feat: env opt-out for exit summary on real quit (Ctrl+D / /quit)

[cokekitten]

Problem

session_shutdown always runs generateExitSummary() on real quits (Ctrl+D, /quit, process exit): a full LLM call over up to 80K chars of transcript, followed by qmd update. Pi core awaits all session_shutdown handlers with no timeout, so quitting pi blocks until the summary LLM round-trip finishes — several seconds to tens of seconds depending on provider/model.

PI_MEMORY_SUMMARIZE_TRANSITIONS covers the opposite direction (opt-in summaries for /reload, /new, /resume, /fork, which skip by default since #7 / #8). There is currently no way to opt out of the summary on actual exits.

Proposal

Add a PI_MEMORY_EXIT_SUMMARY env var (e.g. 0/off to disable, default keeps current behavior), checked at the top of the session_shutdown handler. When disabled, skip generateExitSummary() and runQmdUpdateNow(), keeping only the cheap cleanup (terminal-input unsubscribe, timer clear).

Why

• Slow quit UX: every exit waits on an LLM round-trip plus qmd update.
• Noise control: users who prefer curated writes only (explicit memory_write during sessions) find auto-summaries of casual/chit-chat sessions add noise to the daily log and qmd index.
• Consistent with the project's existing env-var configuration style (PI_MEMORY_SNAPSHOT, PI_MEMORY_QMD_UPDATE, PI_MEMORY_NO_SEARCH, …).

Happy to send a PR if you're open to it.

[cokekitten]

Two complementary improvements worth considering alongside the opt-out — both are useful regardless of whether PI_MEMORY_EXIT_SUMMARY lands:

1. Don't persist all-"None." summaries (pollution hole in the curated-write gate)

The prompt tells the model to write None. under each heading when there is nothing worth recording, but the write path only checks result.hasMessages && result.summary — a trivial session (>= EXIT_SUMMARY_MIN_MESSAGES messages but zero substance) still gets an all-"None." boilerplate entry appended to the daily log. That entry is then re-injected at every session_start for the rest of the day and indexed by qmd forever. Filtering out results where every section is "None." before persisting would complete the curated-write gate the code already intends (cf. the comment on EXIT_SUMMARY_MIN_MESSAGES).

2. Self-bound the shutdown path with a timeout

Pi core awaits session_shutdown handlers with no timeout, and generateExitSummary() itself is unbounded (provider default timeout only; qmd update has its own 30s cap). A slow provider can therefore hang quitting for a very long time even for users who want the summary. Wrapping the shutdown work in a Promise.race with e.g. PI_MEMORY_EXIT_SUMMARY_TIMEOUT_MS (default ~10s, abort/continue-without-persist on expiry) would keep quit responsive in all configurations.

Happy to include either/both in a PR if you're open to it.

[jayzeng]

@cokekitten thanks for reporting the issue, feel free to open a PR

[cokekitten]

Split into two PRs per theme:

• feat: make exit summary configurable (opt-out + model override) #27 — configurability: PI_MEMORY_EXIT_SUMMARY=0 opt-out + PI_MEMORY_EXIT_SUMMARY_MODEL override
• fix: harden exit summary (skip empty summaries, bound shutdown work) #28 — hardening: all-"None." persist filter + PI_MEMORY_EXIT_SUMMARY_TIMEOUT_MS (default 10s) bounding the shutdown work

Both are based on current main independently; whichever lands second gets a trivial README/changelog rebase. Tests added per AGENTS.md (TDD), bun test/tsc/biome all green on both branches.

[jayzeng]

Thanks for the PRs, merged and now available in https://www.npmjs.com/package/pi-memory/v/0.4.2