Web UI

Running pbi-agent without a subcommand starts the browser UI:

pbi-agent

The web UI is the default interactive workspace. It combines live chat sessions, local shell execution, saved configuration, Kanban task automation, and observability in one local FastAPI/Vite app.

Primary navigation

Area	Purpose
Sessions	Start or resume agent conversations, use @file mentions, upload images, run shell commands, and inspect run history.
Kanban	Manage task cards across configurable workflow stages and start automated task runs.
Dashboard	Review run observability, cost/token totals, duration, errors, and provider/model breakdowns.
Settings	Configure providers, model profiles, speech-to-text, ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot account auth, and project skill/command installs.

If provider setup is incomplete, the app sends you to Settings first so you can create a provider and model profile.

Sessions

Sessions are live conversations bound to the current workspace. A session can start without a saved history record, then becomes bound once the first model turn is persisted.

Session features include:

• A session sidebar for saved and active sessions.
• A model-profile selector for choosing the runtime profile before a turn.
• An Include tool history toggle in the session topbar. It is off by default and remembered globally. When enabled before continuing a saved session, pbi-agent includes prior tool calls, tool arguments, tool results, and useful tool errors in the resumed model context.
• @file mention autocomplete for workspace files.
• Slash-command autocomplete for built-in and project commands.
• Image uploads from the + action menu or clipboard when the provider supports images.
• Voice dictation from the microphone when a speech-to-text provider is selected.
• Shell command mode with !command for local commands that do not call the model.
• A stop/interrupt control while the model is processing.
• Run history attached to the saved session.

See Session Commands for the full composer syntax reference.

Saved sessions and resume behavior

Saved sessions appear in the Sessions sidebar. Reopening a session restores the provider checkpoint when possible; otherwise pbi-agent replays the visible history needed to continue. The session timeline shows user turns, assistant turns, local tool activity, image attachments, shell output, and run metadata.

By default, saved-session continuation sends prior user and assistant messages without previous tool-call exchanges. Turn on Include tool history before submitting the next message if the agent should see previous tool calls/results as model context. The toggle affects the new saved-session run that starts from that submission; already-active live runs keep their current in-memory context.

Starting a new session resets the provider conversation state while keeping the current runtime settings.

Settings

The Settings page manages persistent local configuration under ~/.pbi-agent/:

• Providers hold connection settings such as provider kind, API key, auth mode, and endpoint URLs.
• Model profiles hold runnable model/runtime settings tied to one saved provider.
• The active default profile is used when a session or run does not specify another profile.
• Speech-to-text selects the saved provider used for web UI dictation.
• Project skills, commands, and agents can be installed from official catalogs, GitHub sources, or server-side local paths.

See Providers, Model Profiles, and Speech-to-text for setup details.

Images

For OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Azure-compatible image-capable endpoints, the web UI supports explicit image inputs:

• Use the composer + action menu to choose local image files.
• Paste images from the clipboard.
• Mention workspace images with @path/to/image.png in normal prompts.

Supported image formats are .png, .jpg, .jpeg, and .webp.

Local-only commands

Some inputs are handled by the web app/session runtime without a model request:

• !command runs a workspace shell command.
• /skills, /mcp, and /agents show discovered project catalogs.
• /reload refreshes workspace instructions and the web file-mention cache.
• /compact summarizes long session history for future turns.

These commands are documented in Session Commands.

Related pages

• Kanban Dashboard
• Model Profiles
• Speech-to-text
• Session Commands
• Dashboard observability