Session Control

Save your Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and GitHub Copilot chat history across git commits.

Session Control is a cross-IDE session manager for AI chats. Every conversation with Cursor Agent, Claude Code, Codex, or Copilot can be captured as a structured JSON file in your repo, linked to the branch and commit it belongs to, and resumed later as context in a new chat — through the @session-control chat participant.

Your conversations never leave your machine. They live next to the code they produced, in source control you already trust. Works inside VS Code, Cursor, VSCodium, and other VS-Code-compatible editors via the Open VSX Registry.

Why Session Control

• Cross-IDE by design. Save and import chats from Cursor Agent, Claude Code, Codex, and GitHub Copilot — the four assistants polyglot AI users actually run.
• Linked to the commit that produced the code. Every saved session records the branch and SHA, so future you (or a reviewer) can open the chat that explains the diff.
• Lives in your repo, not in someone else's cloud. Sessions are plain JSON in .chat/, reviewable in diffs and PRs. Optional .gitignore toggle if you would rather keep them local.
• Resume into a fresh chat. @session-control /resume <name> reloads a saved conversation as LLM context. No copy-paste, no lost decisions.

Screenshots

Save a chat, browse saved sessions in the Session Explorer, and resume one as context in a new chat — all without leaving your editor.

Save any chat	Resume as context
Capture a Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or Copilot chat as JSON in .chat/, linked to the branch and commit you were on.	Type @session-control /resume <name> in chat to reload a saved session as context. Fuzzy match on the title.

Session Explorer	Cross-IDE provider picker
Browse every saved session per workspace folder. Open, resume, or delete from the activity bar.	Pick a provider per save — Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or Copilot. Auto-detects when running inside Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code.

Features

• Provider choice — Keep Copilot as the default save source, switch to Codex or Claude Code for local transcript import, and let Session Control auto-detect Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code when running inside those hosts.
• Import AI skills — Convert repository Copilot guidance into repo-scoped Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code skills under .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, or .claude/skills/.
• Save sessions — Capture Copilot, Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code chats as JSON files in .chat/, enriched with branch and commit metadata.
• Resume sessions — Use @session-control /resume <name> to reload a saved conversation as LLM context in a new chat.
• Analyze saved chats — Use @session-control /analyze to review a timeframe of saved sessions or only chats that have not been analyzed yet.
• Implement recommendations — Use @session-control /implement to open a generated implementation prompt in chat or an agent session.
• Browse, preview, delete — Manage saved sessions via the Session Explorer and command palette.
• Resume from viewer — When viewing a saved session, click the Resume icon in the editor title bar to resume it directly in chat.
• Auto-save on chat response — Optionally auto-save Copilot chat responses, Cursor Agent transcript updates, Codex transcript updates, or Claude Code transcript updates after every response.
• Lives in source control — Sessions are plain JSON files tracked alongside your code, reviewable in diffs and PRs.
• Bloat controls — Configurable file size limits, session splitting, tool output stripping, and automatic pruning of old sessions.

Session Control can save Copilot, Cursor, Codex, and Claude Code sessions. When the save provider setting is unset, it auto-detects Cursor, Codex, and Claude Code from the current host app. Outside Cursor, auto-save watches Copilot, Codex, and Claude Code sources by default.

Requirements

• VS Code ^1.93.0
• GitHub Copilot extension installed and signed in if you want to save Copilot sessions
• Cursor installed locally if you want to import or auto-save Cursor Agent transcript sessions
• Codex installed locally if you want to import or auto-save Codex sessions, or create repo-scoped Codex skills
• Claude Code installed locally if you want to import or auto-save Claude Code sessions, or create repo-scoped Claude Code skills

Installation

Search for Session Control in your editor's extensions view, or install from:

• Open VSX Registry — for Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium, Codium, Positron, Trae, and other VS-Code-compatible editors.
• VS Code Marketplace — for stock Visual Studio Code.

Usage

Save a session

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run:

Session Control: Save Session...

Session Control prompts for the provider so what gets saved is always your explicit choice rather than a guess from the active window. Choose Copilot to read VS Code chat storage, Codex to import local transcripts from CODEX_HOME or ~/.codex, or Claude Code to import JSONL transcripts from CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR or ~/.claude. After picking a provider, choose the session to save. The JSON file is written to .chat/ in your workspace root.

Cursor support is automatic when the extension is running inside Cursor. In that case, Session Control reads Agent transcript JSONL files from ~/.cursor/projects/<project-slug>/agent-transcripts and falls back to legacy Cursor workspace chatSessions JSONL files when possible.

Claude Code transcripts are read from:

~/.claude/projects/<encoded-workspace-path>/<session-id>.jsonl

Set session-control.claudeCode.homePath if your Claude Code config directory lives somewhere else. Session Control derives <encoded-workspace-path> the same way Claude Code does by replacing :, \, and / in the absolute workspace path with -; for example, E:\chat-commit becomes E--chat-commit. Main session files are normalized into the shared saved-session format, while nested subagents/ transcripts and Claude sidechain records are ignored.

