collect

name	collect
description	Collect Copilot Chronicle session-store SQLite databases from local machine, WSL, and remote SSH hosts into a single staging directory, then query them with sqlite3. Use when the user wants to inspect, search, or export their Copilot chat history (sessions, turns, files, refs) across machines. Triggers: chronicle, session-store.db, copilot history, session history, search past sessions, what did I ask, find prompt.
argument-hint	[hosts...] - optional SSH host names to include (e.g. my-host)

Sessions Collect

Gather Copilot Chronicle (session-store.db) databases from every place they live, stage them locally, and run SQL queries against them.

When to Use

• User asks about past chat sessions, prompts, or files touched
• User wants to search Copilot history across machines
• User wants raw data, not the built-in /chronicle summaries
• Built-in /chronicle:tips returns nothing useful (not enough local data)

Known DB Locations

Source	Path
Copilot CLI (any host)	~/.copilot/session-store.db
VS Code (Windows)	%APPDATA%\Code\User\globalStorage\github.copilot-chat\session-store.db
VS Code Server (Linux/WSL/SSH)	~/.vscode-server/data/User/globalStorage/github.copilot-chat/session-store.db
VS Code Insiders Server	~/.vscode-server-insiders/data/User/globalStorage/github.copilot-chat/session-store.db

Each DB has sidecar *.db-shm and *.db-wal files. Always copy all three — the WAL often holds most recent data.

Procedure

1. Collect

Run collect.sh with optional SSH host args:

bash ~/.copilot/skills/collect/scripts/collect.sh my-host

Output goes to /tmp/chronicle/<host>/<source>/session-store.db*.

Private hosts: if ~/.copilot/sessions/hosts.md exists, use the SSH host names listed there as the collect.sh args instead of the placeholder above.

2. Verify schema

Schemas differ between CLI and VS Code stores. Check before querying:

sqlite3 /tmp/chronicle/<host>/<source>/session-store.db ".schema sessions"
sqlite3 ... ".tables"

See schema.md for both variants.

3. Query

See queries.md for ready-to-run example queries (overview, search by keyword, find files touched, list references, etc.).

Basic search example:

DB=/tmp/chronicle/local/vscode/session-store.db
sqlite3 -header -column "$DB" \
  "SELECT s.updated_at, s.summary, t.user_message
   FROM turns t JOIN sessions s ON s.id=t.session_id
   WHERE t.user_message LIKE '%KEYWORD%'
   ORDER BY s.updated_at DESC LIMIT 20;"

Notes

• DBs are SQLite WAL-mode. Copying just .db misses recent activity — use the script.
• Do not modify the live DB. Always copy first.
• sqlite3 binary may not be installed on remote hosts; copy the file back and query locally.