pictie 0.1.3

Python client for the Pictie local state control plane

pictie — Python SDK

Report what your scripts and AI agents are doing to the Pictie macOS menu bar, in one line.

import pictie

pictie.configure(source="claude")

with pictie.working(label="Writing draft"):
    do_work()          # menu bar shows "working"
                       # -> "done" on success, "error" (with the message) on exception

Install

pip install pictie
# or, from this repo:
pip install -e sdk/python

Python ≥ 3.9. Zero runtime dependencies.

The contract

Pictie is an observability client — it never breaks your program.

• Never raises. If the Pictie app isn't running, emits are silently dropped.
• Non-blocking. Sends happen on a background thread; your code never waits.
• Short timeout. Each send gives up after 500 ms.
• Debug opt-in. PICTIE_DEBUG=1 (or pictie.set_debug(True)) logs failures to stderr.
• Explicit check. pictie.is_available() returns True/False if you want to know. Unlike the non-blocking emits, this is the one synchronous call — it blocks up to ~500 ms while it does a live health check.

API

pictie.configure(source="claude", host="127.0.0.1", port=4567, debug=False)
#   env overrides: PICTIE_SOURCE, PICTIE_HOST, PICTIE_PORT, PICTIE_DEBUG

pictie.idle(label=None, **fields)
pictie.working(label=None, **fields)
pictie.waiting(label=None, **fields)     # e.g. waiting(action="approve", urgency="now")
pictie.done(label=None, **fields)
pictie.error(label=None, **fields)

pictie.emit("attention.approval_needed", action="approve", label="Needs OK")  # semantic

pictie.is_available()   # -> bool
pictie.set_debug(True)

Optional **fields map to the protocol: phase, urgency, action, subject, confidence, delta, sensitive, plus a per-call source.

Each helper both emits immediately and returns a context manager, so with pictie.working(...): reports done/error automatically on block exit (override with on_success= / on_error=).

For multiple sources in one process, use an explicit client:

p = pictie.Client(source="cursor")
p.waiting(action="approve")

Command line

pip install pictie also installs a pictie command.

pictie run npm test      # shows "npm: working" -> "done"/"error" in the menu bar
pictie run pytest -v     # source auto-detected from the command (here: "pytest")

pictie run wraps any command: it reports working while the command runs and done/error when it exits, passes the command's output through untouched, and exits with the command's own exit code — so it's safe to drop in front of anything (pictie run ./deploy.sh). The source name is the command's basename (override with --source), and it is exported as PICTIE_SOURCE to the child so any in-process pictie SDK calls share the same source.

One-shot commands talk to the app directly (synchronous; they report and set an exit code):

pictie emit --source ci --state done      # 0 ok / 1 app down / 2 rejected
pictie list                               # table of current sources (--json for scripts)
pictie reset [--source ci]                # clear one or all
pictie health                             # "ok"/"down"; exit 0 up / 1 down
pictie health && ./deploy.sh              # gate a script on Pictie being up

The pip-installed pictie is the canonical CLI. (The repo also has a Swift pictie used only for development via swift run pictie; the macOS app itself installs no CLI binary — it speaks HTTP.)

Known limitations (v1)

• No native async/await API (the non-blocking sender makes asyncio callers safe anyway).
• The background sender does not survive os.fork().
• One background sender per process. Concurrent emit() from many threads is crash-safe, but a saturated queue may drop more than intended — the tested path is a single producer per sender.
• Under sustained backpressure a full send queue drops the OLDEST pending update (bounded memory) — the freshest state always wins.