Dispatch

A terminal UI for browsing and launching GitHub Copilot CLI sessions.

Dispatch reads your local Copilot CLI session store and presents every past session in a searchable, sortable, groupable TUI. Full-text search, conversation previews, directory filtering, five built-in themes, and four launch modes — all without leaving the terminal.

Features

• Full-text search (/) — two-tier: quick search (summaries, branches, repos, directories) returns results instantly; deep search (turns, checkpoints, files, refs) kicks in after 300ms
• Directory filtering (f) — hierarchical tree panel for toggling directory exclusion, persisted to config
• Sorting (s / S) — 5 fields (updated, folder, name, created, turns) with toggleable direction
• Grouping (pivot) modes (Tab) — flat, folder, repo, branch, date — displayed as collapsible trees with session counts
• Time range filtering (1–4) — 1 hour, 1 day, 7 days, all
• Preview panel (p) — metadata, chat-style conversation bubbles, checkpoints (up to 5), files (up to 5), refs (up to 5), scroll indicators. Toggle conversation sort order with o. Click the session ID row to copy it to clipboard
• Copy session ID (c) — copy the selected session's ID to the system clipboard. Also available by clicking the ID row in the preview pane
• Four launch modes (Enter / t / w / e) — in-place, new tab, new window, split pane (Windows Terminal) with per-session overrides
• Multi-session open (Space / O / a / d) — select multiple sessions with Space, open all at once with O, select/deselect all with a/d. Ctrl+click and Shift+click for mouse selection
• Attention indicators — colored dots showing real-time session status: waiting (purple), active (green), stale (yellow), interrupted (orange ⚡), idle (gray). Jump to next waiting session with n, resume interrupted sessions with R, filter by status with !
• Plan indicator (v / M) — a dot next to sessions that have a plan.md file (~/.copilot/session-state/{session-id}/plan.md). Press v to view the plan in the preview pane, M to filter and show only sessions with plans
• Session hiding (h / H) — hide sessions from the list, toggle visibility of hidden sessions, persistent state
• Session favorites (* / F) — star sessions as favorites, filter to show only favorites, persistent state
• Settings panel (,) — 10 fields: Yolo Mode, Agent, Model, Launch Mode, Pane Direction, Terminal, Shell, Custom Command, Theme, Crash Recovery
• Shell picker — auto-detects installed shells, modal picker when multiple available
• 5 built-in themes — Dispatch Dark, Dispatch Light, Campbell, One Half Dark, One Half Light + custom via Windows Terminal JSON
• Help overlay (?) — two-column grouped keyboard shortcuts
• Mouse support — click, double-click, Ctrl+double-click (window), Shift+double-click (tab), pane-aware scroll wheel
• Nerd Font detection — auto-detects Nerd Fonts and uses rich icons, falls back to ASCII
• Windows Terminal theme detection — inherits the active terminal color scheme
• Refresh (r) — reload the session store without restarting
• Demo mode — dispatch --demo with synthetic data for experimentation
• Self-update — dispatch update checks GitHub Releases and upgrades in-place; background update check notifies on new versions
• Maintenance — --reindex (full chronicle reindex via Copilot CLI PTY), --clear-cache (reset config)
• Cross-platform — Windows (amd64/arm64), macOS (amd64/arm64), Linux (amd64/arm64)

Feature Highlights

| Search & Preview | Grouping & Filtering | |---|---| | | | | | |

| Multi-Select | Attention Indicators | |---|---| | | |

| Settings | Help Overlay | |---|---| | | |

Requirements

• GitHub Copilot CLI installed and used at least once (so the session store exists)
• Go 1.26+ — only required when building from source; binary releases have no dependencies

Installation

Shell script (Linux / macOS)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jongio/dispatch/main/install.sh | sh

To install a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jongio/dispatch/main/install.sh | sh -s -- v0.1.0

PowerShell (Windows)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jongio/dispatch/main/install.ps1 | iex

To install a specific version:

$v="v0.1.0"; irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jongio/dispatch/main/install.ps1 | iex

From source

Requires Go 1.26+:

go install github.com/jongio/dispatch/cmd/dispatch@latest

Or clone and build locally:

git clone https://github.com/jongio/dispatch.git
cd dispatch
go install ./cmd/dispatch/

The installer also creates a disp alias automatically.

Usage

dispatch

Example Workflow

1. Run dispatch (or disp) in your terminal
2. Press / to search for previous sessions — try a keyword like "auth" or "refactor"
3. Navigate with arrow keys or j/k
4. Press p to toggle the preview pane and read the conversation
5. Press Enter to resume the selected session (opens in a new tab by default)
6. Use Tab to cycle grouping modes (folder → repo → branch → date → flat)
7. Press s to cycle sort fields, S to flip direction
8. Press , to open settings — change theme, launch mode, model, and more

Key Bindings

Navigation

| Key | Action | |---|---| | ↑ / k | Move up | | ↓ / j | Move down | | ← | Collapse group | | → | Expand group |

Launch & Session

| Key | Action | |---|---| | Enter | Launch selected session (or toggle folder) | | w | Launch in new window | | t | Launch in new tab | | e | Launch in split pane (Windows Terminal) |

Multi-Select

| Key | Action | |---|---| | Space | Toggle selection on current session | | O | Open all selected sessions (or all in folder) | | a | Select all visible sessions | | d | Deselect all |

Attention & Status

| Key | Action | |---|---| | n | Jump to next waiting session | | R | Resume all interrupted sessions | | ! | Filter by attention status | | h | Hide/unhide current session | | H | Toggle visibility of hidden sessions | | * | Toggle favorite on current session | | F | Filter to show only favorites | | M | Filter to show only sessions with plans |

Search & Filter

| Key | Action | |---|---| | / | Focus search bar | | Esc | Clear search / close overlay | | f | Open filter panel |

View & Sorting

| Key | Action | |---|---| | s | Cycle sort field | | S | Toggle sort direction | | Tab | Cycle grouping mode | | p | Toggle preview panel | | P | Cycle preview position (right → bottom → left → top) | | v | View plan in preview pane | | o | Toggle conversation sort order (oldest/newest first) | | c | Copy session ID to clipboard | | PgUp / PgDn | Scroll preview | | r | Refresh session store | | , | Open settings panel |

Time Range (when search is not focused)

| Key | Action | |---|---| | 1 | Last 1 hour | | 2 | Last 1 day | | 3 | Last 7 days | | 4 | All time |

Settings & Info

| Key | Action | |---|---| | ? | Show help overlay | | q | Quit | | Ctrl+C | Force quit |

Overlay Navigation

Keys inside overlays (filter, settings, shell picker, help):

| Key | Action | |---|---| | ↑ / k, ↓ / j | Navigate | | Enter | Select / apply / toggle | | Esc | Close overlay | | Space | Toggle checkbox (filter panel) | | ← / → | Collapse / expand (filter panel) |

Mouse

| Action | Effect | |---|---| | Click session | Select it | | Click folder header | Expand or collapse | | Double-click session | Launch it | | Ctrl + click session | Toggle selection without opening | | Shift + click session | Range select from last click | | Double-click (with selections) | Open all selected sessions | | Double-click folder | Launch new session in that directory | | Ctrl + double-click | Force new window | | Shift + double-click | Force new tab | | Scroll wheel (list) | Scroll session list | | Scroll wheel (preview) | Scroll preview pane | | Click header elements | Interact with search, time range, sort, pivot | | Click