ChatWizard
Inspired by https://github.com/Veverke/bAInder, I decided to make a VS Code extension, with a developer perspective in mind.
Your AI chat history — unified, searchable, and always yours. Chat Wizard reads session data from every major AI coding tool and gives you a single place to search, browse, and analyse it all. Your conversation history is no longer trapped inside whichever tool or IDE created it.
Tags: AI chat manager · Copilot chat manager · Claude chat manager · chat history viewer · prompt library · code block search · token usage analytics · LLM productivity · VS Code AI tools · conversation history manager · Cline chat manager · Roo code chat manager · Cursor chat manager · Windsurf chat manager · Aider chat manager · Google Antigravity chat manager
Why ChatWizard?
- Your history travels with you. Switch from Cursor to VS Code, try Windsurf for a project, add Cline to your workflow — your full conversation archive stays intact and searchable in one place. No more context lost when you change tools or IDEs.
- Everything in one view. Whether you use one AI coding tool or five, Chat Wizard aggregates sessions from all of them. Search across a year of Copilot, Claude, Cline, Cursor, Windsurf, Aider, and Google Antigravity conversations in a single query.
- 100% local, read-only, zero setup. Chat Wizard never makes a network call, never modifies your session files, and requires no API key or account. It passively reads what your existing tools already write to disk.
- Not just a viewer. Full-text search with regex, a deduplicated prompt library, a code block archive, per-model usage analytics, and a timeline with activity heat maps — capabilities that no individual AI tool exposes.
Demos
Search — Search Bar & Search Command
Export to Markdown — Full Session & Excerpt
Session Filters
Prompt Library
Code Blocks (snippets)
Analytics
Model Usage
Features
- Sessions Panel — browse, sort, filter, pin, group, and reorder every AI session across all tools and workspaces
- Full-Text Search — instant in-memory keyword search with regex support and source/role filters
- Semantic Search — topic-similarity search via a local AI model (opt-in, ~22 MB)
- Code Block Library — every AI-generated code snippet, filterable by language, with one-click copy
- Prompt Library — deduplicated, frequency-ranked archive of all your prompts with near-duplicate clustering and merge
- Analytics — token usage charts, daily activity, top projects, top terms, longest sessions
- Model Usage — per-model request counts with date-range filtering and workspace/session drill-down
- Timeline — chronological feed with activity heat map, work bursts, topic drift ribbon, and streak stats
- Export — single session, multi-select, all sessions, or excerpt — to structured Markdown
- MCP Server — expose your full chat history to Claude Desktop, Cursor, Continue, and Copilot agent mode via the Model Context Protocol
@chatwizard Copilot Chat Participant — /queryHistory and /continueFromHistory directly in Copilot Chat, no MCP server required- Live Indexing — file watcher keeps all views up-to-date as new sessions are written, with no manual refresh needed
- 100% local — no network calls, no account, read-only access to your existing session files
For detailed usage instructions, settings, and commands see the User Guide.
ChatWizard vs. Native Chat Interfaces
Capabilities not available in the built-in GitHub Copilot Chat panel or the Claude Code terminal:
| Capability |
ChatWizard |
Copilot Chat (VS Code) |
Claude Code (terminal) |
| Browse all past sessions across all workspaces |
✅ |
❌ per-workspace only |
❌ no GUI history |
| Cross-session full-text search |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Regex search over chat history |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Filter sessions by model, date range, message count |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Multi-key composite sort of session list |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Pin & drag-and-drop reorder sessions |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Export conversations to Markdown |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Export a message excerpt (selected turns only) |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Unified code block library across all sessions |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Filter & sort AI-generated code blocks by language, content, source, role |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| One-click copy of any historical code block |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Deduplicated, searchable prompt library |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Near-duplicate prompt detection & merge |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Token-usage analytics & daily activity charts |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Chronological timeline with jump-to-date |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Timeline heat map, work bursts & topic drift |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Per-model request usage dashboard |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Selective workspace indexing & scope management |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
| Live auto-refresh when sessions change |
✅ |
✅ current session |
✅ current session |
| 100% local — no external network calls |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
| Expose history to AI tools via MCP (Model Context Protocol) |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
Supported AI Chat Extensions
| Extension |
Data Source |
| GitHub Copilot Chat |
Per-workspace JSONL operation logs at %APPDATA%/Code/User/workspaceStorage/<hash>/chatSessions/ plus workspace metadata from state.vscdb (SQLite) |
| Claude Code |
Conversation JSONL files at ~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl |
Cline (saoudrizwan.claude-dev) |
Per-task JSON files at %APPDATA%/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/tasks/<taskId>/ |
Roo Code (rooveterinaryinc.roo-cline) |
Per-task JSON files at %APPDATA%/Code/User/globalStorage/rooveterinaryinc.roo-cline/tasks/<taskId>/ (Cline-compatible format) |
| Cursor |
SQLite state.vscdb at %APPDATA%/Cursor/User/workspaceStorage/<hash>/ — chat history stored under the composer.composerData key. Requires better-sqlite3 (pre-built native module bundled with the extension). |
| Windsurf (Codeium) |
SQLite state.vscdb at %APPDATA%/Windsurf/User/workspaceStorage/<hash>/ — Cascade chat history stored under the cascade.sessionData key. Reuses the same better-sqlite3 driver. |
| Aider |
Markdown .aider.chat.history.md files written by Aider into each project root. ChatWizard scans all open VS Code workspace folders plus any paths listed in chatwizard.aiderSearchRoots (up to chatwizard.aiderSearchDepth levels deep, default 3). Optional .aider.conf.yml in the same directory is read for the model: key. No central storage directory — files live inside your project repos. |
For tools with partial support, see Limited Support below.
