/chronicle: ingest VS Code Copilot Chat history alongside CLI sessions for a unified history

[garrettlondon1]

Summary

Today /chronicle (and the underlying session_store_sql, /resume, /research, /search) only index sessions produced by the Copilot CLI itself — the local ~/.copilot/session-state/ store plus the cloud session store. Conversations conducted in VS Code Copilot Chat are invisible to /chronicle, even when they happen on the same machine, same user, and same repository.

Meanwhile the inverse direction already works: VS Code Copilot Chat enumerates Copilot CLI sessions via CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider.listSessions and surfaces them in the Chat Sessions view (see #3652, microsoft/vscode#318126, #311405, #310933, and #3740). Closing the loop would give users a single, unified history across both surfaces.

Use case

I move fluidly between copilot in the terminal and Copilot Chat in VS Code on the same repo throughout the day. When I later ask /chronicle "what was I working on this week in repo X?" or use session_store_sql / /research to retrieve prior approaches, half of my actual history is missing because it lived in VS Code Chat.

Proposal

Extend the /chronicle indexer (and the session_store_sql backend) to optionally ingest VS Code Copilot Chat transcripts in addition to the CLI's own sessions:

• Discover VS Code Copilot Chat session storage on disk (workspaceStorage / globalStorage chat transcript files; exact path/schema owned by microsoft/vscode-copilot-release — companion issue may be needed there to stabilize/document it).
• Normalize each VS Code chat session into the same row shape currently used in the session store (sessions, turns, events, session_files, session_refs, etc.), with a source column distinguishing cli vs vscode-chat.
• Make ingestion opt-in via a setting (e.g. chronicle.sources = ["cli", "vscode-chat"]) and respect any existing local-only / cloud sync preferences.
• Surface the new source in /chronicle insights, /resume pickers, /research, and session_store_sql query results.

Why the CLI repo

/chronicle, the session-store schema, and the indexer all live in github/copilot-cli. The @github/copilot SDK doesn't own these surfaces, and VS Code Copilot Chat already reads CLI sessions — so the missing half of the integration is naturally a CLI-side change. A companion issue in microsoft/vscode-copilot-release to expose a stable on-disk transcript location may be useful but is secondary.

Related issues

• GitHub Copilot Chat in WSL experiences 40-80 second startup delays due to CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider.listSessions #3652 — VS Code Copilot Chat already calls into CLI sessions via CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider.listSessions
• Global session history registry and copilot --history flag — persistent cross-session stats and audit log accessible without starting the agent #1791 — Global session history registry / persistent cross-session stats
• deleted sessions still in /chronicle insights #3811, /chronicle reindex queues remote backfill despite local-only remote settings #3777, /chronicle standup returns no results when local sessions exist (SQLite INTERVAL syntax not supported) #3775 — existing /chronicle indexer issues
• Copilot CLI session errors out when opened via the Copilot Chat extension microsoft/vscode#318126, #311405, #310933 — VS Code-side handling of CLI sessions
• Unable to Open CLI Chat from Copilot Session Pane (Right Side) Error: Failed to open chat session: Illegal argument: character must be non-negative #3740 — Opening CLI chat from the VS Code Copilot Session pane

Acceptance criteria

• A VS Code Copilot Chat session conducted on repo X appears in /chronicle insights for repo X.
• session_store_sql can SELECT ... WHERE source = 'vscode-chat' and join VS Code turns alongside CLI turns.
• Ingestion is opt-in and documented.
• No regression in CLI-only session performance (cf. GitHub Copilot Chat in WSL experiences 40-80 second startup delays due to CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider.listSessions #3652).