AI Archive: Chat History

A VS Code extension for archiving and organizing Copilot Chat history into project markdown files, enabling a persistent, searchable knowledge base for AI-assisted development sessions.

中文文档

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Features

Command	Description
AI Archive: Save Current Chat	Auto-capture the current Copilot Chat, pre-fill metadata, mask secrets, and save a structured markdown archive
AI Archive: Open Session Index	Regenerate and open docs/ai-sessions-index.md from the current archived sessions
AI Archive: Search Archives	Suggest indexed terms, search archived sessions and FAQ, and jump to matching lines

Security defaults:

• The archive target directory is automatically added to .gitignore when saving.
• Sensitive values in transcript content and metadata are masked before writing (password, token, api key, bearer tokens, common key prefixes).
• Packaging runs a mandatory secret scan (npm run security:scan) before creating VSIX.
• Session files use a compact timestamped filename format directly under docs/.

On first activation the extension also bootstraps docs/ai-faq.md with starter sections for recurring knowledge.

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Quick Start

1. Install the extension (or clone and press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host).
2. Open a folder / workspace in VS Code.
3. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) and run one of the AI Archive commands.

One-command local install (daily VS Code)

From the project root, run:

bash scripts/install-local-vscode.sh

This script will:

• Ensure node / npm are available (installs LTS via nvm if needed)
• Install dependencies (npm ci when package-lock.json exists)
• Build and package the extension (npm run package)
• Install the generated .vsix into your local VS Code (code or code-insiders)

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Command Usage

AI Archive: Save Current Chat

The command first tries to auto-capture the active Copilot Chat transcript, then analyzes it and pre-fills the archive form for you.

Auto-filled fields include:

• Topic (required) — used to derive the short filename slug.
• Project tag (optional) — inferred from paths/modules when possible.
• Keywords (optional) — extracted from code terms, file names, and tech stack hints.
• Summary / final decision (optional) — inferred from the transcript.
• Action items (optional) — inferred from TODO-style and imperative lines.
• Raw notes (optional) — still free-form and left empty by default.

By default, the command first tries to auto-capture the active Copilot Chat transcript. If capture fails, it opens a retry flow (Retry Capture / Paste Clipboard) so you don't accidentally save an empty archive.

Before writing the file, the extension also:

• Decodes URI-encoded local paths so Chinese and other Unicode paths stay readable.
• Masks common secrets in both transcript content and metadata.
• Ensures the archive directory is ignored by Git.

The session is written to:

docs/yyyy_mm_dd_hhmmss_<short-topic>.md

The filename slug is trimmed to keep names manageable, and the timestamp keeps files sortable.

If the file already exists and aiArchive.appendOnConflict is true (default), a separator block is appended rather than overwriting the file.

AI Archive: Open Session Index

Regenerates docs/ai-sessions-index.md from the current timestamped session files stored directly under docs/, then opens the index file.

The index includes:

• Archive date
• Topic
• Project tag
• Keywords

AI Archive: Search Archives

Searches the timestamped session files in docs/ and docs/ai-faq.md.

Behavior:

• Suggests keywords, tags, and topics extracted from existing archives.
• Supports choosing a suggested term or entering a custom query.
• Returns all matching lines, not just the first match per file.
• Opens the selected result and scrolls to the matching line.

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Generated Folder / File Structure

<workspace-root>/
└── docs/
  ├── ai-faq.md                               ← FAQ / recurring knowledge base
  ├── ai-sessions-index.md                    ← auto-generated archive index
  └── yyyy_mm_dd_hhmmss_<short-topic>.md      ← individual session archive

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Configuration

All settings are under the aiArchive namespace in VS Code settings:

Setting	Default	Description
aiArchive.baseDir	"docs"	Base directory relative to workspace root
aiArchive.sessionsDirName	"ai-sessions"	Legacy setting kept for backward compatibility
aiArchive.faqFileName	"ai-faq.md"	FAQ file name
aiArchive.appendOnConflict	true	Append to existing file instead of overwriting
aiArchive.autoCaptureFromChat	true	Try to auto-capture Copilot Chat transcript before prompts
aiArchive.requireTranscript	true	If capture fails, require retry/paste flow before saving

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Session File Template

Each session file uses this structure:

# <topic>

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
**Project:** <workspace-name>
**Tag:** <project-tag>
**Keywords:** <keywords>

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## Summary / Final Decision

<summary>

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## Action Items

<action-items>

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## Copilot Chat Transcript

<masked-transcript>

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## Raw Notes

<raw-notes>

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Limitations

• The extension does not directly access Copilot Chat API internals or
• extract conversation logs through a stable public API — current capture is best-effort via VS Code chat copy commands / clipboard flow.
• If your VS Code/Copilot build does not support chat copy commands, use Paste Clipboard in the save flow after copying chat content manually.
• Search is plain-text and case-insensitive.
• Secret masking uses practical pattern matching, so it reduces leakage risk but should not be treated as a perfect DLP system.

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Development

npm install
npm run compile   # one-off build
npm run watch     # incremental watch build
npm run lint      # ESLint
npm run security:scan

Press F5 in VS Code to open an Extension Development Host for manual testing.