🐻‍❄️ Bear in Mind — Copilot Token Meter

Track your reported Copilot plan allowance and combined account usage in your sidebar, with a dashboard for tokens, credits, speed and quality signals. Select a chat to compare its cost and reported prompt context. The polar bear's ice is a usage metaphor, not a measurement of energy consumption, CO2 or real ice loss.

Bear in Mind visualises usage. It cannot cap spending, throttle requests or change your bill, including on unlimited plans.

Install

VS Code Marketplace

Once the Marketplace listing is available, search for Bear in Mind — Copilot Token Meter by obrocki in VS Code's Extensions view, or run:

code --install-extension obrocki.bear-in-mind

If the listing is not available yet, install the VSIX below.

VSIX

Download a .vsix from Releases, then run:

code --install-extension bear-in-mind-0.6.5.vsix

Use the downloaded filename if it differs. Open the Iceberg activity-bar icon. Every merge also updates the rolling dev build. A new package version is released automatically after all main CI platforms pass. The release attaches an archive-checked VSIX; this is project-side packaging verification, not Marketplace certification. Automated Marketplace publishing additionally requires the repository's VSCE_PAT secret.

Requirements and compatibility

• VS Code desktop 1.95 or newer on Windows, macOS or Linux. This is not a web extension for vscode.dev or github.dev.
• Copilot usage readings require GitHub Copilot Chat and the corresponding local telemetry or chat-history data. Account allowance additionally requires an explicit connection and authorized GitHub sign-in; local metering works without that account connection.
• Use current stable VS Code and Copilot Chat for the fullest telemetry support. SQLite-backed trace readings and indexed chat titles require an extension host that provides node:sqlite. Older hosts can still read JSON-lines telemetry and transcript credits, but SQLite-only readings are unavailable.
• Copilot identity capture requires the supported github.copilot.chat.otel.captureIdentity setting in VS Code 1.140 or newer and separate consent. Missing identity is not inferred.
• Data files must be accessible to the extension host. Remote extension-host placement can change which machine's telemetry and history are available.

Bear in Mind is an independent personal project by Dawid Obrocki, not an official GitHub or Microsoft product. It is not sponsored or endorsed by either company. Product names identify compatible services, not sponsorship or endorsement. The optional account connection uses an unofficial GitHub API that can change or fail. See SECURITY.md for the local data read, network requests, consent and disconnect behavior, and License for reuse permissions.

The dashboard

Open Iceberg: Open Token Dashboard or the sidebar's Cost, Speed, Quality view.

Token share is not credit share. Retained-trace credits expose small helper calls. Repository and branch come from agent spans; with identity capture on, credits are also grouped by the reported user.name. Calls without matching agent context remain unattributed.

The dashboard follows VS Code light, dark and high-contrast themes; the habitat artwork keeps its polar-night palette. Retained token diagnostics show reporting coverage, preserve measured zeroes and leave unreported fields unknown. Cache-read share uses only valid paired input/cache reports, not an incomplete cache subtotal divided by every call's input.

SDK-harness github.copilot.nano_aiu appears separately as SDK root-invocation credits only when retained parent metadata confirms the invocation root. Child/nested totals are excluded; missing or inconsistent ancestry stays unclassified. These different-grain credits are never added to VS Code model-call credits, the meter or transcript Session Cost. A model's cost multiplier is not credits or money.

With All sessions (the default), the gauge uses GitHub's reported remaining Copilot plan allowance across sessions and surfaces, not one chat's context or the sum of local observations. Run Iceberg: Refresh Copilot Account Usage… or Refresh account usage… in the dashboard to explicitly connect account usage and authorize VS Code's GitHub sign-in. Once connected, the extension refreshes once a minute; it never prompts automatically. An existing GitHub sign-in grant alone does not connect account usage.

The account connection uses the unofficial copilot_internal/user API used by VS Code. GitHub's documented billing usage APIs do not expose the same plan allowance. The quota response supplies the plan, remaining percentage, included allowance when reported, and reset date; no plan limits are hard-coded. Counts derived from percentages are labeled approximate. Legacy premium-request quotas and free-chat quotas retain their own units rather than becoming AI credits. Pooled/unlimited plans have no per-user denominator, so their account gauge stays unscaled; reported pooled credits can still be displayed.

