Copilot Chat to Markdown

Convert GitHub Copilot chat logs from VS Code into readable Markdown format. This tool parses the chat JSON export from VS Code and generates clean Markdown files showing the conversation history with proper formatting and navigation.

Features

Core Conversion Features

• ✅ Clean output: Filters out internal VS Code metadata while preserving conversation flow
• ✅ Preserves markdown formatting: Bold text, code blocks, lists, and headers render correctly
• ✅ Multiple requests: Handles complete chat sessions with multiple back-and-forth exchanges

Navigation & Organization

• ✅ Table of Contents: Auto-generated index with clickable links to each request
• ✅ Navigation links: Each request includes ^ (index), < (previous), > (next) navigation

Contextual Information

• ✅ Shows references: Displays attached files and settings in expandable sections
• ✅ Tool invocation details: Shows detailed tool operations with input/output in collapsible blocks
• ✅ Progress indicators: Includes progress messages like "✔️ Optimizing tool selection..."

Metadata & Analytics

• ✅ Response timing: Includes response time information for performance insights
• ✅ Model information: Shows which Copilot model was used for each response

Prerequisites

• Python 3.6+
• No additional dependencies (uses only standard library)

Usage

1. Export Chat from VS Code

First, you need to export your chat history from VS Code:

1. Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P on macOS or Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux)
2. Type "Chat: Export Chat" and select it
3. Choose where to save your chat export JSON file
4. The file will contain your complete chat history in JSON format

2. Convert to Markdown

python3 chat_to_markdown.py chat.json chat.md

3. View Results

Open the generated Markdown file in any Markdown viewer or editor to see your formatted chat history.

Sample Files

The samples/ directory contains example files:

• chat.json: Original chat export from VS Code (404KB conversation about a repo organizer project)
• chat.md: Output from the conversion script with proper formatting, references, and navigation

Output Format

The generated Markdown includes:

# GitHub Copilot Chat Log

**Participant:** username
**Assistant:** GitHub Copilot

<a name="table-of-contents"></a>
## Table of Contents

- [Request 1](#request-1): Brief summary of user request...
- [Request 2](#request-2): Another request summary...
- [Request 3](#request-3): Third request summary...

---

<a name="request-1"></a>
## Request 1 [^](#table-of-contents) < [>](#request-2)

### User

[User's question or request]

### Assistant

<details>
  <summary>Used 2 references</summary>
  <p>☰ copilot-instructions.md<br>⚙️ github.copilot.chat.codeGeneration.instructions</p>
</details>

[AI response with proper **bold formatting** and code blocks]

<details>
  <summary>Ran Get file contents</summary>
  <p>Completed with input: {
  "filePath": "/path/to/file.md",
  "startLine": 1,
  "endLine": 50
}</p>
</details>

✔️ Optimizing tool selection...

[Continued AI response...]

*Response time: 45.32 seconds*

---

<a name="request-2"></a>
## Request 2 [^](#table-of-contents) [<](#request-1) [>](#request-3)

[Next exchange...]

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Invalid JSON: Ensure the exported chat file is valid JSON

   python3 -c "import json; json.load(open('chat.json'))"

2. Python errors: Run with error output for debugging

   python3 chat_to_markdown.py chat.json chat.md 2>&1

3. Empty output: Check if the input JSON has the expected VS Code chat structure

4. File not found: Verify file paths are correct and files exist

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues or pull requests to improve the scripts or add new features.

When filing an issue or creating a pull request, please include:

• A sample chat.json file that demonstrates the problem or use case
  • Redact any secrets or other private information before submitting
• The expected vs. actual output behavior
• Steps to reproduce the issue

This helps with debugging and ensures fixes work correctly across different chat formats.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License, which allows free use, modification, and distribution - see the LICENSE file for details.