Insipired by https://github.com/Veverke/bAInder, I decided to make a VS Code extension, with a developer perspective in mind. Unified search, analytics, and history browser for your GitHub Copilot Chat and Claude Code sessions.
A sortable, filterable, pinnable, and drag-and-drop reorderable TreeView listing every AI chat session across all your workspaces — from both GitHub Copilot Chat and Claude Code. Each row shows workspace, date, message count, and file size. Hover over any session for a rich tooltip showing title, source, model, workspace, date, size, prompt/response split, and pin status. Click any session to open a full Markdown-rendered conversation reader.
Sorting — Toolbar buttons cycle through five sort keys: Date, Workspace, Length (message count), Title (alphabetical), and Model — each with an ascending/descending direction toggle. Open Configure Sort Order… to build a multi-key composite sort with up to 3 criteria, each with its own direction. Sort preferences persist across VS Code restarts.
Filtering — The filter toolbar button lets you set any combination of: title substring, date range (from / until, YYYY-MM-DD), AI model substring, and minimum or maximum message count. An active filter is shown in the view header and cleared in one step.
Organisation — Pin important sessions to keep them at the top of the list (pins persist across restarts). Drag and drop sessions into a custom manual order (also persisted). Select multiple sessions (Ctrl+Click) for bulk export. Inline icon buttons on each row give quick access to pin and export without right-clicking.
Pagination — A "Load More (N remaining)" entry appears at the bottom when sessions exceed the page size.
Opening any session launches a VS Code webview panel rendering the full conversation in Markdown — user messages with a configurable accent-color border, assistant messages styled to the VS Code theme, and syntax-highlighted fenced code blocks throughout. Re-opening a session reuses the existing tab rather than spawning a duplicate.
For very large sessions (500+ messages) only the most-recent messages are shown initially, with a banner to load earlier content on demand. Rendering is streamed in small batches so the panel is interactive immediately. When opened from the Code Blocks panel, the reader can auto-scroll to and highlight the specific block that was clicked.
Open ChatWizard: Search from the Command Palette to launch an instant QuickPick panel covering all messages in all sessions across all workspaces. Results appear as you type, powered by an in-memory inverted index with no external dependencies.
- Regex mode — prefix the query with
/to switch to regular-expression matching. - Source filter — toggle between All / Copilot only / Claude only with an in-panel toolbar button.
- Role filter — toggle between All messages / Prompts only / Responses only.
- Each result shows a source icon, session title, workspace, date, and a role-labelled snippet (
You: …orCopilot: …) with matched text highlighted. - When results exceed 500, a banner prompts you to refine the query.
- Selecting a result opens the session reader scrolled to the matched message.
Export any session or set of sessions to structured .md files. Exports use H2 headings for user prompts, H3 headings for AI responses, fenced code blocks with language identifiers, and a metadata header (source, model, date, workspace).
| Trigger | How |
|---|---|
| Single session | Right-click a session → Export Session to Markdown |
| All sessions | Sessions toolbar → Export All Sessions… |
| Multiple sessions | Sessions toolbar → Export Selected Sessions… (QuickPick multi-select) |
| Excerpt | Command Palette → ChatWizard: Export Session Excerpt… |
When exporting more than one session you choose between one file per session (written to a folder you pick) or a single combined file with a navigable table of contents.
Browse every fenced code block the AI has ever generated across all sessions and workspaces. Each entry shows language, originating session title, date, source, workspace, and message role. Click any entry to open the parent session and jump directly to that code block, with an optional colored highlight.
Filter — Narrow the view by language substring, content substring, source (Copilot / Claude), or message role (user / assistant).
Sort — Five sort keys (Date, Workspace, Length, Session Title, Language) each with ascending/descending direction, toggled via toolbar icon buttons.
Copy — One-click clipboard copy for any code block.
Available as both the sidebar tree and as a standalone editor panel (ChatWizard: Show Code Blocks). A "Load More" entry appears as the block count grows.
A deduplicated, frequency-ranked library of every user-turn prompt you have ever typed. Exact duplicates are collapsed into a single entry showing how many times and across how many projects you have used it. Search the library by keyword and copy any prompt to the clipboard for reuse. Available as both the sidebar tab and as a standalone editor panel (ChatWizard: Show Prompt Library).
Integrated into the Prompt Library, a trigram-similarity clustering algorithm groups semantically near-duplicate prompts that are not exact matches. Each cluster shows its total equivalent usage count and lists all variants with originating session and date. A Merge action collapses the cluster into a single canonical entry. Clustering runs asynchronously and is cached — it only reruns when the prompt index changes.
A Chart.js-powered webview with live aggregate statistics across all sessions:
- Summary cards — total sessions, total messages, total estimated tokens.