Selecting a comparison session switches the gauge to that session's reported prompt allowance, when available. Missing, failed, stale (over 15 minutes old) or reset account quotas and missing/stale prompt limits leave the ice unscaled, unless you explicitly set a personal iceberg.tokenBudget. Account errors are visible, and a missing pinned session never switches to another chat or account scope. Neither gauge is a spending cap. The synthetic demo never changes usage.

Understanding the readings

The dashboard and Copilot report different units and scopes:

Use Iceberg: Select Comparison Session (or Select session… in the dashboard) to pin a session, or choose All sessions to return to combined account usage. Session names come from the same local chat-history index used by VS Code, including generated titles and renames; IDs remain searchable. Both JSON and JSONL transcript formats are supported. No session is selected automatically, and this does not detect the active editor chat. The dashboard also shows local sessions observed since the 1st, separately from account usage. These session totals can include earlier history; they are not a billing-period usage report. Transcript credits take precedence; trace-credit fallbacks are labeled and never added to them. Trace data covers at most seven retained days and may be incomplete. These are local observations, not an account balance or invoice. Use Iceberg: Telemetry Diagnostics for totals, coverage, meter start and gauge basis.

VS Code has no supported third-party API for quota or active-chat detection. The unofficial GitHub quota API can change or fail; its failures do not become zero-usage claims. Disable account requests with iceberg.accountUsage.enabled: false. No local transcripts or telemetry are sent, credentials and account quota data are not persisted, and local metering works without the connection. See the ROI research for telemetry details.

Connecting the telemetry

Run Iceberg: Connect Copilot Telemetry…, choose a source, reload the window, then send a chat request. Allow time for the export to arrive.

Older file-feed spans may serialize as {}; use the trace store for exact timings and session credits on those builds. Quality appears after actions such as accepting/rejecting an edit or rating a response. An empty section is waiting for signals, not asking you to reconnect.

Attributing usage to a user

Copilot Chat can add your identity to its telemetry (github.copilot.chat.otel.captureIdentity, VS Code 1.140+). It is off by default, so after you pick a source, Connect asks separately whether to turn it on. When on, agent invocation spans carry user.name (your GitHub account) and telemetry resources carry process.user.name and host.name. Bear in Mind keys user attribution on user.name: model calls inherit it from the latest agent span at or before the call through session, conversation, parent-session or trace keys, without crossing conflicting native chat IDs; calls before any such span stay unattributed. The trace store keeps span attributes only, so the OS user and host name are not available from it.

SDK enduser.pseudo.id is an opaque analytics identity, shown separately from GitHub-account labels. Explicit resource user.name values retain configured provenance; neither kind is a verified organisation join. Canonical actor/device keys are derived, and team/cost-centre assignments need configured attributes or governed enrichment. The extension does not infer a person from an OS user, machine or repository owner.

Identity capture also reaches an OTLP collector that stays connected, and the prompt says so. If replacing a collector fails, Connect leaves identity capture off. COPILOT_OTEL_CAPTURE_IDENTITY outranks the setting, so when it is set Connect does not offer the choice. An organisation policy (CopilotOtelCaptureIdentity) overrides both, and identity currently covers only the Local chat harness, not the Copilot harness. Iceberg: Telemetry Diagnostics shows whether capture is requested and how many retained calls are attributed to a user.

Disconnecting and restoring defaults

Choose Restore defaults and disconnect… in the connect picker or dashboard, or run Iceberg: Restore Defaults and Disconnect…. A confirmation lists changes first. Restore then:

• returns each Copilot Chat telemetry setting it changed, including identity capture, to your previous user value (or the default), leaving any you changed yourself afterwards alone;
• resets Bear in Mind's user settings, but not workspace settings;
• disconnects account usage, immediately clears the displayed account quota, and resets the saved connection opt-in. Requests do not resume after reload until you explicitly reconnect, even if the GitHub sign-in grant still exists;
• deletes its meter history, session pin and its own storage folder, which holds the default feed file. The folder is kept while Copilot is still set to write there, and a feed at a custom iceberg.otel.feedPath is never deleted. Other open windows stop saving their copies and start fresh when reloaded.

