pi-synthetic

A Pi extension that adds Synthetic as a model provider, giving you access to open-source models through an OpenAI-compatible API.

@aliou/pi-synthetic@0.8.2 npm npm GitHub GitHub 
pi install @aliou/pi-synthetic

Pi Synthetic Extension

A Pi extension that adds Synthetic as a model provider, giving you access to open-source models through an OpenAI-compatible API.

Installation

Get API Key

Sign up at synthetic.new to get an API key (referral link).

Set Environment Variable

export SYNTHETIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Add to shell profile for persistence:

echo 'export SYNTHETIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"' >> ~/.zshrc

Install Extension

## From npm
pi install npm:@aliou/pi-synthetic

## From git
pi install git:github.com/aliou/pi-synthetic

## Local development
pi -e ./src/index.ts

Usage

Once installed, select synthetic as your provider and choose from available models:

/model synthetic hf:moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5

Web Search Tool

The extension registers synthetic_web_search — a zero-data-retention web search tool. Available when you have an active Synthetic subscription.

Reasoning Levels

For Synthetic models that support reasoning, Synthetic currently accepts only low, medium, and high reasoning effort values.

This extension clamps Pi reasoning levels to Synthetic's supported set:

  • minimal -> low
  • low -> low
  • medium -> medium
  • high -> high
  • xhigh -> high

Quotas Command

Check your API usage:

/synthetic:quotas

Adding or Updating Models

Models are hardcoded in src/providers/models.ts. To add or update models:

  1. Edit src/providers/models.ts
  2. Add the model configuration following the SyntheticModelConfig interface
  3. Run pnpm run typecheck to verify

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/aliou/pi-synthetic.git
cd pi-synthetic

## Install dependencies (sets up pre-commit hooks)
pnpm install && pnpm prepare

Pre-commit hooks run on every commit:

  • TypeScript type checking
  • Biome linting
  • Biome formatting with auto-fix

Commands

## Type check
pnpm run typecheck

## Lint
pnpm run lint

## Format
pnpm run format

## Test
pnpm run test

Test Locally

pi -e ./src/index.ts

Release

This repository uses Changesets for versioning.

Note: Automatic NPM publishing is currently disabled. To publish manually:

  1. Create a changeset: pnpm changeset
  2. Version packages: pnpm version
  3. Publish (when ready): Uncomment the publish job in .github/workflows/publish.yml

Requirements

  • Pi coding agent v0.50.0+
  • SYNTHETIC_API_KEY environment variable

Links