CLI Timeline

GitLens for AI Prompts — see what every CLI prompt changed.

Git Timeline shows commits. Local History shows saves. CLI Timeline shows what your CLI agent changed.

Supports GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code out of the box.

The Problem

CLI agents (Copilot CLI, Claude Code) make file changes directly at the OS level — outside VS Code. VS Code doesn't see these edits happening:

• ❌ Undo/Redo — only for edits made inside VS Code
• ❌ Local History — only for files VS Code was watching
• ❌ Git History — only for committed changes

If something breaks 10 prompts in, your only option is to manually git diff and hope for the best.

When to Use CLI Timeline

🔙 "Something broke — which prompt did it?" You're 15 prompts into a session and your app won't build. Instead of guessing, open CLI Timeline, browse each prompt's file changes, and diff exactly what happened. Revert the offending prompt — or revert everything back to a known good state.

🔍 "What did this AI session actually do?" You're reviewing a colleague's PR and they used Copilot CLI or Claude Code to make the changes. If they shared their session (committed to .cli-sessions/), you can browse every prompt, see every file touched, and understand the reasoning behind the changes — not just the final diff.

🛠️ Vibe coding gone wrong You're iterating fast with a CLI agent — "add auth", "refactor the API", "fix the tests" — and things spiral. CLI Timeline gives you per-prompt checkpoints to rewind to, so you can keep the good changes and undo the rest.

🆘 "Can someone help me fix this?" You're stuck and need a teammate (or a senior dev) to help untangle what your CLI agent did. Share your session to the repo — they can see every prompt you ran, every file that changed, and exactly where things went off track. No screen-sharing or "walk me through what you did" needed.

Features

🗂️ Session Explorer

Browse all sessions → see prompts → see files changed per prompt. Search and filter sessions by name or prompt text.

🔍 Prompt Diffs

Click any file change to see a side-by-side diff of what the prompt changed. For Copilot CLI, diffs use exact pre-prompt backup snapshots. For Claude Code, diffs are reconstructed from the recorded edit operations.

⏪ Revert to Any Prompt

Revert a single file — or all files changed by a prompt — back to their pre-prompt state. The extension confirms before applying any changes, so you can revert with confidence.

🤝 Session Sharing

Commit a session to .cli-sessions/ in your repo so teammates can browse what your CLI agent did. Shared sessions appear in a dedicated "Shared Sessions" panel (read-only) — great for code reviews, onboarding, and knowledge sharing.

📂 Reverse Lookup

Right-click any file in the Explorer → "Show AI Prompts That Changed This File" to jump straight to the prompts that touched it.

🔄 Live Reload

A file watcher monitors for new Copilot CLI activity and auto-refreshes sessions — no manual reload needed during active sessions.

Supported CLI Tools

Claude Code note: Diffs are reconstructed from the edit data recorded in the session (the exact old_string/new_string pairs Claude Code used), which is accurate for individual edits but may be approximate when edits overlap. Session history and diff views are fully supported. Revert support is planned for a future release.

How It Works

CLI Timeline reads session data that CLI tools already persist — no extra logging, plugins, or configuration needed:

• Copilot CLI stores session data in ~/.copilot/session-state/:

  • workspace.yaml — session metadata (working directory, git root, branch)
  • events.jsonl — every user message and tool call
  • rewind-snapshots/ — pre-prompt file backups (used for exact diffs and revert)

• Claude Code stores session data in ~/.claude/projects/:

  • Per-session .jsonl files containing user messages, assistant responses, and tool calls with old_string/new_string edit data

Everything is local. CLI Timeline only reads files already on your machine. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Commands

Settings

These settings let you point CLI Timeline at custom session storage locations if your CLI tools are configured to use non-default paths.

License

MIT