Pi Slowdown

Stances of attention for the Pi coding agent, plus skills that hold them as quietly as they can.

The skills are as short as they can be while still holding a stance. The noticing is returned to whoever meets the silence.

Install

pi install git:github.com/leovoon/pi-slowdown

Manual Install

cp -r extensions/slowdown ~/.pi/agent/extensions/

Usage

Command	Mode	What it does
/slowdown still	Still	Agent paces itself. Stay in contact before moving.
/slowdown steady	Steady	Agent + human. Pacing + return from avoidance.
/slowdown deep	Deep	Agent + human + future. All three, including premortem.
/slowdown bridge	Bridge	Re-read someone's gesture as contact before the verdict hardens.
/slowdown wonder	Wonder	Hold the space open when certainty arrives too fast. Manual only.
/slowdown off	Off	Deactivate. Suppresses auto-triggers.
/slowdown	Toggle	Off → last active mode, or on → off

Modes

Still — Stay in contact before moving

The agent watches its own speed. It intervenes when it detects numb rushing, obligation armor, or bypassed understanding. Otherwise it proceeds normally.

Triggers on: "slow down", "too fast", "rushing", "don't rush this"

Steady — Return to rhythm

Still + the agent helps the human return from avoidance, overstimulation, or scattered thinking. Notice → Reduce → Act → Return → Record.

Triggers on: "I'm scattered", "help me focus", "can't start", "avoiding this"

Deep — Feel the cost before it hardens

Steady + premortem for consequential plans. The agent exposes hidden assumptions and human cost before a plan commits, then returns to a smaller reversible move.

Triggers on: "premortem this", "what could kill this", "stress test this"

Bridge — Re-read the gesture before the verdict

A peer stance, not part of the cumulative still → steady → deep line. When someone's behavior reads as cold, critical, avoidant, or controlling, bridge pauses before the interpretation hardens and asks what it might look like as contact. Analysis may be care, debate may be invitation, planning may be commitment, reliability may be intimacy, shared activity may be closeness — surfaced as one offered possibility, never a catalog. No labels, diagnosis, compatibility scoring, scripts, or prescribed replies. Does not build a bridge over harm.

Triggers on: "they don't care", "they're cold", "they keep debating", "about to withdraw", "match their energy"

Wonder — Hold the space when certainty arrives too fast

Manual activation only. A removal of the hand from the steering wheel — not directing thought, not expanding thought, a small intentional silence where wonder may or may not emerge. The agent notices premature closure and names it once, in its own words, then stops. The emergence belongs to the user. Wonder imposed is not wonder.

Invoke with: /slowdown wonder

Skills

The extension vendors five skills in skills/, each a stance plus a floor plus one ending commitment:

Skill	Holds
slow-down	Agent pacing. Slows only when speed risks bypassed awareness or contact.
slow-down-flow	Human return. One tiny embodied action before announcing or optimizing.
slow-down-crosswind	Consequential-plan premortems. Failure as contact, then one smaller reversible move.
slow-down-bridges	Connection re-readings. Re-reads a gesture as contact before the verdict hardens. No labels, diagnosis, compatibility scoring, scripts, or prescribed replies.
slow-down-wonder	A pause when certainty arrives unusually quickly. Holds the space open for what may be being skipped. Manual activation only.

The first three map to the still / steady / deep line. slow-down-bridges powers bridge (/slowdown bridge, 🌉). slow-down-wonder powers wonder (/slowdown wonder, ❔) — manual only.

Auto-triggers

Slowdown detects natural phrases and activates the matching mode. Auto-triggers are suppressed after explicit /slowdown off — re-enable with /slowdown still (or any level).

Auto-upgrades work: if you're in still and say "I'm scattered", it moves to steady.

Bridge is a peer stance: a bridge phrase switches to bridge from any point on the still → steady → deep line, and a line phrase switches back. Bridge does not inherit still/steady/deep — it is its own stance.

Wonder is manual only: /slowdown wonder turns it on, no auto-triggers. It composes on top of whichever stance is active.

CLI Flag

Start pi in a specific mode:

pi --slowdown steady

Footer

When active, the footer shows: 🐢 still, 🦥 steady, 🦦 deep, 🌉 bridge, or ❔ wonder.

Philosophy

Slow is not a mood. It is a kind of discernment.

The skills here are short on purpose: they hold the discipline, they do not perform it. The noticing is returned to whoever meets the silence.

This is not a progression to climb. It is a set of stances for an exploration toward meaning — each one a way to stay in contact when speed, avoidance, or premature certainty would flatten it.

Scope note

Slowdown is reflective guidance, not therapy, diagnosis, crisis support, or medical advice.

Also See

• Slow Down — Original skill collection for Claude Code

License

MIT