Cross-Workspace Chat Viewer

Find and continue local VS Code chat sessions without remembering which workspace contained them.

Cross-Workspace Chat Viewer provides one searchable sidebar for chats stored by VS Code, VS Code Insiders, and Copilot clients using local session-state history. Search across workspace names, titles, prompts, and responses, preview transcripts, or reopen an existing chat in its original workspace.

Marketplace identifier: jonwomack.cross-workspace-chat-viewer

Features

• Search chats from every local workspace in one view.
• Search and preview Copilot event histories stored under ~/.copilot/session-state, without assuming which client created them.
• Configure the scan locations for both supported storage formats.
• Read complete transcripts without switching workspaces.
• Continue sessions in a pinned native VS Code chat editor.
• Continue any readable chat as a new VS Code chat with a Markdown transcript attached, even if its original workspace or client is unavailable.
• Copy the original transcript's full path for manual use.
• Distinguish VS Code Stable and VS Code Insiders history.
• Launch the correct VS Code product for cross-product sessions.
• Keep orphaned or missing-workspace chats visible and readable.
• Import a chat into the current VS Code product when its originating product is no longer installed.
• Copy a chat into another initialized workspace and continue it against that workspace's files. The destination picker shows the workspace path and root folders.
• Suggest a focused workspace for a chat by preselecting roots with recorded attachments, references, edits, tool activity, or working-directory use.
• Open the original raw transcript for recovery or inspection.
• Read current .jsonl and legacy .json session formats.

Screenshots

Usage

1. Select Workspace Chats in the Activity Bar.
2. Search by workspace, product, title, prompt, or response text.
3. Select a result to preview its transcript.
4. Select Continue chat to open its original workspace and restore the native session.

Copilot event histories are labeled Copilot session history, not CLI-only: their storage location does not reliably identify the client that created them. They open as a read-only transcript preview and support Continue as new chat, Copy transcript path, and Raw transcript. Native import, workspace-copy, recovery, and optimization require VS Code's native transcript format.

Every result has a Preview & actions button, including when automatic native reopening is enabled and chat previews are otherwise disabled. In that preview, Continue as new chat writes a readable snapshot of the stored user/assistant turns to extension global storage and attaches it to a fresh chat in the current window and workspace. It leaves an unsent draft for you to add your next request; it does not reconstruct tool state or replace the original conversation. The transcript is reread from disk, rather than copied from a potentially stale preview. Snapshots remain available locally so attached files survive reloads. Copy transcript path copies the absolute path of the original JSON/JSONL file.

For chats created by another VS Code product, install Cross-Workspace Chat Viewer in both Stable and Insiders. The extension launches the originating product and completes the handoff there. If that product has been removed but its storage remains, use Import into VS Code or Import into VS Code Insiders. The extension copies the transcript into the current product without deleting or modifying the original. If the workspace has not been opened there before, the extension opens it first and completes the import after reload.

Use Copy to workspace to continue a chat against a different set of files. The original transcript remains in its original workspace. VS Code must have opened the destination workspace at least once so its local storage exists.

For chats associated with a multi-root workspace, use Optimize workspace to review a preselected folder list. Checked roots are retained; roots with no observed use are initially unchecked. Accepting the selection creates an extension-managed .code-workspace, preserves available workspace settings, copies and verifies the chat there, and then deletes the original transcript. The original workspace and its files remain unchanged. The moved chat is placed at the top of the destination chat list.

When an original workspace is missing, recovery proposes only referenced folders that still exist, including known roots and transcript-derived working directories, edits, attachments, references, and tool paths. After confirmation it creates an extension-managed recovered workspace and moves the chat there. It never recreates missing project contents or empty placeholder directories.

Write and submit requests in VS Code's native chat interface. The viewer does not automatically send prompts or route requests to existing chats.

Chat sessions and aggregate statistics are loaded once per extension session. Collapsing and reopening the view restores that in-memory data rather than rescanning every transcript or replaying statistics calculations. Use the refresh command when an immediate rescan is needed.

The computed viewer state is also cached in extension global storage so it can be restored after VS Code reloads the extension host for a same-window workspace change. The restored list appears immediately; the extension then checks file metadata and reparses only transcripts that changed during reload. Summary metrics keep chats and storage as shared totals, then report You prompts/words and Bot responses/words separately.

The chat list watches local transcript directories for new activity. A spinner marks a response being written, then becomes a blue dot when it finishes. Opening that chat from the list clears the indicator. Watchers read only newly appended JSONL records and reparse only the changed transcript.

Selecting a chat opens its native VS Code chat automatically by default without rendering the transcript inside the extension. Enable displayChatPreview to retain an in-extension confirmation view. Enable preview and disable autoOpenChatOnSelect to inspect the transcript first and use Continue chat manually. When a same-window workspace change is required, Workspace Chats reopens after the workbench reload and then continues the pending native chat.

Settings

Storage-root changes automatically refresh the viewer. Paths can start with ~. VS Code roots must contain <workspace>/chatSessions/*.json or *.jsonl; Copilot roots must contain <session>/events.jsonl with optional workspace.yaml metadata. Changing locations does not add support for arbitrary clients' formats. The two root lists select parsers by storage format, not the originating UI.

Privacy

Cross-Workspace Chat Viewer reads chat transcripts directly from local VS Code storage and GitHub Copilot CLI session state. It does not collect telemetry or make network requests. See PRIVACY.md for details.

Known limitations

• VS Code does not currently expose a stable public API for enumerating and reopening all local chats. This extension relies on private on-disk formats and internal commands that may change.
• Cross-product continuation requires the extension to be installed in both VS Code Stable and VS Code Insiders.
• Importing requires the original workspace to still exist. A chat with a deleted workspace remains readable and can be opened as a raw transcript.
• Chats whose original workspace has been deleted cannot be continued in place; use Continue as new chat to use their transcript in the current workspace.
• The extension searches local desktop storage and does not index remote-machine chat storage.
• Historical file references inside a copied chat still point to their original locations; new requests use the destination workspace.
• Focused-workspace suggestions use recorded chat metadata. A root with no observed use may still be relevant to future work or implicit dependencies.
• Focused workspace files are stored in the extension's local global storage.
• Creating a new chat with an attachment relies on internal VS Code commands. If those commands are unavailable, use Copy transcript path instead.
• Transcript attachments contain the parsed user/assistant text, not restored tool executions, edits, binary attachments, or hidden model state. VS Code and the selected model may limit how much of a large attachment enters context.

Development

npm install
npm test
npm run package

Press F5 in VS Code to run an Extension Development Host. The packaged .vsix can be installed with Extensions: Install from VSIX....

Publishing

See PUBLISHING.md for the release checklist and how CLI publishing authenticates without a stored Personal Access Token.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT