Fix thinking-block code blocks displaying wrong colors in web UI
Takeaway: Next time I'd check upstream for a recent fix before diving into diagnosis and pushing a branch — it turned out badlogic/pi-mono had already patched this exact issue.
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Investigate markdown list renumbering behavior in TUI/web-ui
Takeaway: I'd start by asking directly whether this is standard Markdown behavior before diving into a code investigation, since it turned out to be expected CommonMark semantics all along.
Add inline setup card for web search failures in Excel add-in
Takeaway: Next time I'd front-load the dev-mode vs production proxy-probing distinction in the first prompt, since that's exactly the false-positive Codex caught later.
Allow extension slash commands to run while Pi is streaming
Takeaway: Next time I'd ask upfront for the busyAllowed default and mention this is pre-release so it can just default to true, since that saved a back-and-forth.
Fix currency text triggering KaTeX math in Excel add-in thinking blocks
Takeaway: Next time I'd start the prompt by pointing straight at markdown-block's KaTeX inline math extension instead of letting the agent rediscover it through a long grep trail — that diagnosis phase took way longer than the actual fix.
Fix chat autoscroll jitter and inner scroll during streaming (Excel add-in)
Takeaway: Next time I'd ask for the holistic design pass (outer vs inner scroll UX) up front instead of shipping a quick distance-heuristic fix first — that first attempt (#401) looked fine in CI but didn't actually work in practice, and I only caught it by testing manually.
Fix Excel add-in footer buttons becoming unclickable when composer has text
Takeaway: I'd keep the prompt as-is since it worked well — the isolated worktree plus agent-browser reproduction step is what actually caught the real bug (the textarea's field-sizing overlapping the footer hitbox) rather than guessing.
Map the Excel add-in's UX flow
Takeaway: I'd start by pointing the agent straight at the taskpane entrypoint and init files instead of letting it wander the whole src tree first — it got there anyway but took a lot of exploration turns.
Replace window.confirm with overlay dialogs in Excel add-in
Takeaway: Next time I'd front-load the exact list of window.confirm call sites in the first prompt so the agent doesn't have to rediscover them twice across two PRs.
Fix Excel sidebar hint text wrapping and truncation
Takeaway: Next time I'd lead with the specific problem (input placeholder wrapping) rather than a broader 'sidebar needs help' framing, since the agent initially spent time on a height/empty-state fix I didn't actually need.
Rewrite Pi for Excel landing page and audit add-in UI/UX
Takeaway: Next time I'd front-load the positioning (who this is for, what makes it different from a generic AI chatbot) before asking the agent to build anything, since the whole first landing page draft got mostly replaced once I explained the 'coding agent, but native to Excel' angle.
Improve Excel sidebar UI/UX discoverability and file upload
Takeaway: Next time I'd open by asking for a concrete UX audit with a prioritized list before jumping into changes, since the iterative 'please do' loop worked but cost a lot of exploration turns per round.
Fix Excel add-in '+' tab and /new command hanging on init
Takeaway: Next time I'd start by telling it to actually load the running page with agent-browser instead of trusting typecheck/build passing as proof the UI worked — that's what actually surfaced the real state and let it self-verify.
Persist and restore Excel sidebar session tabs across reload
Takeaway: Next time I'd ask upfront for the fix to include a manual verification step (actually reload and check tabs) before calling it done, since the first commit passed all checks but never actually wired the restore into the boot path.
Fix sidebar UI polish issues in pi-for-excel taskpane
Takeaway: Next time I'd bundle the alignment/width and pill-consistency asks into one clear spec upfront, since they took many small back-and-forth rounds of 'now this doesn't match that' across tool cards, thinking blocks and user messages.
Rebuild Excel add-in sidebar UI with custom Lit components (Pi for Excel)
Takeaway: Next time I'd ask upfront for a screenshot-driven audit at the actual sidebar width before any rebuild, since the real bug (an unlayered CSS reset clobbering Tailwind's @layer utilities) was hiding under a much bigger 'replace the whole layout shell' rewrite.