{"slug": "mempalace-vs-code-copilot-mcp-and-hook-setup", "title": "MemPalace + VS Code Copilot MCP and Hook Setup", "summary": "A developer documented a working setup for integrating MemPalace with VS Code and GitHub Copilot, including MCP server registration and hook wiring. The solution converts VS Code Copilot chat transcripts from JSONL event logs into plain-text format for MemPalace's conversation mining. The setup uses a custom MCP server entry in .vscode/mcp.json and hooks in .github/hooks/mempalace.json to automate transcript processing.", "body_md": "This note documents a working MemPalace setup for VS Code + GitHub Copilot, including MCP registration, hook wiring, and a custom transcript conversion flow for Copilot chat transcripts.\n\nAll paths below are sanitized. Replace placeholders like `${HOME}`\n\nand `${WORKSPACE}`\n\nwith your own values.\n\nMemPalace conversation mining supports several formats out of the box, including ChatGPT exports, Claude JSON, Slack exports, Markdown, and plain text transcripts.\n\nVS Code Copilot chat transcripts are different.\n\nMemPalace's ChatGPT import path expects a turn-oriented JSON structure with a `mapping`\n\ntree. VS Code Copilot stores chat history as JSONL event logs under a workspace storage directory, with records like:\n\n`session.start`\n\n`user.message`\n\n`assistant.message`\n\n`assistant.turn_start`\n\n`assistant.turn_end`\n\n`tool.execution_start`\n\n`tool.execution_complete`\n\nBecause of that mismatch, raw VS Code Copilot transcript files should not be passed directly to `mempalace mine --mode convos`\n\n.\n\nThe working solution is:\n\n- Discover VS Code Copilot transcript files.\n- Convert the event stream into a plain-text transcript format MemPalace already accepts.\n- Mine those converted transcripts with\n`mempalace mine ... --mode convos`\n\n.\n\nAdd a MemPalace server entry to `.vscode/mcp.json`\n\n:\n\n```\n{\n  \"servers\": {\n    \"mempalace\": {\n      \"type\": \"stdio\",\n      \"command\": \"uv\",\n      \"args\": [\"run\", \"--with\", \"mempalace\", \"python\", \"-m\", \"mempalace.mcp_server\"]\n    }\n  }\n}\n```\n\nThis uses `uv`\n\ninstead of requiring a permanently activated virtualenv.\n\nIf you already have other MCP servers configured, merge the `mempalace`\n\nentry into your existing `servers`\n\nobject instead of replacing the whole file.\n\nExample of a fuller `.vscode/mcp.json`\n\n:\n\n```\n{\n  \"servers\": {\n    \"serena\": {\n      \"type\": \"stdio\",\n      \"command\": \"serena\",\n      \"args\": [\"start-mcp-server\", \"--context=vscode\", \"--project\", \"${workspaceFolder}\"]\n    },\n    \"context-mode\": {\n      \"type\": \"stdio\",\n      \"command\": \"context-mode\"\n    },\n    \"mempalace\": {\n      \"type\": \"stdio\",\n      \"command\": \"uv\",\n      \"args\": [\"run\", \"--with\", \"mempalace\", \"python\", \"-m\", \"mempalace.mcp_server\"]\n    },\n    \"git\": {\n      \"type\": \"stdio\",\n      \"command\": \"uvx\",\n      \"args\": [\"mcp-server-git\", \"--repository\", \"${workspaceFolder}\"]\n    },\n    \"filesystem\": {\n      \"command\": \"npx\",\n      \"args\": [\"-y\", \"@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem\", \"${workspaceFolder}\"]\n    },\n    \"eslint\": {\n      \"type\": \"stdio\",\n      \"command\": \"npx\",\n      \"args\": [\"@eslint/mcp@latest\"]\n    }\n  },\n  \"inputs\": []\n}\n```\n\nThat full example is optional. The only MemPalace-specific part is the `mempalace`\n\nserver block.\n\nCreate `.github/hooks/mempalace.json`\n\n:\n\n```\n{\n  \"hooks\": {\n    \"Stop\": [\n      {\n        \"type\": \"command\",\n        \"command\": \"./.bin/mempal_save_hook.sh\",\n        \"cwd\": \".\",\n        \"timeout\": 120,\n        \"env\": {\n          \"MEMPAL_DIR\": \".\"\n        }\n      }\n    ],\n    \"PreCompact\": [\n      {\n        \"type\": \"command\",\n        \"command\": \"./.bin/mempal_precompact_hook.sh\",\n        \"cwd\": \".\",\n        \"timeout\": 120,\n        \"env\": {\n          \"MEMPAL_DIR\": \".\"\n        }\n      }\n    ]\n  }\n}\n```\n\nThese hooks are VS Code/Copilot variants of the upstream MemPalace save/precompact hooks.