Work with chat sessions in VS Code

Use chat in Visual Studio Code to have conversation-based AI interactions. A chat session consists of the sequence of prompts and responses between you and the AI, along with any relevant context from your code or files. This article describes how to create and manage chat sessions, use the sessions list, and organize your sessions. These features work in both the Chat view and the Agents window.

Start a new chat session

When you start a new chat session, you begin a new conversation with the AI. Each session has its own context window and can run with a different agent type. You can run multiple sessions in parallel, each focused on a different task or topic. Use the sessions list to monitor and switch between different sessions.

Depending on how you prefer to work or the task you want to accomplish, you can choose between different chat experiences in VS Code. Each experience is optimized for different workflows, but they share the same underlying sessions to enable you to switch between them at any time.

Sessions list

The sessions list is your central hub for managing all your chat sessions, regardless of where you started them or where they are running. The sessions list shows your sessions with information about their status, type, and file changes.

Screenshot of the sessions list showing multiple sessions with different statuses, types, and file change stats.

Hover over a session to see actions for pinning or archiving it. Right-click a session in the list to see additional actions like deleting or changing the session's state. Some actions are specific for the session's agent type and state. For example, checking out a pull request for a cloud agent session.

Use the pinning action to keep important sessions easily accessible at the top of your list. Pinned sessions stay at the top of the list regardless of their activity or state, so you can quickly find and return to them.

Archive sessions

To keep the sessions list organized, archive or mark sessions as done when they're completed or you no longer need them. Archiving a session does not delete it. At any time, you can unarchive a session to restore it to the active sessions list.

When you archive (or mark as done) a session, its status changes so it moves out of the active sessions list. If the session uses a worktree, such as a Copilot CLI session, the worktree is removed from the file system, provided its working tree is clean. The branch and any commits are preserved, so restoring the session re-creates the worktree from that branch and no work is lost.

To archive a session, hover over the session in the sessions list and select the Archive (Chat view) or Mark as Done (Agents Window) option.

Screenshot of archiving an agent session in the sessions view.

To view your archived sessions, use the filter options in the sessions list and select the Archived (Chat view) or Done (Agents Window) filter.

Delete sessions

To permanently delete a session, right-click the session in the sessions list and select Delete. Deleting a session removes it permanently and can't be undone. For Copilot CLI sessions, deleting the session also removes any associated worktrees created for that session.

If multiple Copilot CLI sessions share the same worktree, such as after you fork a session, deleting one session does not remove the shared worktree while another session still uses it. The worktree is removed only after the last linked session is deleted or archived.

Fork a chat session

Forking a chat session creates a branch of a conversation that inherits conversation history from the original session. In single-chat sessions and sessions that don't use an agent host, the fork opens as a new independent session. The forked session is fully separate from the original, so changes in one session do not affect the other. The new session title is prefixed with "Forked:" to help you identify it.

For multi-chat Copilot CLI sessions in the Agents window, the fork opens as a peer chat in the same session. The peer chat gets an automatically generated title and runs independently from sibling chats.

For Copilot CLI sessions that use worktree isolation, the fork continues to use the same worktree as the original session.

Forking is useful when you want to explore an alternative approach, ask a side question, or branch a long conversation in a different direction without losing the original context.

There are two ways to fork a chat session:

• Fork the entire session: type /fork in the chat input box and press Enter. The fork opens with the full conversation history copied from the current session.

• Fork from a checkpoint: hover over a chat request in the conversation and select the Fork Conversation button. The fork includes only the requests up to and including that checkpoint.

  Screenshot of the Fork Conversation button in the checkpoint toolbar in the Chat view.

Save and export chat sessions

You can save chat sessions to preserve important conversations or reuse them later for similar tasks.

Export a chat session as a JSON file

You can export a chat session to save it for later reference or share it with others. Exporting a chat session creates a JSON file that contains all prompts and responses from the session.

To export a chat session:

1. Open the chat session you want to export in the Chat view.

2. Run the Chat: Export Chat... command from the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)).

3. Choose a location to save the JSON file.

Copy chat messages as Markdown

The Chat view supports different options for copying chat messages as Markdown to the clipboard, available through the context menu when you right-click a message or the chat background.

• Copy: Copy an individual prompt or response to the clipboard - the Markdown contains the response text, thinking steps, and tool calls.

• Copy All: Copy the entire chat session in Markdown format, including all prompts, responses, thinking steps, and tool calls.

• Copy Final Response: Copy just the final Markdown section of the agent's response, after the last tool call. This is useful for sharing or reusing the final output without the intermediate steps.

Session status indicator (Experimental)

The session status indicator provides quick access to your sessions directly from the command center in the title bar. The indicator displays visual badges for unread messages and in-progress sessions, so you can stay informed about AI activity without switching views.

Screenshot showing the session status indicator in the command center with unread and in-progress badges.

The indicator shows:

• Unread sessions badge: shows the count of chat sessions with new messages. Select the badge to filter the sessions list to show only unread sessions.
• In-progress sessions badge: shows the count of sessions with running agents. Select the badge to filter the sessions list to show only in-progress sessions.
• Sparkle icon: provides quick access to chat and session management options.

You can configure the status indicator's visibility by using the chat.agentsControl.enabled Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders setting.

View sessions on the VS Code welcome page

The VS Code welcome page can act as your startup experience for working with chat sessions. It provides quick access to your recent chat sessions, an embedded chat widget for starting new tasks, and quick actions for common tasks.

To configure the VS Code welcome page as your startup experience, set workbench.startupEditor Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders to agentSessionsWelcomePage.

Related resources

• Use chat in VS Code
• Agents overview
• Manage context for AI
• Best practices for using AI