How to export the chat history of GitHub Copilot Chat?

[z14git]

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Currently, I am using Copilot Chat to assist in the development of a repository's code. While I can easily synchronize the code to other computers, I cannot do the same for the chat history of Copilot Chat. This inconvenience me when developing on other computers. I hope that in the future, there will be an added feature to export and import chat history.

[robvet]

Agree this would be helpful feature.

There come a time when you want to come back to earlier Copilot chat entries.

A way to save select output would be value add.

[joshuadanpeterson]

You still can see the chat history, but yeah, an export option would be nice. I asked it about exporting and it said to take a screenshot or to copy and paste the conversation to a text file. I keep a journal for programming, and I've been taking advantage of ChatGPT's individual URLs for conversation threads to refer back to various queries and it'd be great if there was a similar feature in Copilot Chat

[ChristianOConnor]

How do I get old chat logs? Sometimes my chats disappear. Where are they stored? For example, on a mac I noticed there's a file called "Code - Insiders" in ~/Library/Application Support. Are the chats saved here?

[AvremiB]

In VSC, you can see the HTML of a chat displayed in the VSC Dev Tools, then copy and save the HTML. I haven't tried it (and you should note that references to CSS files may be relative) but in theory it seems like a good idea.

[Marijn-Bergman]

You can export a Copilot Chat session in Visual Studio Code to a JSON file via Ctrl+Shift+P | Chat: Export Session... or by choosing View > Command Palette | Chat: Export Session...
You can then import this chat.json file using Ctrl+Shift+P | Chat: Import Session... or by choosing View > Command Palette | Chat: Import Session...

If you would like to read your chat session outside of VSC i made a python script that formats the .json file and puts a more readable version in a .txt file.

[xpmatteo-tw]

It's nothing fancy: "please write a python script that parses a file like #file:refactor-handlers-chat.json and produces a markdown file". Since then I learned that you can just right-click on the chat sidebar and select "Copy All": it will copy the whole content of the chat as markdown. But the markdown produced by the script is nicer :)

[gregce]

Hey all (specifically @ElectricRCAircraftGuy) In the case its helpful made a VSCode extension for GitHub Copilot that allows your to export chat history, share it and it automatically builds copilot instructions for you, check it out and let us know what you think: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=SpecStory.specstory-vscode.

It also autosaves everything into a .specstory folder in your project folder.

[berkaykrc]

There is Chat: Import Chat... and Chat: Export Chat... options but they do not stay with you so whenever you need them you have to import again. I did not see Chat: Export Session option on command palette.

[sascharo]

You can export a Copilot Chat session in Visual Studio Code to a JSON file via Ctrl+Shift+P | Chat: Export Session... or by choosing View > Command Palette | Chat: Export Session...

Was this removed in later version? I do not see that in 1.102.0-Insider.

[berkaykrc]

You can export a Copilot Chat session in Visual Studio Code to a JSON file via Ctrl+Shift+P | Chat: Export Session... or by choosing View > Command Palette | Chat: Export Session...

Was this removed in later version? I do not see that in 1.102.0-Insider.

I have no clue. Using 1.101.0 version from Fedora dnf manager

[miron]

~/Library/Application Support. Are the chats

This is very helpful thanks! Also, do you know if there's a way to recover Github Copilot Chat sessions that have disappeared for whatever reason? For example, if you delete or move a directory in which you had a Github Copilot chat going?

In the chat window on top click this icon , then select your session in the dropdown.
If your chat window does not have this icon, click on the copilot icon on the bottom right, and select from the search bar. This one has it.

[joshuadanpeterson]

That wasn't available when this question was asked.

I'm currently accessing the icon, but no chat sessions are showing even though I use it pretty regularly

[marko-hologram]

@joshuadanpeterson yeah it's weird how it behaves. I tried closing vscode now and it preserved a chat session I had started yesterday, but for some reason it doesn't have some some other previous sessions from few days ago. Would love to have a proper history.

[tonywoode]

You can export a Copilot Chat session in Visual Studio Code to a JSON file via Ctrl+Shift+P | Chat: Export Session... or by choosing View > Command Palette | Chat: Export Session... You can then import this chat.json file using Ctrl+Shift+P | Chat: Import Session... or by choosing View > Command Palette | Chat: Import Session...

