id: PX-RESEARCH-A235AB0F
type: research
title: Extension Workflow Boundaries
Verified current boundary
Pi package filters select exported extension entrypoints, skills, prompts, and themes independently, while filters cannot resurrect unexported resources.
The root manifest exports the PFUI and footer entrypoints explicitly plus the remaining extensions/*/index.ts entrypoints.
The root README places unrelated personal skills, prompts, and themes in global Pi configuration rather than this package.
Current decay source resolves its settings through Pi’s global and project settings managers, confirming the intended merged-settings boundary in one active extension.
Current .pi/prompts/modernize.md and .pi/skills/modernize/ exist as project-local workflow resources.
Current mockup source and README keep browser review state in runtime and platform cache locations, and the tool never writes project files.
Configuration, resources, and state
Extension configuration belongs in Pi’s merged global or project settings, not workspace-root settings.json, extension-owned user config files, environment compatibility aliases, or ad hoc file fallbacks.
Resources such as skills, prompts, themes, and Ultra-style workflow definitions are discoverable content rather than extension configuration and therefore require their own explicit package or project resource paths.
Session state, run artifacts, locks, logs, caches, dashboards, and workflow data are not configuration merely because they are JSON or live below .pi.
A feature should use session entries for branch-aware conversational state, private or cache storage for implementation artifacts, and Pi settings only for user-selected configuration.
Static repository guards can prevent forbidden configuration-path patterns, but runtime settings tests remain necessary to prove merged precedence and defaults.
Workflow ownership
A workflow should place deterministic collection in a small read-only script and reserve semantic judgment for an agent skill with evidence requirements.
The historical modernize workflow required both release evidence and contextual repository evidence before reporting a migration, which avoids changelog-only guesses and grep-only false alarms.
Mockup selection is interaction state owned by the generic tool, while any accepted-artifact persistence belongs to a workflow that knows the final document path and has explicit authority to write it.
The historical accepted-mockup convention preserved only accepted options as standalone adjacent HTML and linked them relatively from the design record, while discarding iterations and empty selections.
That persistence convention is historical workflow guidance rather than current mockup behavior, because the active tool explicitly performs no project writes.
Legacy provenance
Historical source: docs/super/plans/2026-07-03-extension-settings-only.md, recoverable from Git commit 88660125c313dd5eff4f8c4dee431caa8e0ddd22.
Historical source: docs/super/plans/2026-07-13-modernize-prompt.md and docs/super/specs/2026-07-13-modernize-prompt-design.md, recoverable from Git commit 88660125c313dd5eff4f8c4dee431caa8e0ddd22.
Historical source: docs/super/plans/2026-07-11-accepted-mockup-artifacts.md and docs/super/specs/2026-07-11-accepted-mockup-artifacts-design.md, recoverable from Git commit 88660125c313dd5eff4f8c4dee431caa8e0ddd22.
---
id: PX-RESEARCH-A235AB0F
type: research
title: Extension Workflow Boundaries
---
## Verified current boundary
Pi package filters select exported extension entrypoints, skills, prompts, and themes independently, while filters cannot resurrect unexported resources.
The root manifest exports the PFUI and footer entrypoints explicitly plus the remaining `extensions/*/index.ts` entrypoints.
The root README places unrelated personal skills, prompts, and themes in global Pi configuration rather than this package.
Current `decay` source resolves its settings through Pi’s global and project settings managers, confirming the intended merged-settings boundary in one active extension.
Current `.pi/prompts/modernize.md` and `.pi/skills/modernize/` exist as project-local workflow resources.
Current `mockup` source and README keep browser review state in runtime and platform cache locations, and the tool never writes project files.
## Configuration, resources, and state
Extension configuration belongs in Pi’s merged global or project settings, not workspace-root `settings.json`, extension-owned user config files, environment compatibility aliases, or ad hoc file fallbacks.
Resources such as skills, prompts, themes, and Ultra-style workflow definitions are discoverable content rather than extension configuration and therefore require their own explicit package or project resource paths.
Session state, run artifacts, locks, logs, caches, dashboards, and workflow data are not configuration merely because they are JSON or live below `.pi`.
A feature should use session entries for branch-aware conversational state, private or cache storage for implementation artifacts, and Pi settings only for user-selected configuration.
Static repository guards can prevent forbidden configuration-path patterns, but runtime settings tests remain necessary to prove merged precedence and defaults.
## Workflow ownership
A workflow should place deterministic collection in a small read-only script and reserve semantic judgment for an agent skill with evidence requirements.
The historical modernize workflow required both release evidence and contextual repository evidence before reporting a migration, which avoids changelog-only guesses and grep-only false alarms.
Mockup selection is interaction state owned by the generic tool, while any accepted-artifact persistence belongs to a workflow that knows the final document path and has explicit authority to write it.
The historical accepted-mockup convention preserved only accepted options as standalone adjacent HTML and linked them relatively from the design record, while discarding iterations and empty selections.
That persistence convention is historical workflow guidance rather than current `mockup` behavior, because the active tool explicitly performs no project writes.
## Legacy provenance
Historical source: `docs/super/plans/2026-07-03-extension-settings-only.md`, recoverable from Git commit `88660125c313dd5eff4f8c4dee431caa8e0ddd22`.
Historical source: `docs/super/plans/2026-07-13-modernize-prompt.md` and `docs/super/specs/2026-07-13-modernize-prompt-design.md`, recoverable from Git commit `88660125c313dd5eff4f8c4dee431caa8e0ddd22`.
Historical source: `docs/super/plans/2026-07-11-accepted-mockup-artifacts.md` and `docs/super/specs/2026-07-11-accepted-mockup-artifacts-design.md`, recoverable from Git commit `88660125c313dd5eff4f8c4dee431caa8e0ddd22`.