- Daily activity chart — line chart of message volume over time.
- Top projects table — projects ranked by estimated token consumption.
- Top terms bar chart — the 20 most frequent words in your user prompts.
- Longest sessions tables — top 10 by message count and top 10 by token count.
Token counts are local approximations (Claude: characters ÷ 4; Copilot/GPT: words × 1.3). No external tokeniser or network call is required. The dashboard refreshes automatically as new sessions are indexed. Open via ChatWizard: Show Analytics Dashboard or the Analytics sidebar tab.
A chronological month-grouped feed of all sessions across all workspaces. Each card shows project name, session title, first prompt, message count, and date.
- Jump to date — type a
YYYY-MMvalue to scroll instantly to any month in history. - Filters — sticky workspace and source dropdowns narrow the feed without a full reload.
- Pagination — loads 3 months at a time; a Load More button fetches the next batch.
- Clicking any card opens the session reader.
A FileSystemWatcher monitors the Copilot Chat workspace storage directory and the Claude Code projects directory. When a session file is created or updated, only that entry is re-parsed and re-indexed — no full rebuild. All views (Sessions, Code Blocks, Prompt Library, Analytics, Timeline) refresh automatically without user action.
Override the default discovery paths for Claude Code sessions and Copilot Chat workspace storage via extension settings — useful for non-standard VS Code installs or custom data directories. Changing a path displays a prompt to reload the window so the new location takes effect immediately.
Click the ChatWizard icon in the VS Code activity bar to open five sidebar panels:
| Panel | Also openable via Command Palette | Key toolbar actions |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions | — | Filter, Configure Sort Order, sort buttons (Date / Workspace / Length / Title / Model ↑↓), Export All, Export Selected |
| Prompt Library | ChatWizard: Show Prompt Library |
Keyword search, Copy prompt, Merge duplicate cluster |
| Code Blocks | ChatWizard: Show Code Blocks |
Filter (language / content / source / role), sort buttons (Date / Workspace / Length / Title / Language ↑↓), Copy code block, Load More |
| Analytics | ChatWizard: Show Analytics Dashboard |
(no toolbar; auto-refreshes) |
| Timeline | ChatWizard: Show Timeline |
Workspace filter, Source filter, Jump-to-Date input, Load More |
Capabilities not available in the built-in GitHub Copilot Chat panel or the Claude Code terminal:
| Capability | ChatWizard | Copilot Chat (VS Code) | Claude Code (terminal) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browse all past sessions across all workspaces | ✅ | ❌ per-workspace only | ❌ no GUI history |
| Cross-session full-text search | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Regex search over chat history | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Filter sessions by model, date range, message count | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Multi-key composite sort of session list | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Pin & drag-and-drop reorder sessions | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Export conversations to Markdown | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Export a message excerpt (selected turns only) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Unified code block library across all sessions | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Filter & sort AI-generated code blocks by language, content, source, role | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| One-click copy of any historical code block | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Deduplicated, searchable prompt library | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Near-duplicate prompt detection & merge | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Token-usage analytics & daily activity charts | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Chronological timeline with jump-to-date | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Live auto-refresh when sessions change | ✅ | ✅ current session | ✅ current session |
| 100% local — no external network calls | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Extension | Data Source |
|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot Chat | Per-workspace JSONL operation logs at %APPDATA%/Code/User/workspaceStorage/<hash>/chatSessions/ plus workspace metadata from state.vscdb (SQLite) |
| Claude Code | Conversation JSONL files at ~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl |
- VS Code Marketplace — search for "ChatWizard" in the Extensions view and click Install.
- Manual install — download the
.vsixfile and runExtensions: Install from VSIX…from the Command Palette. - The extension activates automatically on VS Code startup (
onStartupFinished). No configuration is required for standard GitHub Copilot Chat and Claude Code installs.
- VS Code 1.85.0 or later.