For me, exporting and then importing the immediate result ends in The editor could not be opened due to an unexpected error: i.with is not a function

It would seem to be quite important in the long term for a more automated method of keeping keep chat history with the resulting code, in the shorter term a way of being more comfortable that your chats aren't liable to be lost due to some action/inaction

[james-berkheimer]

Hi, I just ran into this same error myself. Did you ever resolve your issue? Or is this a persistent issue?

[gregce]

Hey all (@tonywoode In the case its helpful made a VSCode extension for GitHub Copilot that allows your to export chat history, share it and it automatically builds copilot instructions for you, check it out and let us know what you think: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=SpecStory.specstory-vscode.

It also autosaves everything into a .specstory folder in your project folder.

[ElectricRCAircraftGuy]

To export your chats to JSON or Markdown, see my comment here: microsoft/vscode-copilot-release#417 (comment):

How to save GitHub Copilot chats into JSON or Markdown format

To help others verify and duplicate the problem, please post your entire conversation, in JSON format, like this: with your chat open, press Ctrl + Shift + P to open the command palette, type in Chat: Export Session..., save the chat.json file. Drag and drop it here.

You can also get a nice Markdown version by right-clicking in the chat and going to "Copy All".

[SnowyYANG]

what about visual studio? I am developing a WPF application with github copilot chat.

[ElectricRCAircraftGuy]

I don't know anything about Microsoft Visual Studio. I've never seen nor used it.

[TryTryAgain]

ha, the right-clicking and Copy All is very nice, can't believe I didn't see that... it's almost identical to what I was using and posted above as jq -r '.requests[] | "Request:\n" + .message.text + "\n\nResponse:\n" + .response[0].value + "\n" chat-session.json > chat-session.md' except the Request=YourUserName and Response=GitHub Copilot ... that's funny

[abrahampe]

@rhlobo This script saved my life, just giving my two cents, I have replace the file opening lines (added utf-8 enconding), due to an error on loading saved json file:
with open(filename, 'r', encoding="utf-8") as file:
with open(f'{filename}.md', 'w', encoding="utf-8") as file:

[sascharo]

To help others verify and duplicate the problem, please post your entire conversation, in JSON format, like this: with your chat open, press Ctrl + Shift + P to open the command palette, type in Chat: Export Session..., save the chat.json file. Drag and drop it here.

I do not see this command in the command palette anymore. Has it been removed?

[iyusuf]

Right click --> Copy All
Create a new file, paste the clipboard content, save as a markdown file.
Working great for me.

[proeslerucsd]

This is the best answer after attempting scripting, and other printing, or copy paste methods!

[KhalfaniW]

Each workspace has its own chat history collection. You can extract the chats for one workspace using a script like below in the workspace dir with the Code\User\workspaceStorage\<alphanumerical>\state.vscdb file.

This will create a group of files in the dir that is similar to the json you would get if you ran Chat: Export Chat... command in vscode. It just with a few extra properties.

#!/bin/bash
#extract the history to json
sqlite3 ./state.vscdb "SELECT value FROM ItemTable WHERE key = 'interactive.sessions';" > interactive.sessions.json
# Read the JSON file and split each object into a separate file
jq -c '.[]' interactive.sessions.json | while read -r element; do
    # Extract the customTitle and sanitize it for use as a filename
    customTitle=$(echo $element | jq -r '.customTitle' | tr -cd '[:alnum:][:space:]._-' | tr ' ' '_')
    # Ensure the filename is not empty
    if [ -z "$customTitle" ]; then
        customTitle="untitled"
    fi
    
    # Write the element to a file named after the sanitized customTitle
    echo "$element" | jq '.' > "${customTitle}.json"
done

$ bash extract.sh

I found the workspaces in ~/.config/Code/User/workspaceStorage/ on linux.

