hopchat

The only npm-installable bridge between Claude Code and GitHub Copilot CLI — carries your chat history into each tool's own native resume command, no Python runtime, no copy-paste. Start a task in one CLI, continue it natively in another.

Supported platforms (v1)

• GitHub Copilot CLI
• Claude Code

Both directions. More platforms can be added by dropping a reader.js/writer.js pair into platforms/ (see platforms/TEMPLATE/ and CONTRIBUTING.md for the full checklist — this is the contribution hopchat most wants).

Install

npm install -g hopchat

Usage

hopchat list copilot-cli
hopchat list claude-code
hopchat migrate --from copilot-cli --to claude-code <chat-id>
hopchat platforms
hopchat --version

A migrate shows the chat's metadata (title, turn count, model, project path) up front, then a hopping rabbit mascot travels from the source platform's name to the target's, its speech bubble narrating each stage as it goes. It lands with a happy face and the resume command for the target tool (e.g. claude --resume <new-id>). Run that command and the target CLI loads the migrated chat as a normal, resumable session.

Respects the NO_COLOR convention and a --no-color flag; set HOPCHAT_NO_ANIMATION=1 to skip animation delays (mainly useful for scripting/CI).

Interactive mode

Run hopchat with no arguments for a menu-driven flow instead of typing --from/--to/a chat id by hand:

hopchat

Greets you with a pixel-art banner (the same hopchat rabbit as the non-interactive mascot, natively rendered for each surface — a moving hop transition plays on both), then walks through 4 steps, each with its own step indicator and keyboard-shortcut hints: pick a source platform → pick a destination → browse the source's chats (type to filter, arrow keys to scroll) → confirm. A brief "hopping" animation plays while the migration lands, then you're dropped back into the same chat list to pick another one. Escape exits from anywhere; the bare q shortcut works everywhere except the chat browser, where typing is reserved for the filter search. A failed read or migration shows a styled error screen instead of crashing. hopchat --help, hopchat list, hopchat migrate ..., and hopchat platforms are unchanged and still work exactly as documented above.

Fidelity

Migration is condensed fidelity: user/assistant text is preserved exactly; tool calls (file edits, shell commands, sub-agent runs) are folded into the assistant's text as short narrations (e.g. Called grep) rather than replayed as structured tool calls.

This keeps the migrated chat loadable by the target platform's own resume command without needing to map every tool between platforms — Copilot's ask_user has no Claude Code equivalent, and vice versa, so full-fidelity tool replay would be lossy or fragile. Condensed text avoids that entirely while preserving the conversation's content and intent.

How it works

Both Copilot CLI and Claude Code store sessions as local files in undocumented formats:

• Copilot CLI: ~/.copilot/session-state/<chat-id>/ (a workspace.yaml + an events.jsonl event log)
• Claude Code: ~/.claude/projects/<sanitized-cwd>/<session-id>.jsonl

hopchat reads a source platform's session into a common intermediate representation (IR), then writes that IR into the target platform's own file format so its native resume command (copilot --resume=<id>, claude --resume <id>) picks it up. Each platform is an isolated reader/writer plugin behind a registry; adding a platform is one new folder, nothing in core changes.

Because the formats are undocumented and can change between CLI releases, hopchat ships a per-platform version-compatibility range (see each platform's supported-versions.js) and warns if the installed CLI can't be verified against it. Some CLIs (Copilot CLI in particular) take a couple of seconds just to print their own --version, so the checked version is cached to disk for 24 hours — the first migrate after install or an upgrade pays that cost once, not on every run.

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide, including the checklist for adding a new platform — hopchat's most-wanted contribution.

git clone https://github.com/abhii14758/HopChat.git
cd HopChat
npm install
npm test

Tests run against fixture session files under test/fixtures/ — no live CLI install is required for the automated test suite. The one thing a fixture can't prove is whether the real target binary actually accepts a hopchat-written session, so the final validation of any new/changed writer is a manual live smoke test against the real CLI's --resume.

Releases are managed with changesets — run npx changeset alongside a PR that changes user-facing behavior; see CHANGELOG.md for release history.

Project layout

hopchat/
├── cli.js                  # list / migrate / platforms / --version commands + interactive-mode launcher
├── cli-mascot.js           # hopping rabbit + speech bubble animation (non-interactive migrate)
├── cli-text-fx.js          # typewriter text effect helper
├── cli-pixel-art.js        # blocky pixel wordmark + mascot renderer (interactive mode)
├── ink/                    # interactive-mode screens (Banner, MiniHeader, SelectList, ConfirmPrompt, SuccessPanel, App)
├── core/
│   ├── ir-schema.js        # canonical IR shape + validation
│   ├── registry.js         # platform name -> {reader, writer, supportedVersions}
│   ├── migrate.js          # orchestrator: read -> validate -> format-version check -> write
│   ├── version-check.js    # installed-CLI version compatibility
│   └── contract-tests.js   # shared suite every reader/writer must pass
├── platforms/
│   ├── copilot-cli/        # reader + writer + supported-versions
│   ├── claude-code/        # reader + writer + supported-versions
│   ├── TEMPLATE/           # copy-and-fill skeleton for a new platform
│   └── README.md           # the full "adding a platform" reference
├── test/                   # unit, contract, and e2e round-trip tests
├── .github/                # CI, issue templates, PR template
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
└── CHANGELOG.md

Contributing

Bug reports, feature requests, and especially new platform adapters are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md. This project follows the Contributor Covenant.

Security

See SECURITY.md for how to report a vulnerability.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.