Chat Participant (@ctx)

Manual control commands for when you want to direct ContextManager explicitly. All of this is optional — ContextManager works fully in the background without a single @ctx command.

You don’t need these commands. ContextManager captures knowledge, injects intelligence, and maintains session continuity automatically from all Copilot interactions. Use @ctx when you want to give explicit instructions, trigger a retrospective, or create cards on demand.

Overview

Type @ctx in Copilot Chat to access the ContextManager chat participant. Every command automatically includes your selected knowledge cards, cached explanations, and project intelligence as context.

Commands

/chat - Ask with Project Context

Default

Ask any question with full project context injected. This is the default command when you type @ctx without a slash command.

@ctx How does the caching layer work?
@ctx /chat What's the difference between Service A and Service B?

/explain - Deep-Dive Explanation

Get a thorough explanation of a symbol, class, module, or concept. Results are auto-cached.

@ctx /explain AuthenticationService

You can also right-click any symbol in the editor → Explain for the same result.

/usage - Explain Why Code Is Used

Understand why a specific piece of code exists at a particular location.

@ctx /usage Why is EventEmitter used here instead of callbacks?

/relationships - Show Architecture

Display class hierarchies, component relationships, and architectural patterns.

@ctx /relationships Show the inheritance tree of BaseController

/todo - Work on a TODO

Work on a TODO item with full project context injected.

@ctx /todo Fix the authentication bug in LoginService

/knowledge - Research & Generate Card

The AI researches your codebase and creates a structured knowledge card.

@ctx /knowledge Research the observer pattern in this codebase
@ctx /knowledge How does dependency injection work here?

/refine - Improve a Card

Pick an existing knowledge card and improve it with fresh codebase research.

@ctx /refine

The AI uses the full tool-calling loop - it can read files, search, and navigate your entire codebase to update the card.

/save - Answer + Save as Card

Answer a question and save the response as a knowledge card in one step.

@ctx /save How does the error handling pipeline work?

/add - Save Last Response as Card

Save the most recent AI response from the current chat session as a card.

@ctx /add

/done - End-of-Task Retrospective

Capture structured learnings from the current task.

@ctx /done

Extracts: outcome summary, new conventions, tool hints, and creates knowledge cards from insights.

/handoff - Generate Handoff Document

Package the complete project context - knowledge cards, conventions, intelligence - into a handoff document for another engineer.

@ctx /handoff

/audit - Knowledge Freshness Scan

Scan all knowledge cards for staleness: check if referenced files still exist, flag outdated content.

@ctx /audit

/map - Architectural Overview

Generate an architectural overview of a module or directory with entry points, relationships, and data flow.

@ctx /map src/auth/

/context - Show Current Context

Display the current project context - metadata, selected cards, cached explanations, intelligence summary.

@ctx /context

/doc - Generate Doc Comments

Experimental

Generate and apply doc comments to selected code. Requires VS Code Insiders for inline diff support.

@ctx /doc

Context Injection

Every @ctx command automatically injects:

  1. Project metadata - name, goals, root paths
  2. Selected knowledge cards - via progressive disclosure (full → summary → metadata)
  3. Selected cache entries - previously cached explanations
  4. Project intelligence - conventions, tool hints, relevant working notes
  5. Copilot instructions - .github/copilot-instructions.md (if present)
  6. README - README.md (if present)

Followup Suggestions

After each response, @ctx suggests contextual followup actions:

  • 📥 Add last response as card - after /chat and /save
  • 🔍 Search for more - when the response references searchable topics
  • 📖 Explain deeper - for complex explanations

Next Steps

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