---

The Problem

Pi's model selector shows every available model from every configured provider. If you have Ollama running with 20 local models, or an OpenRouter account with hundreds of options, the model list becomes noisy and slow to navigate. There's no built-in way to say "I never want to see these providers/models in the selector."

Pi has enabledModels in settings.json as an allowlist, but maintaining it manually is tedious — you have to list every model you do want, and clobber settings.json with hundreds of entries. What you really want is a blocklist: "hide everything from these providers, except the ones I explicitly use."

The Solution

pi-hide-providers gives you a blocklist that completely removes models from all lists — not an allowlist, not a scoped subset:

• Define hide rules in a config file (~/.pi/agent/hide-providers.json or .pi/hide-providers.json)
• On session start, the extension patches pi’s underlying ModelRuntime accessors (with a ModelRegistry fallback for older pi versions) to filter out hidden models
• The /model selector, Ctrl+P cycling, --list-models, and session restoration all see only visible models
• /hide-models reset removes the runtime/registry patch — all models return immediately
• Changes via /hide-models add and /hide-models remove take effect immediately (no reload needed)
• Interactive /hide-models TUI lists visible models first in user-toggle order, then hidden models in their original registry order, and keeps the cursor at the same index after each toggle — matching pi core's /scoped-models UX
• /hide-models subcommands for adding, removing, and inspecting rules

No settings.json is modified. No 250+ entry explosion. No allowlist semantics.

Usage

Interactive Commands

Command	What it does
/hide-models	Open interactive TUI to select providers/models to hide
/hide-models add ollama	Hide the entire ollama provider
/hide-models add openrouter/cheap-model	Hide a specific model from openrouter
/hide-models add openrouter/*	Hide the entire openrouter provider (explicit)
/hide-models remove ollama	Remove the hide rule for ollama
/hide-models status	Show current rules, patch status, and hidden model count
/hide-models apply	Show current hide state (changes are already active)
/hide-models reset	Unpatch registry — all models return immediately
/hide-models help	Show usage reference

Config File

Create ~/.pi/agent/hide-providers.json (global) or .pi/hide-providers.json (project-local):

{
  "hide": [
    { "provider": "ollama" },
    { "provider": "openrouter", "model": "cheap-model" },
    { "provider": "github-copilot", "model": "gpt-3.5-turbo" }
  ]
}

Rule formats:

Rule	Effect
{ "provider": "ollama" }	Hide all models from the ollama provider
{ "provider": "ollama", "model": "*" }	Same — explicit wildcard
{ "provider": "openrouter", "model": "cheap-model" }	Hide only openrouter/cheap-model

Project config (.pi/hide-providers.json) takes priority over global config (~/.pi/agent/hide-providers.json).

Installation

With pi install (recommended):

pi install npm:pi-hide-providers

Or install from GitHub:

pi install https://github.com/monotykamary/pi-hide-providers

With npm:

npm install pi-hide-providers

Or in ~/.pi/agent/settings.json:

{
  "packages": [
    "https://github.com/monotykamary/pi-hide-providers"
  ]
}

Then /reload or restart pi.

For quick one-off tests:

pi -e ./hide-providers.ts

How It Works

Session starts
  → Extension reads hide-providers.json
  → Patches ModelRuntime (current pi) or ModelRegistry (older pi):
      available model reads → original result filtered by isHidden()
      all model reads       → original result filtered by isHidden()
      model lookup(p, m)    → returns undefined if isHidden(p, m)
  → All downstream consumers see only visible models:
      /model selector, Ctrl+P, --list-models, session restoration

/hide-models add or /hide-models remove:
  → Config updated on disk
  → currentRules updated in memory
  → Patched runtime/registry methods read latest rules via closure
  → Changes take effect immediately (no reload)

/hide-models reset:
  → Restores the original model accessors
  → All models return immediately

The SDK doesn't provide a mechanism to remove models from the registry — registerProvider({ models: [] }) is treated as "no models to register" (override-only), not "remove all models." Monkey-patching the accessor methods is the only way to completely remove models from all lists without touching settings.json.

The patches survive model catalog refreshes because they wrap the runtime accessors rather than a model snapshot. On reload, the extension detects an existing patch and updates its rules source.

Comparison with Alternatives

Approach	Pros	Cons
pi-hide-providers (this)	Blocklist — completely removes models from all lists; no settings.json writes; changes take effect immediately; survives catalog refresh	Monkey-patches internal model accessors (not an official SDK mechanism)
enabledModels in settings.json (manual)	Built-in, no extension needed	Allowlist — must list every model you want individually; no blocklist support; clobbers settings with hundreds of entries
--models CLI flag	Per-session scoping	Must pass every time; no persistence
pi.unregisterProvider()	Restores built-in models after override	Only works for providers registered via pi.registerProvider(); can't hide entire providers (empty models array is a no-op)
pi-model-router scope shim	Dynamic scoping with routing	Heavyweight — full routing system just to filter the model list

Development

npm install
npm test          # Vitest unit tests
npm run typecheck # TypeScript validation
npm run lint:dead # Dead code detection (knip)

Structure

.
├── hide-providers.ts   # Main extension
├── src/
│   └── index.ts        # Constants, types, and utilities
├── __tests__/
│   └── unit/
│       └── hide-providers.test.ts
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
├── vitest.config.ts
└── knip.json

License

MIT