co-pivot

co-pivot is a local-first desktop app for finding, understanding, and resuming GitHub Copilot CLI conversations with less friction.

What it does today

• Runs as a local desktop app built with Electron + React + Mantine
• Reads GitHub Copilot CLI sessions from ~/.copilot/session-state
• Helps you browse, search, and identify the right conversation to resume across parallel tasks
• Supports custom titles, favorites, chronological browsing, and side-by-side comparison
• Adds lightweight recovery aids like resume notes, richer session detail, and chat-style transcript browsing
• Shows a clear local empty state when no Copilot sessions are available yet
• Reopens the selected session in iTerm or Terminal.app with copilot --resume <session-id>

Current architecture

• src/: React UI, local search, session detail views, and recovery workflows
• electron/main.cjs: Electron main process, local session discovery, terminal preference persistence, periodic refresh wiring, and resume action
• electron/preload.cjs: secure bridge between Electron and the renderer
• src/features/sessions/: session models, search ranking, local metadata, notes, sorting, and resume wiring

Local development

Prerequisites

• bun
• GitHub Copilot CLI installed if you want the Resume action to work
• iTerm installed if you want to use iTerm as the preferred terminal

Install dependencies

bun install

Run the app

bun run dev

This starts Vite and Electron together.

If you need a different local port, set CO_PIVOT_DEV_PORT before running the app.

First-run checklist

Before expecting local Copilot history to appear in the app:

• Install GitHub Copilot CLI: https://docs.github.com/copilot/how-tos/set-up/install-copilot-cli
• Authenticate once by running copilot in a terminal and completing /login
• Start at least one real Copilot CLI conversation so ~/.copilot/session-state exists
• Run bun run dev
• If you want Resume to open in iTerm, install iTerm; otherwise the app defaults to Terminal

Type-check

bun run lint

Build a macOS app

co-pivot can now be packaged as a real macOS application that you can move into Applications and launch from an app icon.

Create a packaged app

bun run dist:dir

This produces a packaged .app bundle inside release/mac-arm64.

Create distributable archives

bun run dist

This builds the app and generates macOS artifacts in release/, including a DMG.

Install it in Applications

1. Run bun run dist:dir
2. Open release/mac-arm64
3. Find co-pivot.app
4. Drag co-pivot.app into Applications
5. Launch it from Launchpad, Spotlight, Finder, or the Applications folder

You can also open the packaged app directly from the terminal:

open /Users/aiheon/Developper/co-pivot/release/mac-arm64/co-pivot.app

If macOS blocks the first launch, right-click the app, choose Open, then confirm.

Notes

• co-pivot currently targets GitHub Copilot CLI only.
• Session discovery is based on the local Copilot session-state format, so we should expect that format to evolve over time.
• Resume opens a new terminal window/tab and keeps co-pivot open.
• The UI is intentionally optimized for fast task recovery: finding the right conversation, understanding where it left off, and resuming it quickly.
• The preferred terminal is stored locally in Electron user data and defaults to Terminal.
• Session-specific helpers like custom titles and resume notes are stored locally.
• Outside Electron, the app falls back to preview data. Inside Electron, it reads your real local Copilot history or shows an explicit empty state.
• The packaged macOS app targets Apple Silicon (arm64).