Copilot Usage Tracker

Track Copilot-related work inside Visual Studio Code with a simple local-first workflow. Save prompt notes, planned effort, actual effort, and generated reports without sending your data to an external service.

Why Use It

• Save prompt entries with planned and actual effort
• Review daily and monthly usage summaries
• Generate date-range reports in the dashboard
• Export reports to .xlsx and JSON
• Keep data stored locally in VS Code extension storage

What It Tracks

This extension tracks prompts that you save through its own dashboard workflow.

It does not read or intercept prompts typed directly into the built-in GitHub Copilot Chat UI. VS Code does not expose that as a stable public API for third-party extensions.

Features

• Activity Bar entry with a dedicated Copilot Tracker view
• Dashboard with Save Prompt and Report tabs
• Sidebar summary for today, this month, and recent prompt history
• Clipboard fill for quickly pasting prompt text
• Date-range reporting with totals and efficiency metrics
• Excel export with a modern .xlsx file
• JSON export for backup or further analysis

Quick Start

1. Install the extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
2. Open VS Code.
3. In the Activity Bar, select Copilot Tracker.
4. Open the Dashboard view.
5. In Save Prompt, enter:
   • Prompt text
   • Planned effort in hours
   • Actual effort in hours
6. Select Save Prompt.
7. Open the Report tab to generate summaries for a date range.
8. Select Export Excel to create a .xlsx report if needed.

Clipboard Fill

Use Use Clipboard when you already copied prompt text from somewhere else.

1. Copy the prompt text.
2. Open Copilot Tracker > Dashboard > Save Prompt.
3. Select Use Clipboard.
4. Review the inserted text.
5. Enter planned and actual effort.
6. Select Save Prompt.

If the clipboard is empty, nothing is inserted.

Commands

• Copilot Usage Tracker: Open Dashboard
• Copilot Usage Tracker: Open Getting Started
• Copilot Usage Tracker: Refresh
• Copilot Usage Tracker: Export JSON

Data Storage And Privacy

The extension stores data locally in VS Code global storage using a JSON file named copilot-usage-tracker.json.

Typical Windows development path:

• %APPDATA%\Code\User\globalStorage\<publisher>.<extension-name>\copilot-usage-tracker.json

Nothing in this extension requires a hosted backend for basic tracking and reporting.

VS Code Support

Supported Visual Studio Code versions: 1.105.0 and later.

Project Structure

• src/extension.ts: activation and command wiring
• src/models.ts: domain types
• src/services/: storage, tracking, report generation, and export logic
• src/views/: sidebar and dashboard webview
• media/: icons and walkthrough assets

Development

npm install
npm run compile

Package the extension locally:

vsce package

Roadmap Ideas

1. Add charts to the report dashboard.
2. Support CSV export alongside Excel and JSON.
3. Add prompt redaction or hash-only storage options.
4. Replace JSON storage with SQLite for richer querying.
5. Add automated tests around aggregation and persistence.

License

MIT