Copilot CLI Local Memory: say “remember this” and carry on working

[shankarnarayanb]

Most things I want Copilot CLI to remember appear halfway through real work.

It might be a deployment guardrail, an API caveat, or a decision I don’t want to explain again in the next session.

I know I can stop and edit a Copilot instruction file manually. What I wanted was a quicker capture step:

“Save this decision to local memory.”

Then carry on working.

So I built Copilot CLI Local Memory, a small open-source plugin that turns explicit save requests into modular Copilot instruction files.

Save something using natural language or a command:

Save this caveat to local memory: always show the dry run before a production deployment.

/remember Always show the dry run before a production deployment.

Start a new session and Copilot can recall it.

I deliberately kept the implementation small:

• two JavaScript files at runtime;
• only Node.js built-ins;
• no PostgreSQL, SQLite, vector database or embeddings;
• no background server or telemetry;
• every memory is an ordinary .instructions.md file on your machine.

You can inspect, edit, back up or delete the files yourself. Memories can also be scoped to matching files instead of applying globally.

Install it as a Copilot CLI plugin:

copilot plugin install shankarnarayanb/copilot-cli-local-memory
copilot --experimental

Verify the installation inside Copilot CLI:

/plugin list
/extensions manage

I have tested the current release on Windows. I’d particularly appreciate macOS and Linux testing, along with feedback on three questions:

1. Does the plugin installation work cleanly?
2. Does saving something during a session feel natural?
3. Where should the boundary sit between a remembered caveat and a manually maintained project instruction?

Repository:
https://github.com/shankarnarayanb/copilot-cli-local-memory

Current release:
https://github.com/shankarnarayanb/copilot-cli-local-memory/releases/tag/v1.1.1

I’m the author, and the project is MIT licensed.