Where to find GitHub Copilot Chat History ?

[PixelJolly]

Select Topic Area

Where can I find GitHub Copilot Chat History ?

Body

Hello.

I have been chatting with Copilot a couple of times today and I was wondering how to retrieve the chat (including suggested code snippets) from before but when I open the Threads dropdown I only see a "New Thread" selection.

When looking for it myself I only found answers related to MS Copilot or to where to find logs (which do not include code suggestions (and the format is not helpful anyway).
Unfortunately I am not able to provide any extra information about this issue and I can't find a solution.

Where can I find a copy of all my previous chats?
Thank you.

[github-actions[bot]]

🕒 Discussion Activity Reminder 🕒

This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as out of date at the bottom of the page.

2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own.

3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution.

Note: This dormant notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent announcement.

Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬

[PixelJolly]

Thanks for your feedback.

Unfortunately I am not able to provide any extra information about this issue and I can't find a solution for it: this is why I am asking the community.

[github-actions[bot]]

🕒 Discussion Activity Reminder 🕒

This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as out of date at the bottom of the page.

2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own.

3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution.

Note: This dormant notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent announcement.

Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬

[francisrohner]

I was wondering the same.

My workaround for the time being is using the "Chat: Export Chat" command in VSCode in conjunction with the GitHub Copilot Chat extension.
Not ideal, but if the goal is to retain the answers offline this kind of works.

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/57190

[github-actions[bot]]

🕒 Discussion Activity Reminder 🕒

This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as out of date at the bottom of the page.

2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own.

3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution.

Note: This dormant notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent announcement.

Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬

[AlexMalfr]

Still an issue.

[BigUncle]

Copilot answer:

GitHub Copilot does not store history for chat or agent mode interactions. Each suggestion is generated in real-time based on the current context of your code.

[PixelJolly]

Copilot answer:

GitHub Copilot does not store history for chat or agent mode interactions. Each suggestion is generated in real-time based on the current context of your code.

Mmmm weird, cause in Jetbrains Rider I can see the history of what I asked, in Copilot Chat 🤔

[futursimple]

How far back? In Copilot directly on the web at github.com, I only see a handful of my many previous chats. :(

[futursimple]

And now they've erased all my chats. Unsubscribed from Pro. This is unacceptable.

[Rundong-Li]

same issue here

[codon101]

So you can't even choose to save or archive it??

[aaradhy3i3]

man i need help as well cuz i tried to modifie my code and its all messed up now

[afilp]

Is there a history for the Inline Chat though?

If I close the dialog and then I want to give more prompts for the same prompt, I am lost.

[kfsone]

• writes detailed explanation of what I want copilot to do,
• copilot creates a bunch of files for the work,
• I accidentally click "done",
  -> all the files are empty and I'll use Roo next time instead.

[morisono]

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-copilot-release/issues/3537

[Snowflyt]

GitHub Copilot Chat histories are stored per workspace—even if you didn’t create one manually, VS Code will generate one for you automatically.

Normally, you can transfer histories between workspaces (and machines) using the Chat: Export Chat… and Chat: Import Chat… commands. If you can’t restore your previous workspace, however, you can still retrieve the JSON history files directly from VS Code’s workspace root directory, workspaceStorage.

The workspaceStorage directory is located at:

• C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\workspaceStorage on Windows;
• /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Code/User/workspaceStorage on macOS.

Inside workspaceStorage, each subfolder—named by a hash—corresponds to a workspace (including those automatically created by VS Code). To identify which is which, open a folder and inspect its workspace.json: it lists the associated project path. Note that a single project can have multiple workspace entries. Within the correct workspace folder, look for a chatSessions directory, where your Copilot Chat histories are saved as JSON files. You can copy those files elsewhere and then use Chat: Import Chat… to load them into another workspace.

[rbherwan]

Thank You so much. You saved lot of effort.

[derekantrican]

For anyone coming to this later, I came across this discussion because I set up a new computer and copied over my %appdata%\Code contents and hoped VS Code would automatically restore the Copilot chat sessions. Of course, it did not (even though all the repo paths were the same on the new computer). So I worked with Claude to create a script that will go through each session and "restore it" for you: https://gist.github.com/derekantrican/4754609f5a5e53aecf3454bf08de17ea (make sure you close VS Code before you run it)

[fuhufu]

In Linux, the path is Linux: ~/.config/Code/User/workspaceStorage/. See another discussion here: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/152490#discussioncomment-13137536

[mstegen]

Thanks for this!
As my chatfolder contained jsonl files that could not be imported with the import option i opted for the following approach:

• close VSCode
• important: Backup the correct 'hash' folder containing the chatSessions (with your lost chats), chatEditingSessions and more folders/files.
• delete all the other hash folders, including it's contents.
• start VSCode, a new hash folder will be generated.
• close VSCode
• erase the contents of this new hash folder.
• copy over your chatSessions, chatEditingSessions and other files, you backed up before.
• Start VSCode.

Your chats should be restored now.

[daniel-tkl]

There is no json file there, but jsonl instead. I was wondering why it's different on my part?