Limited Support
Some tools are supported with constraints. Features that operate on prompts alone — Prompt Library, Full-Text Search, Analytics, and Timeline — work fully. The session reader displays an informational banner explaining what is unavailable.
| Tool |
What works |
Limitation |
| Google Antigravity |
Prompt Library, full-text search, analytics, timeline, session reader (prompts only) |
AI responses are not available from disk. Antigravity stores conversation content in an encrypted format that requires the running Language Server to decode. Only prompts are indexed. Configurable via chatwizard.indexAntigravity / chatwizard.antigravityBrainPath. |
Installation
- VS Code Marketplace — search for "ChatWizard" in the Extensions view and click Install.
- Manual install — download the
.vsix file and run Extensions: Install from VSIX… from the Command Palette.
- The extension activates automatically on VS Code startup (
onStartupFinished). No configuration is required for standard GitHub Copilot Chat and Claude Code installs.
Requirements
- VS Code 1.85.0 or later.
- At least one supported AI coding tool installed and actively used: GitHub Copilot Chat, Claude Code, Cline, Roo Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Aider, or Google Antigravity (limited support — prompts only; see Limited Support). Chat Wizard reads the session files these tools write — it does not create sessions itself and requires no additional configuration for standard installs.
Extension Settings
See the User Guide → Settings Reference.
Commands
See the User Guide → Commands Reference.
Architecture & Privacy
- All processing is local. ChatWizard never makes network requests. No session content, metadata, or telemetry is ever transmitted to any external server.
- Read-only access. ChatWizard reads AI chat session files but never writes to them or modifies them in any way.
- Live index updates. A
FileSystemWatcher monitors the session directories and rebuilds the affected index entries whenever new sessions are created or existing ones are updated. All views refresh automatically.
- No external indexing dependencies. Full-text search uses a custom in-memory inverted index. Similarity clustering uses trigram scoring. Analytics use local token-count approximations. No ML models, no network calls.
- MCP server — local and auth-gated. When enabled, the MCP server binds exclusively to
127.0.0.1 (never 0.0.0.0). All requests require a bearer token generated with crypto.randomBytes(32) and stored in VS Code's extension storage. The token is never logged. A /health endpoint is intentionally unauthenticated so clients can verify connectivity; it returns only { status: "ok", sessions: N }.
- Local telemetry (opt-in). If
chatwizard.enableTelemetry is enabled, usage events are appended to a JSONL file inside the extension's VS Code global storage directory on your local machine. This file is never read by any external service.
Known Limitations
- Copilot Chat session parsing reconstructs conversation state by replaying an append-only operation log. Very large sessions (hundreds of messages) may take slightly longer to parse on first index build.
- Claude Code epoch sessions — sessions with a creation date of 1970-01-01 (epoch) or with zero messages are silently skipped during indexing. This matches Claude Code's own behavior of writing placeholder files before sessions are populated.
- Token counts are approximations. ChatWizard uses character-based counting (characters / 4) for Claude and Google Antigravity (Gemini) sessions, and word-based counting (words x 1.3) for Copilot/GPT sessions. These figures are estimates and will not exactly match the billing token counts reported by the respective providers.
- Cursor and Windsurf schema stability. Both IDEs store chat data in private SQLite databases whose internal schema can change in any update without notice. Chat Wizard targets the current schema; a future Cursor or Windsurf release may require a matching Chat Wizard update before sessions from those sources are visible again.
Release Notes
1.4.0
- MCP Server Mode — local HTTP/SSE server exposing your full chat history via the Model Context Protocol. Binds to
localhost only; all requests require a bearer token. Enable via chatwizard.mcpServer.enabled.
- 8 MCP tools:
chatwizard_search, chatwizard_find_similar, chatwizard_get_session, chatwizard_get_session_full, chatwizard_list_recent, chatwizard_get_context, chatwizard_list_sources, chatwizard_server_info.
- 2 MCP prompts:
chatwizard.queryHistory, chatwizard.continueFromHistory — available to any MCP client.
