Trace: a terminal tool that feeds AI only the evidence it needs to debug
jse78 · reddit · 2026-09-22
A developer shares Trace, a terminal tool built on the idea that "the AI doesn't need the entire repo — it needs the right evidence at the right time." For regression debugging, you describe the problem, the AI decides what to inspect, and Trace deterministically retrieves evidence (trace --diff v1/ v2/, --diff-symbol on a specific function, --symbol for definitions), accumulating it into the investigation context while the model refines its hypothesis toward root cause.
Other use cases:
- -jq for filtering large JSON/JSONL logs;
- --html-id / --html-class / --css plus --symbol for frontend debugging;
- ---path / --yaml-path for structured config snippets.
The author is considering open-sourcing it and asks for feedback on the workflow and what evidence types to add next.
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