\n\nStore the scripts in `./.bin/`\n\n:\n\n`mempal_precompact_hook.sh`\n\n`mempal_save_hook.sh`\n\n`mempal_mine_vscode_transcripts.py`\n\n`mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh`\n\nMake them executable:\n\n```\nchmod +x .bin/mempal_precompact_hook.sh\nchmod +x .bin/mempal_save_hook.sh\nchmod +x .bin/mempal_mine_vscode_transcripts.py\nchmod +x .bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh\n```\n\nVS Code Copilot transcripts live under a workspace storage path like this:\n\n```\n${HOME}/.config/Code/User/workspaceStorage/<workspace-storage-id>/GitHub.copilot-chat/transcripts\n```\n\nThe hooks use transcript discovery logic that:\n\n- Uses\n`transcript_path`\n\nwhen the hook payload provides it. - Otherwise searches the VS Code workspace storage directory.\n- Prefers a filename matching the Copilot\n`sessionId`\n\n. - Falls back to the most recently modified transcript file.\n\nAn optional override is supported:\n\n```\nexport VSCODE_WORKSPACE_STORAGE_DIR=\"${HOME}/.config/Code/User/workspaceStorage\"\n```\n\nThe custom converter script reads the Copilot JSONL event stream and keeps only real conversation turns:\n\n`user.message`\n\n-> user turn`assistant.message`\n\n-> assistant turn\n\nIt ignores lifecycle and tool execution noise, then emits plain-text transcript content like:\n\n```\n> User question\nAssistant answer\n\n> Next question\nNext answer\n```\n\nThis output is written to a cache directory, by default:\n\n```\n${HOME}/.mempalace/vscode-copilot-transcripts\n```\n\nEach converted file is named by session ID when available.\n\nTo re-import everything from the VS Code Copilot transcript folder, use:\n\n```\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh\n```\n\nThis script:\n\n- Targets the Copilot transcript directory.\n- Clears the converted transcript cache.\n- Rebuilds the converted plain-text transcript set.\n- Runs MemPalace conversation mining on the converted output.\n\nOptional modes:\n\n```\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh --dry-run\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh --extract general\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh --convert-only\n```\n\nYou can also override the source directory:\n\n```\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh /path/to/GitHub.copilot-chat/transcripts\n```\n\nOr set it via environment:\n\n```\nexport MEMPAL_VSCODE_TRANSCRIPTS_DIR=\"/path/to/GitHub.copilot-chat/transcripts\"\n```\n\nIf you want to rebuild MemPalace from scratch:\n\n```\nrm -rf ${HOME}/.mempalace\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh\n```\n\nIf you also want general memory extraction:\n\n```\nrm -rf ${HOME}/.mempalace\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh --extract general\n```\n\nMemPalace's conversation miner currently treats conversation files as effectively immutable for idempotency checks.\n\nThat means the custom converter/reseed flow works well for:\n\n- first-time imports\n- full reseeds after wiping the palace\n- historical backfills\n\nBut repeated incremental re-mining of an already-filed converted transcript may still be skipped by MemPalace unless the underlying miner behavior changes.\n\nSo the safest model today is:\n\n- use hooks for ongoing capture attempts\n- use the reseed script when doing a fresh rebuild or historical import\n\n`.vscode/mcp.json`\n\nupdated with the MemPalace MCP server`.github/hooks/mempalace.json`\n\n`.bin/mempal_precompact_hook.sh`\n\n`.bin/mempal_save_hook.sh`\n\n`.bin/mempal_mine_vscode_transcripts.py`\n\n`.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh`\n\n```\n# MCP server runs via VS Code using uv\n\n# reseed from VS Code Copilot transcripts\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh\n\n# dry-run\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh --dry-run\n\n# general extraction pass\n./.bin/mempal_reseed_vscode_transcripts.sh --extract general\n```\n\n", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mempalace-vs-code-copilot-mcp-and-hook-setup", "canonical_source": "https://gist.github.com/krisanalfa/db119b7716db3de6d3ce3f62e4ad45f0", "published_at": "2026-05-22 09:15:53+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-19 04:32:00.072767+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools", "large-language-models", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["MemPalace", "VS Code", "GitHub Copilot", "MCP"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mempalace-vs-code-copilot-mcp-and-hook-setup", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mempalace-vs-code-copilot-mcp-and-hook-setup.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mempalace-vs-code-copilot-mcp-and-hook-setup.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/mempalace-vs-code-copilot-mcp-and-hook-setup.jsonld"}}