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.
- 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
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.
License
MIT
