GitLens for AI Prompts — see what every CLI prompt changed.
Git Timeline shows commits. Local History shows saves. CLI Timeline shows what your CLI agent changed.
Supports GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code out of the box.
CLI agents (Copilot CLI, Claude Code) make file changes directly at the OS level — outside VS Code. VS Code doesn't see these edits happening:
- ❌ Undo/Redo — only for edits made inside VS Code
- ❌ Local History — only for files VS Code was watching
- ❌ Git History — only for committed changes
If something breaks 10 prompts in, your only option is to manually git diff and hope for the best.
🔙 "Something broke — which prompt did it?" You're 15 prompts into a session and your app won't build. Instead of guessing, open CLI Timeline, browse each prompt's file changes, and diff exactly what happened. Revert the offending prompt — or revert everything back to a known good state.
🔍 "What did this AI session actually do?"
You're reviewing a colleague's PR and they used Copilot CLI or Claude Code to make the changes. If they shared their session (committed to .cli-sessions/), you can browse every prompt, see every file touched, and understand the reasoning behind the changes — not just the final diff.
🛠️ Vibe coding gone wrong You're iterating fast with a CLI agent — "add auth", "refactor the API", "fix the tests" — and things spiral. CLI Timeline gives you per-prompt checkpoints to rewind to, so you can keep the good changes and undo the rest.
🆘 "Can someone help me fix this?" You're stuck and need a teammate (or a senior dev) to help untangle what your CLI agent did. Share your session to the repo — they can see every prompt you ran, every file that changed, and exactly where things went off track. No screen-sharing or "walk me through what you did" needed.
Browse all sessions → see prompts → see files changed per prompt. Search and filter sessions by name or prompt text.
Click any file change to see a side-by-side diff of what the prompt changed. For Copilot CLI, diffs use exact pre-prompt backup snapshots. For Claude Code, diffs are reconstructed from the recorded edit operations.
Revert a single file — or all files changed by a prompt — back to their pre-prompt state. The extension confirms before applying any changes, so you can revert with confidence.
Commit a session to .cli-sessions/ in your repo so teammates can browse what your CLI agent did. Shared sessions appear in a dedicated "Shared Sessions" panel (read-only) — great for code reviews, onboarding, and knowledge sharing.
Right-click any file in the Explorer → "Show AI Prompts That Changed This File" to jump straight to the prompts that touched it.
A file watcher monitors for new Copilot CLI activity and auto-refreshes sessions — no manual reload needed during active sessions.
| Tool | Session History | Diff | Revert |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot CLI | ✅ | ✅ Exact (backup snapshots) | ✅ |
| Claude Code | ✅ | ✅ Reconstructed from edits | 🔜 Coming soon |
Claude Code note: Diffs are reconstructed from the edit data recorded in the session (the exact
old_string/new_stringpairs Claude Code used), which is accurate for individual edits but may be approximate when edits overlap. Session history and diff views are fully supported. Revert support is planned for a future release.
CLI Timeline reads session data that CLI tools already persist — no extra logging, plugins, or configuration needed:
-
Copilot CLI stores session data in
~/.copilot/session-state/:workspace.yaml— session metadata (working directory, git root, branch)events.jsonl— every user message and tool callrewind-snapshots/— pre-prompt file backups (used for exact diffs and revert)
-
Claude Code stores session data in
~/.claude/projects/:- Per-session
.jsonlfiles containing user messages, assistant responses, and tool calls withold_string/new_stringedit data
- Per-session
Everything is local. CLI Timeline only reads files already on your machine. Nothing is sent anywhere.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
CLI Timeline: Refresh Sessions |
Reload session data |
CLI Timeline: Search |
Filter sessions by name or prompt text |
CLI Timeline: Clear Search |
Clear the active search filter |
CLI Timeline: Show Prompts for This File |
See all prompts that changed the active file |
CLI Timeline: Revert File to Prompt State |
Revert the active file to its state before a selected prompt |
Revert to Pre-Prompt State |
Revert a single file (inline action in tree view) |
Revert All Files in Prompt |
Revert every file changed by a prompt (inline action in tree view) |
Copy Session ID |
Copy a session's ID to the clipboard |
Share Session to Repo |
Commit session data to .cli-sessions/ for team sharing |
These settings let you point CLI Timeline at custom session storage locations if your CLI tools are configured to use non-default paths.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
cliTimeline.sessionPaths.copilotCLI |
~/.copilot/session-state |
Path to Copilot CLI session storage |
cliTimeline.sessionPaths.claudeCode |
~/.claude |
Path to Claude Code session storage |
You can ask your CLI agent to commit after each prompt (or use git stash/squash to manage history). That's a valid workflow — but CLI Timeline solves a different problem:
- It's silent and automatic. You don't need to remember to commit, and you don't need to change your workflow. CLI Timeline reads the session data your CLI tool already saves — no extra steps, no polluted git history, no squashing needed.
- It works like VS Code's Local History. Just as VS Code quietly tracks every save so you can recover from mistakes, CLI Timeline quietly tracks every prompt so you can see, diff, and revert what your AI agent changed. If you've ever been grateful for Local History after accidentally overwriting a file, you'll appreciate CLI Timeline after a session goes sideways.
- It captures intent, not just changes. Git commits show what changed. CLI Timeline shows why — the exact prompt that caused each change. When you're 15 prompts in and something breaks, knowing which prompt did it is far more useful than a list of diffs.
- You don't need to follow "session commit discipline." If you do commit after every prompt, great. But if you don't — and most people don't when they're vibe coding or iterating fast — CLI Timeline has your back.
MIT