigger defaults to 150,000 context tokens and runs only at a safe settled/idle boundary. Pi may still compact earlier under its own context-window safety rules. The threshold is not Pi’s reserveTokens setting.

completionReassessment defaults to false. When enabled, after a completed run Pi Sych may add one hidden reassessment at Pi’s final actionable agent_before_settle boundary, provided there are no pending messages and Pi can continue. The model is asked to continue only with unfinished work already authorized by the current request, and otherwise to stop or report a genuine blocker. A guard prevents repeating the reassessment for the same user message. It does not create new authorization and is independent of the compaction threshold. This is a prompt-level aid, not a deterministic guarantee that the model will recognize every incomplete task.

literatureDatabase may be an absolute or relative path. A relative global value is resolved from the global Pi Sych config directory; a relative project value is resolved from the project root and replaces the global library only for that project. If neither file sets it, Pi Sych uses its conventional local literature database default.

Remove obsolete v7 keys

Delete these v7 keys rather than translating them:

• workerAgentDir — initialize the conventional <Pi Sych config directory>/worker-agent directory.
• modelCatalog — the conventional catalogue is <Pi Sych config directory>/worker-models.json (renamed to distinguish it from Pi’s own models.json).
• mcporterConfig — Pi reads native MCP configuration from the worker agent directory; configure it there instead.
• compaction.compactAt100k — the Pi Sych proactive threshold is now compaction.thresholdTokens, defaulting to 150000.
• review.mode — use Pi’s resource selection to load or disable the separate Plannotator extension.

Do not put provider credentials or tokens in Pi Sych config. Use native Pi configuration and authentication for providers and MCP servers.

Native MCP and optional resources

Remote-research worker setup is in the worker agent directory’s mcp.json. Set PI_CODING_AGENT_DIR=<global Pi Sych config directory>/worker-agent when running native pi mcp add, pi mcp list, pi mcp login, and pi mcp logout, so the commands target the worker’s agent directory. Inspect server status in a worker session with /mcp. Pi Sych does not copy or merge the supervisor’s MCP file into a worker. Only dispatches explicitly marked for remote research load MCP and codemode; ordinary workers do not.

Use pi config and Pi’s package/resource controls to select independently loadable resources such as Plannotator. Custom compaction remains in the workbench extension; its compaction.custom setting controls whether Pi Sych supplies its task-centred summary or proactive trigger. Use /mcp or pi mcp list in place of the removed /pi-sych-mcp command.