🗂️  csm

Copilot Session Manager

Browse, search, resume, and clean up your GitHub Copilot CLI sessions from a terminal UI.

Tip

csm → fuzzy-search your sessions → enter to resume → o to open files → d to delete.

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Why this exists

Copilot CLI stores every session locally on disk: a SQLite database plus per-session folders with event logs, generated artifacts, checkpoints, and plan files.

There's no built-in way to browse any of it. csm gives you:

🔍 Find	Fuzzy-search across summaries, repos, branches, file paths, refs, and messages
📂 Browse	Files the assistant touched, parsed from events.jsonl
🎨 Open	Artifacts, plans, and checkpoints directly from the TUI
⏪ Resume	One keystroke, correct cwd, clean handoff to copilot --resume
🗑️ Delete	Hard-delete with safety checks (refuses to delete active sessions)
🚀 Integrate	/session-manager slash command launches csm from inside Copilot CLI

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Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gfarb/copilot-session-manager/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

The installer downloads the latest release binary and the /session-manager slash command extension:

What	Where
csm binary	~/.local/bin/csm (override with INSTALL_DIR)
Slash command	~/.copilot/extensions/csm/extension.mjs

Important

Make sure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH. The installer verifies the download against a published sha256 sidecar.

Build from source

Requires Go 1.26+.

git clone https://github.com/gfarb/copilot-session-manager
cd copilot-session-manager
go build -o ~/.local/bin/csm .

# (optional) slash command
mkdir -p ~/.copilot/extensions/csm
cp extension/extension.mjs ~/.copilot/extensions/csm/extension.mjs

Verify it works:

csm -h
csm list | head -3

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Two-pane layout: session list on the left, tabbed preview on the right.

Navigation

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / j k	Move through the list
/	Fuzzy filter (searches summary, repo, branch, cwd, file paths, refs, and user messages)
enter	Resume the session (chdir + copilot --resume)
d	Delete the session (confirm with y)
c / C	Copy session id / cwd to clipboard
1 2 3 4	Jump to tab
[ / ]	Cycle tabs
tab	Swap focus between list and preview
?	Toggle key hints
q / ctrl-c	Quit

Files tab

Files found in session metadata and tool events:

Badge	Meaning
[plan]	Session plan (plan.md)
[artifact]	Generated files in files/
[checkpoint]	Checkpoint files
[view] [edit] [create]	Workspace files parsed from events.jsonl

Paths are displayed relative to the session's cwd when possible:

./pkg/quota/limiter.go         <- inside the session's cwd
~/other-repo/foo.go            <- outside cwd, inside $HOME
/etc/hosts                     <- absolute path
files/dashboard.json           <- session artifact

Key	Action
o	Open with macOS default app
O	Reveal in Finder
v	Open in VS Code
e	Open in $EDITOR (TUI suspends, resumes on exit)
y	Copy full path

Refs tab

PRs, issues, commits, and other GitHub URLs mentioned in the session, parsed from events.jsonl.

Key	Action
o	Open URL in browser
y	Copy URL

Overview & Turns

• Overview (1): IDs, dates, summary, first/last user message
• Turns (4): Scrollable conversation history with timestamps

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/session-manager Slash Command

Type this inside any live Copilot CLI session:

/session-manager

csm opens in a new terminal window (Ghostty, iTerm, or Terminal.app, detected via TERM_PROGRAM). Your active session keeps running undisturbed.

Pass args through:

/session-manager --print

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CLI Subcommands

csm                  # interactive TUI (default)
csm --print          # TUI, but enter prints "<cwd>\t<id>" to stdout
csm list             # TSV dump: id, display-line, search-blob
csm preview <id>     # human-readable session detail
csm -h               # help

--print is useful for shell scripts:

read -r CWD ID < <(csm --print)
echo "picked $ID in $CWD"

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Configuration

All optional. Everything works out of the box.

Env var	Default	What it does
CSM_DB	~/.copilot/session-store.db	Session database path
CSM_SESSION_STATE	<CSM_DB-dir>/session-state	Session state directory
CSM_BIN	csm	Binary the slash command launches
EDITOR	vi	Editor for the e action
INSTALL_DIR	~/.local/bin	Where the installer puts the binary
CSM_VERSION	latest	Pin a specific release tag

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How it works

• SQLite - reads from ~/.copilot/session-store.db via modernc.org/sqlite (pure Go, no CGo). A read-only connection handles queries; a separate writable connection is opened only for deletes.
• Events parser - scans events.jsonl line by line so multi-megabyte payloads don't silently truncate.
• Resume - on enter, the TUI exits, os.Chdirs to the session's cwd, then syscall.Execs copilot --resume=<id>. The process is replaced in one move. chdir failure is fatal to prevent resuming in the wrong directory.
• Delete - a single transaction across all session tables, then os.RemoveAll on the session-state folder. Refuses if inuse.*.lock is present. Tolerates schema drift across Copilot CLI versions.

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Development

go build -o csm . && go test ./...
./csm

Iterating on the extension:

# Edit extension/extension.mjs, then:
cp extension/extension.mjs ~/.copilot/extensions/csm/extension.mjs
# In your live Copilot CLI session, /clear forces extension reload.

Cutting a release: push a v* tag. The workflow at .github/workflows/release.yml cross-compiles darwin arm64/amd64 and attaches the archives to a GitHub Release.

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0