Copilot CLI Session Monitor

A lightweight macOS menu bar app that shows your active GitHub Copilot CLI sessions at a glance. Click any session to jump straight to its terminal tab.

Features

• 🖥️ Live session list — see all active Copilot CLI sessions in your menu bar
• 🖱️ One-click tab switching — click a session to focus its terminal tab
• 🔄 Auto-refresh — updates every 30 seconds automatically
• 📁 Directory context — shows the working directory for each session
• 🪶 Lightweight — single binary, no dock icon, reads local files only (no network)

How It Works

Copilot CLI stores session metadata locally. This app reads two sources:

1. ~/.copilot/session-store.db — SQLite database with session names, directories, and timestamps
2. ~/.copilot/session-state/*/inuse.*.lock — lock files that indicate which sessions have a live process

The app cross-references lock file PIDs with running processes to determine which sessions are active, then displays them in a native macOS menu bar dropdown.

graph LR
    A["~/.copilot/session-store.db"] -->|SQLite read-only| B["Session Reader"]
    C["~/.copilot/session-state/*/inuse.*.lock"] -->|Glob + PID check| B
    B -->|Active sessions| D["Menu Builder"]
    D -->|systray API| E["macOS Menu Bar"]
    E -->|Click session| F["AppleScript"]
    F -->|Switch tab| G["Terminal.app / Ghostty"]
    H["30s Timer"] -->|Refresh| B

    style A fill:#2d333b,color:#e6edf3,stroke:#444
    style C fill:#2d333b,color:#e6edf3,stroke:#444
    style E fill:#1a7f37,color:#fff,stroke:#444
    style G fill:#2d333b,color:#e6edf3,stroke:#444

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Note: This app is read-only — it never modifies any Copilot files.

Prerequisites

• macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later
• Go 1.25+ (for building from source)
• GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.12 or later installed and used at least once (so ~/.copilot/ exists)

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/liamchampton/copilot-cli-session-monitor.git
cd copilot-cli-session-monitor
make bundle
open 'Copilot CLI Session Monitor.app'

Installation

Option 1: Install to Applications (recommended)

Build the .app bundle and copy it to /Applications:

make install

Then launch from Spotlight or Finder: search for "Copilot CLI Session Monitor".

Option 2: Run from source

Build and run the binary directly (useful for development):

make run

Option 3: Build only

Compile the binary without creating an .app bundle:

make build
./copilot-monitor

Note: Running the bare binary works, but macOS requires a .app bundle for the menu bar icon to render reliably. Use make bundle or make install for the best experience.

Usage

Once running, you'll see a small terminal icon in your macOS menu bar:

• Solid — at least one Copilot session is active
• Faded — no active sessions

Click the icon to see:

● Plan Terminal Session Sidebar
  ~/Documents/github/agent-controller

● Azure VS Code Changelog Calendar
  ~/Documents/github/everything-vs-code-shipped

● product-store-demo
  ~/Documents/github/product-store-demo

──────────────────────────
3 active · 13:25
──────────────────────────
Quit

Click any session name to switch to its terminal tab.

Terminal Compatibility

Session detection works with any terminal — it reads from Copilot CLI's local files, not the terminal itself. Tab switching currently supports macOS default terminal and Ghostty.

Terminal	Session list	Active/idle status	Click to switch tab
macOS default terminal	✅	✅	✅
Ghostty	✅	✅	✅
iTerm2	✅	✅	❌ Not yet
Warp	✅	✅	❌ Not yet
Kitty	✅	✅	❌ Not yet
Alacritty	✅	✅	❌ Not yet
tmux	✅	✅	❌ Not yet
VS Code terminal	✅	✅	❌ Not yet

Want support for your terminal? Contributions welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

macOS Permissions

On first launch, macOS will ask for Automation permission to control Terminal.app (or Ghostty, if detected). This is required for the tab-switching feature. Grant it in:

System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation → Copilot CLI Session Monitor → Terminal / Ghostty

Uninstall

If installed to /Applications:

make uninstall

Or manually delete:

rm -rf '/Applications/Copilot CLI Session Monitor.app'

Remove all traces:

The app itself stores no data. To fully clean up:

# Remove the app
rm -rf '/Applications/Copilot CLI Session Monitor.app'

# Remove build artifacts (if in the project directory)
make clean

Note: This does not touch your ~/.copilot/ directory — that belongs to GitHub Copilot CLI.

Development

Project Structure

copilot-cli-session-monitor/
├── main.go                        # Entry point — systray.Run()
├── internal/
│   ├── menu/
│   │   ├── builder.go             # Systray menu construction
│   │   └── builder_test.go        # Unit tests for menu builder
│   ├── monitor/
│   │   └── monitor.go             # Refresh timer orchestration
│   ├── session/
│   │   ├── types.go               # CopilotSession struct
│   │   ├── reader.go              # SQLite + lock file reader
│   │   └── reader_test.go         # Unit tests for session reader
│   └── terminal/
│       └── focus.go               # Terminal tab switching (Terminal.app + Ghostty)
├── assets/
│   ├── AppIcon.icns               # macOS app icon (icns format)
│   ├── app-icon.png               # App icon source (png)
│   ├── icon-active.png            # Green menu bar icon
│   └── icon-idle.png              # Gray menu bar icon
├── bundle/
│   └── Info.plist                 # macOS app bundle metadata
├── .github/
│   └── agents/
│       └── go-testing-agent.agent.md  # Copilot agent for Go tests
├── Makefile                       # Build, bundle, install targets
├── CONTRIBUTING.md                # Contribution guidelines
├── LICENSE                        # Project license
├── go.mod
└── go.sum

Make Targets

Target	Description
make build	Compile the Go binary
make bundle	Build + package as Copilot CLI Session Monitor.app
make install	Build + bundle + copy to /Applications
make uninstall	Remove from /Applications
make run	Build and run directly (for development)
make clean	Remove build artifacts

Key Design Decisions

• Read-only — never writes to Copilot's files
• Pure Go SQLite (modernc.org/sqlite) — no CGo dependency for database access
• Goroutine-safe — cancel pattern prevents leaked goroutines on menu refresh
• Persistent DB connection — opened once, reused across refreshes
• Efficient queries — scans lock files first, then queries only active session IDs

Tech Stack

• Go — application language
• fyne.io/systray — cross-platform system tray
• modernc.org/sqlite — pure Go SQLite driver
• AppleScript — Terminal.app and Ghostty tab switching

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md and open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.