Support user-defined names for GitHub Copilot CLI sessions

[vishalseri]

Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

GitHub Copilot CLI currently creates conversational sessions that can be resumed later using commands like --continue or --resume. However, these sessions are only identifiable by auto-generated metadata such as timestamps and preview snippets derived from the conversation. For users who run multiple Copilot CLI sessions in parallel—often across different repositories, features, or tasks—this makes it difficult to quickly recognize and resume the correct session. As a result, users must rely on vague previews or trial-and-error when resuming work, which reduces productivity and increases cognitive load. Providing a way to explicitly name a session at creation time (or rename it later) would significantly improve usability for advanced and frequent Copilot CLI users.

Proposed solution

Add first-class support for user-defined session names in GitHub Copilot CLI.
Suggested capabilities:

Name a session at creation time

• Allow users to provide a session name when starting a new Copilot CLI session.

Display session names in the resume picker

• Show the user-defined name alongside existing metadata (timestamp, message count, preview).

Resume sessions by name

• Allow resuming a session using its name instead of only selecting from a list.

(Optional) Rename existing sessions

• Provide a way to rename an active or saved session.

Example prompts or workflows

Create a named session
copilot --session-name "BYOD Upload API debugging"
or
copilot --name "Access Reviews Scheduler refactor"

Resume a session by name
copilot --resume "BYOD Upload API debugging"

Resume via picker (enhanced display)

Select a session:
[1] BYOD Upload API debugging        (2h ago, 18 messages)
[2] React UX polish – MyAccess       (yesterday, 9 messages)
[3] Spark audit pipeline investigation (3 days ago, 25 messages)

Additional context

Why This Matters

• Improves workflow for users running multiple concurrent Copilot CLI sessions
• Reduces friction when context-switching between repos, features, or tasks
• Makes Copilot CLI more viable for long-running, complex engineering work
• Aligns with how users already think about work: by task or feature name, not timestamps

This feature would be especially valuable for users who:

• Work across multiple repositories simultaneously
• Use Copilot CLI alongside VS Code or Codespaces
• Treat Copilot sessions as long-lived “task assistants” rather than short prompts

[vishalseri]

Also if the terminal tab title could be updated to be the current session name, that would be great.

[jtschuster]

Also if the terminal tab title could be updated to be the current session name, that would be great.

The /rename command should do this already.

[vishalseri]

Thanks. That's what I wanted. Closing this.