Copilot's trace store and transcripts are untouched. Reload so Copilot Chat applies the restored settings, or choose Uninstall Bear in Mind. Connections made before 0.6.3 have no saved previous values; only settings still matching Bear in Mind's values can be reset. Account disconnection takes effect even if you dismiss the reload prompt. Your GitHub sign-in is preserved for other extensions; use Refresh Copilot Account Usage… to connect again.

Quality uses cumulative metrics where available and documented events otherwise; the two are never added together. When tool-call data is absent, retained execute_tool span statuses provide Tool success · traces. Only OK and ERROR count; missing and UNSET statuses are unknown.

How tokens get counted

Only chat spans count; span IDs deduplicate file and SQLite copies, and parent invoke_agent totals are excluded. Metrics and spans may overlap, so the meter uses their per-dimension maximum, not their sum. Coverage may be incomplete. Transcripts supply session metadata and reported credits only; token snapshots are ignored and not metered. Manual reports are separate and labeled. @iceberg uses reported telemetry, not estimates from visible text. Metering stays local; see SECURITY.md.

API

The exported API and iceberg.report command share one implementation and accept { input?, output? }. A numeric argument remains supported as input tokens. Report only usage the automatic watchers do not already see.

const extension = vscode.extensions.getExtension('obrocki.bear-in-mind');
const api = await extension?.activate();
api?.reportUsage({ input: 1200, output: 340 });

The equivalent command is vscode.commands.executeCommand('iceberg.report', { input: 1200, output: 340 }).

Types: IcebergApi, UsageReport, UsageSnapshot. The meltdown demo never changes usage. @iceberg is counted only by automatic telemetry.

Commands and settings

Search the Command Palette for Iceberg to open the habitat/dashboard, connect or disconnect telemetry, inspect diagnostics/stats, name the bear or toggle the meltdown demo.

Common settings:

Use Settings → Iceberg for polling, input/output counting, animation, pixel scale, status bar and bear name. Turning telemetry off does not erase counted usage.

Troubleshooting

• No data: reload after connecting, send a chat request, then run Iceberg: Telemetry Diagnostics. Check View → Output → Iceberg. Transcript credit comparison requires a VS Code build that persists usage metadata.
• Quality is empty: an active feed can have token data before any quality actions occur. Trace-store-only setups show tool success only; edit, survival and feedback signals need a file feed.
• No user breakdown: turn on github.copilot.chat.otel.captureIdentity (or reconnect and accept the identity prompt), reload, and send a request from the Local harness. A policy can deny capture; diagnostics show what was observed.
• Collector stopped: clear github.copilot.chat.otel.outfile to restore OTLP, or run Iceberg: Restore Defaults and Disconnect…; use the local trace store alongside it.
• Duplicate menus: remove old local.iceberg-copilot or obrocki.iceberg-copilot installs, then reload. iceberg.* settings remain valid.

Research: ROI on AI-assisted development

The ROI research compares telemetry across Copilot surfaces and proposes an attribution model. The AI attribution canvas renders it with read-only local coverage. Neither is part of the VSIX; reported usage alone does not prove monetary return.

Development

npm ci
npm test
npm run vsix

The VSIX build typechecks, bundles and verifies the archive. Press F5 for an Extension Development Host. See CONTRIBUTING.md for architecture, accounting invariants and release steps.

License

This project is licensed under the standard MIT License. You may use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense and sell it, including for commercial use and as part of proprietary software. You do not have to publish your modifications.

Keep the copyright and permission notice in copies or substantial portions of the software. The existing notice names Dawid Obrocki, not Microsoft or GitHub. The software is provided as is, without warranty. The independent-project statement above clarifies project status; it does not add restrictions to the MIT license.

MIT © Dawid Obrocki