---

The person that found this also mentioned a memento/interactive-session properity. I am not sure what is but you can also export it using

sqlite3 ./state.vscdb "SELECT value FROM ItemTable WHERE key = 'memento/interactive-session';" > memento_interactive-session.json

[marcia-schulman]

Visual Studio 2022 saves the GitHub Copilot chat history to log files in the user's AppData\Local\Temp directory. They are named with a timestamp + "VSGitHubCopilot.chat.log" and may be in a subdirectory of Temp.

What's great about this is it gives you not only the question and answer history, but shows you detail of what Copilot was analyzing to prepare the answer it gave you, and also reveals the initial prompt it is using to be your AI Assistant. FYI in my logs it shows the prompt as this:

Role: system

Content:
You are a world class AI programming assistant who excels in software development.
When asked your name, you must respond with "GitHub Copilot".
Follow the user's requirements carefully & to the letter.
The user is a proficient software developer working in Visual Studio 2022.
While the user may have experience in software development, you should not elude to their background. This approach respects the user's expertise without immediately categorizing their profession.
For questions not related to software development, simply give a reminder that you are an AI programming assistant.
Follow Microsoft content policies and avoid content that violates copyrights.
Respond in the following locale: en-US

Respond in Markdown, for multi-line code, use language-specific markdown code fences.

Ensure your response is short, impersonal, expertly written and easy to understand.
Before responding take a deep breath and then work on the user's problem step-by-step.
Focus on being clear, helpful, and thorough without assuming extensive prior knowledge.

Generated code should adhere to the existing coding style in the provided context.
When generating code prefer languages provided in context. If the coding language is unclear fallback to generating code in C#.
Generate code that can be copy & pasted without modification, i.e. preserve surrounding user code, avoid placeholder comments like "existing code here..." etc.
After generating mutated code consider mentioning what specifically was changed and your reasoning if it would help the user.

The active document or selection is the source code the user is looking at right now and is what they care about.
Additional Rules: The user has a checkmark selected to automatically include the active document.
At the end of you response, you should notify the user that you are using the active document because they have the checkmark checked.
You must also notify them that they can include additional context using # references. Typing # opens a completion list of available context.

[TechAurelianMisc2]

Visual Studio 2022 saves the GitHub Copilot chat history to log files in the user's AppData\Local\Temp directory. They are named with a timestamp + "VSGitHubCopilot.chat.log" and may be in a subdirectory of Temp.

@marcia-schulman Do you happen to know where / if Visual Studio Code saves the GitHub Copilot chat history on macOS (and/or Windows)?

[sascharo]

Do you happen to know where / if Visual Studio Code saves the GitHub Copilot chat history on macOS (and/or Windows)?

Did you figure it out?

[iammohitsakhuja]

For macOS, it seems to be stored in $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/workspaceStorage/<workspace_id> for each workspace.

[ParikhKadam]

Chat histories are stored at ~/.config/Code/User/workspaceStorage/<workspace_id> in Linux

[oop7]

For Windows: %APPDATA%\Code\User\workspaceStorage\
For macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/workspaceStorage/
For Linux: ~/.config/Code/User/workspaceStorage/

Each folder contains chat history for a specific workspace, identified by unique workspace IDs.

[Fzzzhan]

Try this, https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=fengzehan.vscode-copilot-exporter. :)

[shdwkl]

Try this https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=imperium-dev.copilot-chat-to-markdown
supporots new format jsonl

[NabiKAZ]

Export Copilot Chat to Styled HTML (Quick Guide)

1. Copy chat

   • Right-click Copilot chat history → Copy all

2. Prepare Markdown

   • Paste into a .md file
   • Replace:

     User:
     

     with:

     > User:
     

   • For multiline messages, ensure each line starts with >

3. Convert to HTML

   • Go to https://dillinger.io/
   • Paste Markdown
   • Click Export → Styled HTML

4. Add this at the top of the HTML file

<style>
* { font-family: vazirmatn, vazir; direction:rtl; }
blockquote { background: #0084ff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 14px; margin: 8px 0 8px auto; border-radius: 14px; max-width: 75%; line-height: 1.5; word-wrap: break-word; }
blockquote p { border: none !important; font-style: normal !important; }ont-style: normal !important; }
</style>

✅ Open the HTML file in your browser and enjoy it!