Copilot Chat Saver
A dead-simple VS Code extension that automatically saves all your GitHub Copilot
chat sessions — including Claude thinking/reasoning blocks — as Markdown
files in your workspace.
Why?
- 100% local — no telemetry, no network, no cloud. Your chats stay on your
machine.
- Zero dependencies — uses only Node.js stdlib (fs, path, crypto).
- Handles both formats — VS Code stores chats as
.json (older) and .jsonl
(newer incremental format). Both are parsed correctly.
- Includes thinking — Claude Opus/Sonnet 4.x thinking blocks are extracted
and rendered as collapsible
<details> sections.
- De-duplicated — content-hashed so unchanged sessions aren't rewritten.
- Auto-saves — polls every 30 seconds (configurable) for new/updated chats.
Install
From source (recommended for trust)
cd copilot-chat-saver
npm install
npm run compile
npm run package # creates copilot-chat-saver-1.0.0.vsix
code --install-extension copilot-chat-saver-1.0.0.vsix
Development / debugging
Open this folder in VS Code and press F5 to launch the extension in a
development host.
Usage
The extension activates automatically when VS Code starts. It:
- Finds the
chatSessions/ directory in your workspace storage
- Parses every
.json and .jsonl chat session file
- Converts them to clean Markdown
- Saves into
.chat-history/ in your workspace root
Commands
| Command |
Description |
| Copilot Chat Saver: Save All Chats Now |
Manually trigger a save |
| Copilot Chat Saver: Toggle Auto-Save |
Enable/disable auto-save |
| Copilot Chat Saver: Open History Folder |
Reveal the history folder in Finder |
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
copilotChatSaver.autoSave |
true |
Auto-save on a timer |
copilotChatSaver.outputDirectory |
.chat-history |
Output folder (relative to workspace) |
copilotChatSaver.pollIntervalSeconds |
30 |
Poll interval in seconds |
copilotChatSaver.includeThinking |
true |
Include Claude thinking blocks |
copilotChatSaver.includeToolCalls |
true |
Include tool call details |
Each chat session becomes a single Markdown file like:
.chat-history/
├── 2026-03-01_fix-entity-editor-crash_a1b2c3d4.md
├── 2026-03-02_refactor-settings-tab_e5f6g7h8.md
└── 2026-03-03_deploy-troubleshooting_i9j0k1l2.md
Each file contains:
- Session metadata (date, model, user, session ID)
- Every user message
- Every assistant response with full text
- Claude thinking blocks in collapsible
<details> sections
- Tool call summaries (file reads, searches, edits)
Where does VS Code store chats?
~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/workspaceStorage/<hash>/chatSessions/
Each workspace has a unique hash. The extension finds the right one automatically.
Privacy
This extension:
- Never makes network requests
- Never collects telemetry
- Never sends your data anywhere
- Reads only from VS Code's local workspace storage
- Writes only to your workspace folder
- Has zero runtime dependencies
You can audit the entire source in a single file:
src/extension.ts
Shiny Gen AI
Built with support from Shiny Gen AI — AI-powered tools
for modern developers.
