[Bug] Extension shortcuts never register in daemon-backed interactive chats (shift+tab effort-cycle)

[stanleytejakusuma]

Summary

Extension-registered shortcuts never wire up in daemon-backed interactive chats. The motivating case: the effort-cycle extension binds shift+tab to cycle the thinking level, but in a normal daemon-attached session /hotkeys shows no shortcut and the binding does nothing. The workaround is the /effort command.

Environment

• Prime Agent 0.7.3, installed via Homebrew
• macOS 26.6.2 on Apple Silicon
• Default background daemon, interactive chat attached to the daemon

Symptoms

1. Drop an extension into ~/.prime/agent/extensions/ that calls pi.registerShortcut(...) in session_start. The effort-cycle extension is a real example: it registers shift+tab with a handler that cycles the thinking level.
2. Start a normal interactive chat attached to the daemon.
3. Press shift+tab. Nothing happens. /hotkeys does not list the shortcut.

The same extension works in a non-daemon interactive session, so the extension code itself is valid.

Suspected trigger

The daemon path constructs InteractiveMode with bindLocalSessionExtensions: false hardcoded in main.js, so the client never binds the discovered extension shortcuts. dist/modes/daemon/daemon-extension-binding implements the client-local UI callbacks as no-ops. The daemon worker owns the active extension runner, but the shortcut registration needs the live TUI client, which is exactly the gap described in discussion #1462.

Expected behavior

• Extension shortcuts registered via registerShortcut work in daemon-backed interactive chats, the same way they do in local sessions.
• /hotkeys reflects the actual active bindings so users can discover what is wired.

Related reports

• Discussion Support client-local UI extensions in daemon-backed interactive chats #1462: support client-local UI extensions in daemon-backed interactive chats (same root gap, broader scope)
• Discussion [Feature] More configurable keybinding behavior for enter/return and `submit` vs `newLine` #1411: configurable keybinding behavior for enter/return (shows the keybindings.json mechanism exists for app-level bindings)
• Issue Extension API compatibility gaps: missing pi-ai/compat alias, missing ctx.mode, and custom editors silently no-op in daemon-backed chats #734: original report behind Support client-local UI extensions in daemon-backed interactive chats #1462, closed during the discussion-first backlog cleanup

Suggested fix direction

Tie this into the #1462 fix: when the client binds the local extension runner, register extension shortcuts against the live TUI keybindings manager and emit /hotkeys entries from the same source.

[ruttybob]

I think that would be a great feature.

[stanleytejakusuma]

Agreed. Or a more generalized approach would be to make hotkeys configurable on client's side given that Prime Agent is based off of Pi. Just waiting on a maintainers' eyes on here.