[jakelevirne]

I wanted to bring all these chat histories directly into my workspace, in a human readable format (markdown), so I built an extension to autosave chat history into my project folder.

These markdowns are easy to version, search, and share. They can't be imported like the json files, but that's ok cause I can always # reference them from another chat.

[vinod-y]

Is there a similar tool for eclipse IDE ?

[kfsone]

The current history icon, especially in its context, looks like a revert icon - I never thought to click it to see my other/past chats and only discovered it due to lag in a remote desktop session...

Not that I know what would be better; I want to say something like a tube-map-style icon like the version control history icon. But, erh, that would probably have the same connotation in that context.

Maybe 3 overlapping speech bubbles?

[clicktodev]

There's also an issue where copilot chats aren't saved in a liveshare session

[futursimple]

In Copilot web, I just have the last four chats, and the only way I can access ones previous to that is if I still have that tab open in my browser, or if I had sent the link for any of them to someone. This is ridiculous.

[AmriteshJangir]

At the moment, GitHub Copilot Chat does not provide a way to view or restore past chat history once a thread is closed or the editor session ends.

A few important points to clarify:

The “Threads” dropdown only shows the current active thread and the option to start a new one. It does not list previous conversations.
Copilot Chat conversations are session-based and are not persisted in a way that users can browse later.
There is no built-in chat history, archive, or export feature, and suggested code snippets are not saved automatically.
Copilot logs (telemetry/debug logs) exist, but they are not designed for users, are hard to interpret, and do not reliably include full code suggestions or conversation context.

What you can do instead
Manually copy important responses or code snippets into comments, notes, or documentation as you go.
If you’re using VS Code, keep the Copilot Chat panel open until you’re done, as closing it ends the session.
For reusable knowledge, consider asking Copilot to help you generate documentation or code comments that you can keep in your repo.

Bottom line
There is currently no way to retrieve or view previous GitHub Copilot Chat conversations. If chat history is important to your workflow, this is a known limitation and something many users have requested as a feature.

[freddyrios]

Another way you can lose the history:

• have a long strategy session, to plan what to do
• switch to agent mode to begin by creating a new repo -> after it creates the repo the chat resets and the history is lost :/

Well, except for those folders mentioned earlier from which I will try to pull it from.

[denys5dev]

To be honest, I switched from Cursor to VS Code with Copilot. My first problem was that I spent a lot of time generating and planning project history, then the agent generated the project. When I opened the project folder, VS Code restarted and all the history was lost.

As a result, I ended up wasting a lot of tokens and burned through 73% of my monthly limit. Now I have to spend more tokens again to redo the work. This is unacceptable because it feels like I’ve literally lost money, which is very frustrating.

[karllarssonusawest]

Exactly why I'm researching how to find old conversations. I even asked Copilot if the context would be lost if I opened the solution and it promised me it wouldn't. It lied.

[freddyrios]

For full VS the logs seem to be here instead: AppData\Local\Temp\VSGitHubCopilotLogs

[BarnabasSzabolcs]

Guys, any solution for MAC? I can't find PyCharm's github copilot plugin's data folder. I do miss text search in github copilot soooo much. :( And Linux and Windows solutions I could see in this thread.

[lslimpg]

I was able to retrieve my recent chat history by hitting Ctrl + Shift + P, then selecting Chat Agent Sessions: Open Agent Session.

Selecting this then shows a drop-down of recent titled chat sessions. Hope it works for anyone else reading this and be of use.

[Ultra-Tech-code]

This works. Thank you so much

[SavvasEricLinxie]

My workaround was to left-click my session and run Resume in Terminal

[rbherwan]

I am able to retrieve my chat by hitting Ctrl + Shift + P, then selecting Chat: Show Chats.
Then from drop down selected required session.

[levani]

I have the chatgpt Codex extension installed and I use both - "GitHub Copilot Chat" and "Codex" for different tasks. In session history I only see chats created from codex extension. I can't find sessions that I created from "GitHub Copilot Chat" extension itself anywhere.

[HelgeMuenchberg]

Just prompt for putting the conversation in a txt file at the end of the session and append data to it. So you can easily resume a conversation.

[indicbrands]

What's Happening

VS Code identifies each workspace folder by a hash computed from:

• The folder's full path (e.g. C:\Users\you\projects\my-repo)
• The folder's birthtime (creation timestamp)

When you have both Copilot Chat and Codex active on the same repo, they can end up writing to different workspace storage hashes — one hash for when Copilot Chat first indexed it, another for when Codex did (or if the folder was copied/recreated at some point, changing its birthtime).

So your Copilot Chat sessions are sitting in an orphaned workspace storage folder — the data is safe, VS Code just isn't looking there anymore.

---

How to Find the Orphaned Sessions Manually

Step 1 — Open your workspaceStorage folder

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

You'll see dozens of folders with random hex names like a3f1c9b2d4...

Step 2 — Find the one with your Copilot chats

Each folder has a workspace.json that tells you which repo it belongs to. Open a few and look for your repo's path. You're looking for folders that contain a chatSessions/ subfolder — those are the ones with actual chat history.