- Config clipboard flow, status bar indicator, first-run consent modal.
- Token rotation —
Chat Wizard: Rotate MCP Token (chatwizard.rotateMcpToken) generates a new bearer token. Gated by chatwizard.mcpServer.allowTokenRotation.
Chat Wizard: Connect GitHub Copilot and Chat Wizard: Set Up Global Copilot Instructions commands for quick one-click setup.
@chatwizard Copilot Chat Participant — use /queryHistory and /continueFromHistory directly in Copilot Chat without the MCP server running. /queryHistory shows the top-3 matching sessions and, on confirmation, consolidates all three and derives a semantically grounded answer.- VS Code Insiders support — Copilot workspace storage is now auto-discovered from both stable (
Code) and Insiders (Code - Insiders) installs.
- Improved full-text search — stop-word filtering and basic de-pluralisation raise relevance of keyword results.
- Extension update notifier — silent daily Marketplace check; shows a notification with an Open in Marketplace link when a newer version is available.
1.3.0
- Google Antigravity support (limited) — indexes user prompts from Google Antigravity stored at
~/.gemini/antigravity/brain/<uuid>/.system_generated/logs/overview.txt (JSONL step logs). AI responses are not available from disk (stored in an encrypted format). Configurable via chatwizard.indexAntigravity / chatwizard.antigravityBrainPath.
- Antigravity prompts participate in search, prompt library, analytics, model usage, timeline, and source filtering. The session reader shows prompts only with an informational banner.
- Token counting for Antigravity sessions uses the Gemini character ÷ 4 approximation.
- Antigravity brand icon, CSS theme variable, and badge class added.
1.2.0
- Cline support — indexes Cline (
saoudrizwan.claude-dev) task history; model and workspace path read from ui_messages.json; configurable via chatwizard.indexCline / chatwizard.clineStoragePath.
- Roo Code support — indexes Roo Code (
rooveterinaryinc.roo-cline) task history (Cline-compatible format); configurable via chatwizard.indexRooCode / chatwizard.rooCodeStoragePath.
- Cursor support — indexes Cursor chat and agent sessions from SQLite
state.vscdb (composer.composerData); configurable via chatwizard.indexCursor / chatwizard.cursorStoragePath.
- Windsurf support — indexes Windsurf Cascade sessions from SQLite
state.vscdb (cascade.sessionData); configurable via chatwizard.indexWindsurf / chatwizard.windsurfStoragePath.
- Aider support — discovers
.aider.chat.history.md files in workspace folders and chatwizard.aiderSearchRoots; model from .aider.conf.yml; configurable via chatwizard.indexAider, chatwizard.aiderSearchRoots, chatwizard.aiderSearchDepth.
- All new sources participate in search, prompt library, code blocks, analytics, model usage, and timeline.
- Cursor-native model IDs normalised (
cursor-fast, cursor-small).
1.1.0
- Workspace Management — new
Manage Watched Workspaces command lets you select exactly which Copilot and Claude workspaces to index; shows size and session count per workspace; persists selection and restarts the watcher.
- Model Usage panel — new sidebar tab showing per-model user request counts over a configurable date range, with workspace and session drill-down and friendly model name normalisation.
- Timeline enhancements — added activity heat map (click a day to filter), work burst clustering (2-hour window), per-week topic drift ribbon, summary stats bar (streak, active days, on-this-day), and inline keyword search.
1.0.4
Initial release. All nine development phases complete:
- Phase 0: Foundation — parsers, file watchers, session index
- Phase 1: Session Management Panel — TreeView, reader, sort, filter, pin, drag-drop
- Phase 2: Unified Full-Text Search — inverted index, QuickPick UI, regex, role filters
- Phase 3: Export to Markdown — single, all, multi-select, excerpt
- Phase 4: Code Block Extraction — language filter, content search, copy-to-clipboard
- Phase 5: Prompt Library — deduplication, frequency ranking, copy
- Phase 6: Analytics Dashboard — token usage, daily activity chart, top projects, top terms
- Phase 7: Duplicate Prompt Detection — trigram similarity clusters, merge action
- Phase 8: Timeline View — chronological feed, month groups, workspace filter, jump-to-date
- Phase 9: Polish — configurable data source paths, local telemetry opt-in, release packaging
Support the Project
If ChatWizard is saving you time, a quick ⭐ review takes 30 seconds and makes a real difference for discoverability:
→ Leave a review on VS Code Marketplace
→ Leave a review on Open VSX Registry
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome at https://github.com/veverke/chatwizard.
Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub — every report is read and responded to.
License
This project is licensed under the MIT License with Commons Clause — see LICENSE for the full text.
In plain terms:
- You may use, copy, modify, and distribute the source code freely.
- You may not sell the software or offer it as a paid product or service (including hosting or consulting services whose value derives substantially from this software).
This is source-available software. It is not OSI-certified open source.
| |