Auto-save on chat response

Enable:

"session-control.autoSaveOnChatResponse": true

Auto-save follows the effective save provider:

• copilot watches VS Code chat storage and saves the latest Copilot session after each response.
• cursor is selected automatically when the extension is running in Cursor and no explicit provider override is set. It watches Cursor Agent transcript JSONL files under ~/.cursor/projects/<project-slug>/agent-transcripts and auto-saves the latest Agent chat.
• codex is selected automatically when the extension is running in Codex and no explicit provider override is set. It watches local Codex session transcripts under CODEX_HOME/sessions or ~/.codex/sessions, filters them to the current workspace by session cwd, and auto-saves the latest matching Codex chat.
• claude-code watches local Claude Code transcripts under CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR/projects/<project-slug> or ~/.claude/projects/<project-slug>, filters them to the current workspace by session cwd, and auto-saves the latest matching Claude Code chat.

Resume a session

In VS Code Chat, type:

@session-control /resume <session-name>

The extension does a fuzzy search on the session name. If multiple sessions match, you'll be presented with options to choose from. The saved conversation is injected as context into the current chat.

List sessions

@session-control /list

or via the Command Palette:

Session Control: Browse Saved Sessions

Analyze saved chats

In VS Code Chat, type:

@session-control /analyze

You can either choose a timeframe interactively or use a quick alias such as 24h, 7d, 30d, or needs analysis.

When you pick a date-based range interactively, Session Control now asks whether it should analyze only chats in that range that have not been analyzed yet, or re-analyze everything in that range.

The participant reviews saved sessions from the configured storage folder, streams a report back into chat, and writes a markdown report under .chat/analysis/reports/. It also keeps an analysis index in .chat/analysis/index.json so the Needs Analysis mode only selects chats that have not been analyzed yet or whose content has changed since the last analysis. The report compares candidate recommendations against the current AGENTS.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, CLAUDE.md when present, and existing repository-local instruction or skill files before listing recommendations. The report is intended to list only gaps that are not already covered there, unless it is proposing a concrete improvement, consolidation, or removal. When repeated workflows suggest a better reusable setup, the report can also recommend creating new AI skill files such as SKILL.md, *.instructions.md, *.prompt.md, or *.agent.md.

After the report is generated, Session Control suggests an Implement Recommendations follow-up in chat.

@session-control /implement generates a compact implementation prompt that points a coding agent at the saved analysis report file and keeps the next step focused on those AI control files. When the report recommends a new reusable AI skill, the generated prompt tells the next coding-agent step to create that skill file and any supporting instruction assets. It opens a new chat with that prompt prefilled by default, and when a supported agent-session opener is available it can open that surface and copy the prompt to the clipboard.

Implement the latest saved analysis from the command palette

Run:

Session Control: Implement Latest Analysis

This command looks across the open workspace folders, finds the newest saved analysis report that still exists on disk, and opens the same lightweight implementation flow used by @session-control /implement. If an agent-session opener is available, you can send the generated prompt there; otherwise it opens a new chat with the prompt prefilled. Internally this command is registered as session-control.implementLatestAnalysis.

Import Copilot guidance as Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code skills

Run:

Session Control: Import Copilot Guidance as Cursor Skills
Session Control: Import Copilot Guidance as Codex Skills
Session Control: Import Copilot Guidance as Claude Code Skills

This scans repository guidance such as .github/copilot-instructions.md, .github/instructions/*.instructions.md, .github/prompts/*.prompt.md, and other repo-local *.instructions.md, *.prompt.md, *.agent.md, or SKILL.md files. Use the Cursor command to import each source into .cursor/skills/<slug>/SKILL.md, the Codex command to import into .agents/skills/<slug>/SKILL.md, or the Claude Code command to import into .claude/skills/<slug>/SKILL.md, without overwriting existing skills.

View a saved session in the web viewer

You can open the HTML session viewer in two ways:

1. From Session Explorer

   • Open the Session Control activity bar view.
   • Under Saved Sessions, click a session row (or use the inline open action).

2. From an open JSON file

   • Open a saved session file (for example in .chat/).
   • Use the View Session preview icon in the editor title bar.

The editor title action is shown only when the active file is a valid Session Control session document. If your JSON does not match the Session Control schema, the viewer action is hidden and the command reports that the format is not recognized.

Resume from the session viewer

When a saved session is open in the web viewer, a ▶ Resume icon appears in the editor title bar. Click it to open the chat panel with @session-control /resume <session-title> pre-filled. Press Enter to load the session as context and continue the conversation.

Viewer command

You can also run this from the command palette:

Session Control: View Session

This command opens the web viewer for the active JSON file when it matches Session Control's saved session format.

Configuration

Privacy Warning — Public Repositories

⚠️ Do not commit .chat/ sessions to a public repository without reviewing them first.

Saved session files are plain JSON that records the full conversation between you and the selected AI provider, including all tool call inputs and outputs. These files routinely contain:

• Local filesystem paths (e.g. C:\Users\yourname\...) that expose your OS username and machine layout
• Workspace-internal details captured by agent tool calls (file contents, terminal output, search results)

To keep sessions private, enable the built-in setting:

"session-control.includeInGitignore": true

This automatically adds your storage folder to .gitignore so sessions are never staged. Alternatively, add .chat/ (or your configured storagePath) to .gitignore manually.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for dev setup, testing instructions, and PR guidelines.

Release Checklist

Before cutting a tagged release:

1. Run npm run lint.
2. Run npm test.
3. Update CHANGELOG.md for the release.
4. Bump the extension version in package.json.
5. Push a v* tag to trigger the automated marketplace and Open VSX publish workflow.

The release workflow also supports manual dispatch from GitHub Actions, but it will only publish after lint, build, and test steps pass.

License

MIT