Session Control
A VS Code extension that saves GitHub Copilot Chat sessions as structured JSON files in your repository, linked to git commits and branches. Resume saved conversations via the @session-control chat participant.
Features
- Save sessions — Capture the active Copilot Chat session as a JSON file 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 ▶ icon in the editor title bar to resume it directly in chat.
- Auto-save on chat response — Optionally save the active session automatically after every Copilot chat 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.
Requirements
- VS Code
^1.93.0
- GitHub Copilot extension installed and signed in
Installation
Search for Session Control in the VS Code Extensions view, or install from the VS Code Marketplace.
Usage
Save a session
Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run:
Session Control: Save Current Chat Session
Select the session you want to save. The JSON file is written to .chat/ in your workspace root.
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.
View a saved session in the web viewer
You can open the HTML session viewer in two ways:
From Session Explorer
- Open the Session Control activity bar view.
- Under Saved Sessions, click a session row (or use the inline open action).
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
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
session-control.storagePath |
.chat |
Folder (relative to workspace root) where sessions are saved |
session-control.autoSaveOnChatResponse |
false |
Auto-save active session after every Copilot chat response |
session-control.includeInGitignore |
false |
Add storage folder to .gitignore |
session-control.resume.maxTurns |
50 |
Max turns injected when resuming |
session-control.resume.overflowStrategy |
summarize |
summarize, truncate, or recent-only |
session-control.resume.maxContextChars |
80000 |
Hard cap on characters injected as context |
session-control.save.maxFileSize |
1mb |
Max size per session file (e.g. 500kb, 1mb) |
session-control.save.overflowStrategy |
split |
split, truncateOldest, or warn |
session-control.save.stripToolOutput |
false |
Strip verbose tool call outputs to reduce size |
session-control.save.maxSavedSessions |
0 |
Max sessions to keep (0 = unlimited) |
session-control.save.pruneAction |
archive |
archive or delete when pruning old sessions |
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 Copilot, 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:
- Run
npm run lint.
- Run
npm test.
- Update
CHANGELOG.md for the release.
- Bump the extension version in
package.json.
- 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