- GitHub Copilot Chat and/or Claude Code installed and actively used. ChatWizard reads the session files these extensions write — it does not create sessions itself.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
chatwizard.userMessageColor |
#007acc |
Accent color for user message borders in the session reader (hex or CSS color name) |
chatwizard.tooltipLabelColor |
`` | Color for field labels in session hover tooltips (empty = VS Code theme default) |
chatwizard.codeBlockHighlightColor |
#EA5C00 |
Highlight color applied to code blocks when navigating from the Code Blocks view |
chatwizard.scrollToFirstCodeBlock |
true |
Auto-scroll to first code block when opening a session from the Code Blocks view |
chatwizard.claudeProjectsPath |
`` | Custom path to the Claude Code projects directory (empty = default ~/.claude/projects) |
chatwizard.copilotStoragePath |
`` | Custom path to the Copilot Chat workspace storage directory (empty = platform default) |
chatwizard.enableTelemetry |
false |
Enable local-only usage telemetry written to the extension's global storage directory (no external data transmission) |
| Command | Title | Where to invoke |
|---|---|---|
chatwizard.search |
Search | Command Palette |
chatwizard.openSession |
Open Session | Click session in Sessions panel |
chatwizard.openSessionFromCodeBlock |
Open Session from Code Block | Click entry in Code Blocks panel |
chatwizard.filterSessions |
Filter Sessions… | Sessions view toolbar |
chatwizard.configureSortOrder |
Configure Sort Order… | Sessions view toolbar |
chatwizard.pinSession |
Pin Session | Right-click / inline button on session row |
chatwizard.unpinSession |
Unpin Session | Right-click / inline button on session row |
chatwizard.exportSession |
Export Session to Markdown | Right-click context menu |
chatwizard.exportAll |
Export All Sessions… | Sessions view toolbar |
chatwizard.exportSelected |
Export Selected Sessions… | Sessions view toolbar |
chatwizard.exportExcerpt |
Export Session Excerpt… | Command Palette |
chatwizard.exportFromTreeSelection |
Export Selected… | Right-click context menu |
chatwizard.showCodeBlocks |
Show Code Blocks | Command Palette |
chatwizard.filterCodeBlocks |
Filter Code Blocks… | Code Blocks view toolbar |
chatwizard.showPromptLibrary |
Show Prompt Library | Command Palette |
chatwizard.showAnalytics |
Show Analytics Dashboard | Command Palette |
chatwizard.showTimeline |
Show Timeline | Command Palette |
chatwizard.loadMoreSessions |
Load More Sessions | "Load more" item at bottom of Sessions panel |
chatwizard.loadMoreCodeBlocks |
Load More Code Blocks | "Load more" item at bottom of Code Blocks panel |
Sort commands (chatwizard.sortByDate, chatwizard.sortByDate.asc, chatwizard.sortByDate.desc, and equivalents for workspace, length, title, and model) are available in the Sessions view toolbar. Matching commands prefixed chatwizard.cb (date, workspace, length, title, language) are available in the Code Blocks view toolbar.
- All processing is local. ChatWizard never makes network requests. No session content, metadata, or telemetry is ever transmitted to any external server.
- Read-only access. ChatWizard reads AI chat session files but never writes to them or modifies them in any way.
- Live index updates. A
FileSystemWatchermonitors the session directories and rebuilds the affected index entries whenever new sessions are created or existing ones are updated. All views refresh automatically. - No external indexing dependencies. Full-text search uses a custom in-memory inverted index. Similarity clustering uses trigram scoring. Analytics use local token-count approximations. No ML models, no network calls.
- Local telemetry (opt-in). If
chatwizard.enableTelemetryis enabled, usage events are appended to a JSONL file inside the extension's VS Code global storage directory on your local machine. This file is never read by any external service.
- Copilot Chat session parsing reconstructs conversation state by replaying an append-only operation log. Very large sessions (hundreds of messages) may take slightly longer to parse on first index build.
- Claude Code epoch sessions — sessions with a creation date of 1970-01-01 (epoch) or with zero messages are silently skipped during indexing. This matches Claude Code's own behavior of writing placeholder files before sessions are populated.
- Token counts are approximations. ChatWizard uses character-based counting (characters / 4) for Claude sessions and word-based counting (words x 1.3) for Copilot/GPT sessions. These figures are estimates and will not exactly match the billing token counts reported by Anthropic or OpenAI.
Initial release. All nine development phases complete:
- Phase 0: Foundation — parsers, file watchers, session index
- Phase 1: Session Management Panel — TreeView, reader, sort, filter, pin, drag-drop
- Phase 2: Unified Full-Text Search — inverted index, QuickPick UI, regex, role filters
- Phase 3: Export to Markdown — single, all, multi-select, excerpt
- Phase 4: Code Block Extraction — language filter, content search, copy-to-clipboard
- Phase 5: Prompt Library — deduplication, frequency ranking, copy
- Phase 6: Analytics Dashboard — token usage, daily activity chart, top projects, top terms
- Phase 7: Duplicate Prompt Detection — trigram similarity clusters, merge action
- Phase 8: Timeline View — chronological feed, month groups, workspace filter, jump-to-date
- Phase 9: Polish — configurable data source paths, local telemetry opt-in, release packaging
Issues and pull requests are welcome at https://github.com/veverke/chatwizard.
This project is licensed under the MIT License with Commons Clause — see LICENSE for the full text.
In plain terms:
- You may use, copy, modify, and distribute the source code freely.
- You may not sell the software or offer it as a paid product or service (including hosting or consulting services whose value derives substantially from this software).
This is source-available software. It is not OSI-certified open source.