github / github/copilot-cli

Add toggle to show all sessions unscoped in `/resume` picker (bypass `cwd`/repo relevance grouping)

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area:sessions
Dominant language
Shell
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Description

Problem

The /resume (and --resume) session picker scopes/groups sessions by relevance to the current working directory (branch/repo/git-root/directory, per #3277). In practice this means a session started in a different directory can be effectively invisible in the default picker list, even though it is very recent and fully resumable directly via /resume <session-id>.

Example:

  • Session 11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555 (cwd C:\work\some-other-project, last updated same day) does not appear when running /resume from an unrelated cwd (C:\work).
  • /resume 11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555 resumes it without any issue.

This is confusing: there is no indication that sessions are being filtered/deprioritized, so a session can appear "lost" when it's actually just scoped out of view.

Proposed solution

Add an explicit way to toggle off the directory/repo-based scoping in the /resume picker, so users can reliably see all local sessions regardless of cwd when needed. For example:

  • A keybinding (similar to / for search, see #241) to toggle between "scoped" and "all sessions" view.
  • And/or a flag, e.g. copilot --resume --all, to start directly in the unscoped view.

Why this matters

Relevance-based grouping is a nice default, but without an escape hatch it becomes an anti-feature: users lose confidence that /resume shows everything, and have to already know/remember a session ID to resume sessions from other directories.

Related

  • #3277
  • #241

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at the /resume and --resume picker entry points, then trace the relevance grouping described in #3277 and the picker search interaction referenced by #241. Decide whether the change should use a toggle, a flag, or both, and verify that the unscoped view exposes all local sessions while the existing scoped view remains the default.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
shell
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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