Pi starts a separate non-interactive shell process for each Bash command. Non-interactive Bash does not expand aliases by default and usually does not load the same startup files as an interactive terminal.

Use shellPath to choose the Bash executable and shellCommandPrefix to run setup before each command.

Pi normally invokes Bash with bash -c. On Unix systems, it uses /bin/bash, then bash on PATH, and finally sh when Bash is unavailable. Native Windows first checks the configured path, then Git Bash, then bash.exe on PATH.

Set shellPath in ~/.pi/agent/settings.json when Pi should use a specific executable:

{
  "shellPath": "~/.local/bin/bash"
}

On Windows, use forward slashes or escape backslashes:

{
  "shellPath": "C:\\cygwin64\\bin\\bash.exe"
}

Run /reload after changing the setting. See Run Pi on Windows for the native Windows defaults.

Set shellCommandPrefix to prepend shell setup to both the built-in bash tool and user-entered ! or !! commands:

{
  "shellCommandPrefix": "export CI=1"
}

Pi joins the prefix and requested command with a newline. The prefix runs again for every command, so keep it fast and free of interactive prompts.

Store aliases needed by Pi in a Bash-compatible file instead of parsing an entire interactive shell configuration.

Create ~/.bash_aliases:

alias ll='ls -la'
alias gs='git status --short'

Then configure Pi to enable alias expansion and load the file:

{
  "shellCommandPrefix": "shopt -s expand_aliases\nsource ~/.bash_aliases"
}

Run /reload, then verify the alias through Pi:

!ll

The command should produce the same listing as ls -la.

Aliases must use Bash-compatible syntax. Do not source an arbitrary .zshrc into Bash because zsh options, functions, and plugins may not parse or behave correctly there.

shellCommandPrefix configures Pi's built-in Bash execution. An extension that replaces the bash tool or provides its own shell operations controls its own setup. Check that extension's documentation.

Pi has fallen back to sh or shellPath points to a non-Bash shell. Install Bash or set shellPath to a Bash executable before using Bash-specific setup such as shopt.

Remove interactive commands from shellCommandPrefix. The prefix runs in a non-interactive process before every Bash command.

For the complete setting definitions, see Shell settings.