Redmine Copilot Bridge

Import Redmine tickets — including their image attachments — directly into GitHub Copilot Chat, so you can discuss a ticket with full visual context in one step.

What it does

One command pulls a Redmine issue, downloads every image attachment, inserts each image into Copilot Chat, then inserts a structured prompt describing the ticket. Screenshots, mockups, and error captures land inline so Copilot can see them.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code 1.90.0 or newer
• GitHub Copilot Chat extension installed and signed in
• A Redmine API key with read access to issues (configured via the extension — see below)

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Justin-Kase/redmine-copilot-bridge.git
cd redmine-copilot-bridge
npm install

Configure

Run Redmine Copilot Bridge: Configure… from the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P). A form opens where you enter:

• Base URL — your Redmine instance, e.g. https://redmine.example.com (no trailing slash). Saved to settings.
• API key — your Redmine API key. Stored securely in the OS keychain via VS Code's SecretStorage; it is never written to disk in plaintext.

The API key can alternatively be provided via the REDMINE_API_KEY environment variable, which is used as a fallback when no key is stored.

Use

Run Redmine Copilot Bridge: Import Ticket, enter the numeric ticket ID, and the ticket plus its images appear in Copilot Chat. If you haven't configured anything yet, you'll be prompted for the base URL and offered the Configure form for the API key.

Run (debug)

1. Open the folder in VS Code.
2. Press F5 (or Run ▸ Start Debugging). The Run Extension config compiles the TypeScript, then launches an Extension Development Host.
3. In the dev host, run Redmine Copilot Bridge: Configure…, then Redmine Copilot Bridge: Import Ticket.

Build & package

Requires Node.js 20 or newer (@vscode/vsce requires it).

npm run compile      # type-check + emit JS to out/
npm run watch        # recompile on change
npm run package      # produce redmine-copilot-bridge-<version>.vsix

Install the .vsix via Extensions ▸ ⋯ ▸ Install from VSIX….

Releasing

Push a tag starting with v (e.g. v0.0.7) and GitHub Actions builds the .vsix and attaches it to a release automatically:

git tag v0.0.7
git push origin v0.0.7

Then download the .vsix from the release page to install it.

Configuration

How it works

1. Reads the API key from the OS keychain (SecretStorage), falling back to the REDMINE_API_KEY environment variable.
2. Prompts for the ticket number.
3. GET /issues/<id>.json?include=attachments with the X-Redmine-API-Key header.
4. Filters attachments to image MIME types (image/png, image/jpeg, image/jpg, image/gif, image/webp), downloads each, and resolves its relative content_url against the base URL.
5. Saves each image to a temporary file.
6. Opens the chat with the structured prompt (isPartialQuery: true) and the image files attached via the attachFiles option of workbench.action.chat.open.

Troubleshooting

• "No Redmine API key configured" — run Redmine Copilot Bridge: Configure… and enter your key.
• "GitHub Copilot Chat does not appear to be installed or active" — install and sign in to Copilot Chat, or run github.copilot.chat.open once first.
• Images don't appear in chat — this uses the github.copilot.chat.attachFile command (undocumented, but confirmed by the VS Code team). If your Copilot Chat build doesn't expose it, update the ATTACH_FILE_COMMAND constant in src/extension.ts.
• 401 Unauthorized — verify the API key is valid and enabled under My account → API access key in Redmine.