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Local Markdown Archive and Full‑Text Search for Copilot Chat

A lightweight toolchain for turning the text‑only Copilot CSV export (downloaded from Microsoft Accounts → Privacy → Copilot apps → Export all activity history) into a local Markdown archive with full‑text search and HTML preview.

This project consists of two components:

  • CopilotArchiveSync -- processes the CSV and maintains a local Markdown archive
  • CopilotArchiveSearch -- WPF application for fast, full‑text search and preview

1. Downloading Your Copilot Chat History

Microsoft does not provide a Copilot export feature. Instead, you must manually download the privacy recovery CSV:

  1. Visit: https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/
  2. Navigate to: Your Copilot activity history → Copilot apps
  3. Click: Export all activity history
  4. Save the resulting .csv file (text‑only, no images, no attachments)

Only the Copilot apps CSV is supported at the moment.
The Microsoft 365 and Windows apps CSVs use different formats.

2. Preparing Your Local Archive Folder

Choose or create a folder where your Markdown archive will live.

CopilotArchiveSync can use:

  • the current working directory, or
  • a path specified in CopilotArchiveSync.config, or
  • a path passed as a command‑line argument

To enable search, allow Windows Search Indexer to index .md files:

  1. Open Indexing Options in Control Panel
  2. Add your archive folder
  3. Ensure .md is included in indexed file types

3. How CopilotArchiveSync Handles Your CSV File

CopilotArchiveSync is designed to make CSV management effortless. Here’s how it works, in simple terms:

Automatic detection

The tool automatically finds the newest Copilot apps CSV in your Downloads folder.

Keeping a "current CSV"

Your archive folder contains one "current CSV" that the tool uses to generate Markdown files.

When you run CopilotArchiveSync:

  • If the archive folder has no CSV yet, the newest downloaded CSV is copied there.
  • If the archive folder already has a CSV, and the newly downloaded one is newer, the tool:
    • asks whether you want to replace the old file
    • if you choose Yes, the old CSV is saved as a date‑tagged backup
    • then the new CSV is copied in its place

Backups are kept automatically.
You never lose data.

If the archive CSV is newer

If your archive CSV is newer than the downloaded one, the tool keeps your existing file.

Deleted conversations are handled correctly

If you delete conversations in the Copilot UI, future CSV downloads will not contain them.
CopilotArchiveSync will:

  • keep the old Markdown files
  • add or update only the conversations that still exist

Your archive remains complete.

Renamed conversations are handled correctly

If you rename a conversation in Copilot:

  • the next CSV download will contain the new name
  • CopilotArchiveSync will detect the rename
  • the corresponding Markdown file will be updated

Your archive stays consistent with your Copilot naming.

After CSV handling

The tool:

  • reads all conversations
  • creates new Markdown files
  • updates existing ones
  • stores backups of replaced Markdown files
  • keeps your archive folder fully in sync

The sync is incremental -- only new or changed conversations are processed.

4. Running CopilotArchiveSync

Basic usage:

CopilotArchiveSync.exe

Specify a custom archive path:

CopilotArchiveSync.exe c:\path\to\archive

Or configure it in:

CopilotArchiveSync.config

5. Searching with CopilotArchiveSearch (WPF)

CopilotArchiveSearch is a simple, fast, dark‑themed WPF application.

Configure the archive folder in:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <appSettings>
        <add key="ArchiveFolderPath" value="c:\path\to\archive"/>
    </appSettings>
</configuration>

Features

  • Instant search‑as‑you‑type
  • List of matching conversations
  • HTML preview via WebView2
  • CTRL+F search inside the preview
  • Dark color scheme similar to VS Code

6. Folder Structure

Your archive will look like:

copilot-activity-history/
    2024-11-05_Chat_001.md
    2024-11-05_Chat_002.md
    2024-11-06_Chat_001.md
    ...
copilot-activity-history.bak/
    2024-11-05_Chat_001.md
    ...
copilot-activity-history.csv
copilot-activity-history.2024-11-05.csv

Each file contains:

  • header with timestamps and message count
  • conversation text
  • stable formatting
  • no images (CSV is text‑only)

7. Limitations

  • Only Copilot apps CSV is supported
  • CSV contains text only
  • No images, no attachments, no pages
  • Other CSV formats (M365, Windows apps) may be added later

8. License

Apache License 2.0