You can do this quickly in terminal:

# macOS/Linux
grep -r "my-repo-name" ~/.config/Code/User/workspaceStorage/*/workspace.json
Windows PowerShell
Get-ChildItem "$env:APPDATA\Code\User\workspaceStorage" -Recurse -Filter workspace.json | Select-String "my-repo-name"

Step 3 — Identify the "active" hash vs the "orphaned" hash

You'll likely find two folders pointing to the same repo path. The active one is what VS Code is currently using. The orphaned one has your Copilot chat history in its chatSessions/ subfolder.

---

The Safe Manual Restore (No Script Needed)

Once you've found both folders:

1. Close VS Code completely

2. Copy the chatSessions folder from the orphaned hash into the active hash's folder:

   workspaceStorage/
     [orphaned-hash]/chatSessions/   ← copy these .json files
     [active-hash]/chatSessions/     ← paste them here (create folder if missing)
   

3. Update the index — open [active-hash]/state.vscdb with any SQLite viewer (like DB Browser for SQLite, free and safe). Look for a row with key chat.ChatSessionStore.index and copy the session entries from the same key in the orphaned hash's state.vscdb. Merge the JSON entries objects together.

4. Reopen VS Code and open your repo — the chats should appear.

---

About the Script

The script you found is actually doing exactly the safe manual steps above, just automated. It's read-only in dry-run mode (default), and only writes when you pass --apply. The risk is genuinely low because:

• It never deletes anything
• It only copies files and updates one SQLite key
• The worst case is it doesn't work and you're back where you started

If you want to try it, run it without --apply first — it'll show you exactly what it would do, so you can verify it's targeting the right folders before committing.

## What's Happening

VS Code identifies each workspace folder by a hash computed from:

• The folder's full path (e.g. C:\Users\you\projects\my-repo)
• The folder's birthtime (creation timestamp)

When you have both Copilot Chat and Codex active on the same repo, they can end up writing to different workspace storage hashes — one hash for when Copilot Chat first indexed it, another for when Codex did (or if the folder was copied/recreated at some point, changing its birthtime).

So your Copilot Chat sessions are sitting in an orphaned workspace storage folder — the data is safe, VS Code just isn't looking there anymore.

---

How to Find the Orphaned Sessions Manually

Step 1 — Open your workspaceStorage folder

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

You'll see dozens of folders with random hex names like a3f1c9b2d4...

Step 2 — Find the one with your Copilot chats

Each folder has a workspace.json that tells you which repo it belongs to. Open a few and look for your repo's path. You're looking for folders that contain a chatSessions/ subfolder — those are the ones with actual chat history.

You can do this quickly in terminal:

# macOS/Linux
grep -r "my-repo-name" ~/.config/Code/User/workspaceStorage/*/workspace.json

# Windows PowerShell
Get-ChildItem "$env:APPDATA\Code\User\workspaceStorage" -Recurse -Filter workspace.json | Select-String "my-repo-name"

Step 3 — Identify the "active" hash vs the "orphaned" hash

You'll likely find two folders pointing to the same repo path. The active one is what VS Code is currently using. The orphaned one has your Copilot chat history in its chatSessions/ subfolder.

---

The Safe Manual Restore (No Script Needed)

Once you've found both folders:

1. Close VS Code completely

2. Copy the chatSessions folder from the orphaned hash into the active hash's folder:

   workspaceStorage/
     [orphaned-hash]/chatSessions/   ← copy these .json files
     [active-hash]/chatSessions/     ← paste them here (create folder if missing)
   

3. Update the index — open [active-hash]/state.vscdb with any SQLite viewer (like [DB Browser for SQLite](https://sqlitebrowser.org/), free and safe). Look for a row with key chat.ChatSessionStore.index and copy the session entries from the same key in the orphaned hash's state.vscdb. Merge the JSON entries objects together.

4. Reopen VS Code and open your repo — the chats should appear.

---

About the Script by @derekantrican

The script here by @derekantrican https://gist.github.com/derekantrican/4754609f5a5e53aecf3454bf08de17ea is actually doing exactly the safe manual steps above, just automated. It's read-only in dry-run mode (default), and only writes when you pass --apply. The risk is genuinely low because:

• It never deletes anything
• It only copies files and updates one SQLite key
• The worst case is it doesn't work and you're back where you started

If you want to try it, run it without --apply first — it'll show you exactly what it would do, so you can verify it's targeting the right folders before committing.

[AesElh]

and where does it store those chats in the intelij plugin?

[timosur]

I did wrote a short script for restoring chat session that got lost in another workspace and you don't know which it was.
So you can just give it a search string of content from the old chat and it would detect workspace, shows you suggestions on which chats and restores into your current workspace.
Works only on Mac.

https://gist.github.com/timosur/f1b75f639dc551b53b28b97080b52bb1

Hope that helps!
Thanks for the insights here on where those chat files are located, that was very helpful! :-)

[rocha6464]

I had a similar issue. Solved it by asking CoPilot to find my most recent chat history. CoPilot introduced me to /chronicles command which I used to search through my recent sessions. Finally I asked CoPilot to restore the chat history of the session I was interested in.