Show timestamps next to messages in conversation view #2535
Description
Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve
When returning to a long-running Copilot CLI session after a break (e.g., coming back to the terminal after a few hours), there's no way to see when each message was sent. The conversation reads as a flat transcript with no time context.
This makes it hard to:
- Know when you last interacted with the session
- Understand the pacing of a conversation (was that exchange 5 minutes ago or 5 hours ago?)
- Orient yourself when resuming after a gap
The agent already receives <current_datetime> with each user message, so the data exists — it's just not displayed.
Proposed solution
Show a timestamp next to each user and assistant message in the terminal UI. Something like:
[07:23] > How does the G502 compare to the G502 X?
[07:23] The G502 X is essentially a modernised rebuild...
[13:42] > I just came back — when was my last message?
Options to consider:
- Relative timestamps for recent messages ("2m ago"), absolute for older ones ("07:23")
- Gap indicators — when there's a long gap between messages (e.g., >30 min), show a separator:
--- 6 hours later --- - Configurable — a setting in config.json to enable/disable, or choose format (relative / absolute / off)
Example prompts or workflows
User works in a session in the morning, walks away, comes back in the afternoon. Currently they see a flat wall of text with no temporal context. With this feature they'd immediately see when the last exchange happened and how long they've been away.
Additional context
The <current_datetime> tag is already injected into each user message for the agent's benefit — this is about surfacing that same information in the UI for the human.