ModApi gap: mods cannot read or write the live input field (blocks ghost-text / prefill / Space-to-accept)

ModApi gap: mods cannot read or write the live input field

Summary

The ModApi gives mods no way to read the current text in the input field or set/prefill it. transformInput only intercepts submitted text — it never sees what's being typed, and there's no cmd.ui.setInputText-style API. This blocks a whole class of UX (ghost-text suggestions, inline completion, input prefill) that pi-prompt-suggester and similar tools rely on.

Context

I built a prompt-suggester mod (https://github.com/burningportra/cmd-prompt-suggester) that aims to suggest the user's next prompt after each response — the pi-prompt-suggester UX. The core interaction I cannot implement:

1. Show a suggestion as ghost text inside the input box — impossible; rendering is line-based only (cmd.ui.notify / cmd.ui.setStatus / cmd.ui.widget, and widget is explicitly "not wired into the TUI yet").
2. Prefill the input field so the user can edit before sending — impossible; no input-write API.
3. Press Space to accept the suggestion into the field — impossible; transformInput fires on submit, not on keystroke, so I can't fill the field or bind a key.

What I had to ship instead

• Suggestion rendered as a 💡 next: notice (line-based).
• Accept via /j slash command or typing 1 — because there's no way to inject text into the field.

This works, but it's a strict downgrade from pi's UX (ghost text + Space-to-accept), and it's the single most-requested feature for this kind of mod.

Proposed API (open to alternatives)

• cmd.ui.getInputText(): string — read the current input field contents.
• cmd.ui.setInputText(text: string): void — replace/prefill the input field.
• Optionally a keybinding hook (hooks.onKeypress) so mods can respond to Space/Tab/arrows while typing.

Why it matters

The ModApi docs advertise "typed-input interception" as a first-class capability, but it only covers submitted input. Interactive suggestion/prefill is the natural next step, and it's what users expect from a "prompt suggester" mod.

Environment

• Command Code 1.15.0, macOS
• Docs read: commandcode.ai/docs/mods (ModApi reference, UI surface)

Start with the ModApi reference at commandcode.ai/docs/mods and inspect the existing cmd.ui.notify, cmd.ui.setStatus, cmd.ui.widget, and transformInput surfaces. Define the input-reading and input-writing behavior, and determine whether keypress handling is needed; done means mods can support the requested prefill or interactive suggestion workflow without relying on notices or slash commands.