# Reported issues for trace-mcp

Pod holds 17 of 34 problems reported by people outside the maintainer team. Issues filed by the project's own owners, members and collaborators are excluded entirely — a maintainer's release checklist is not a warning to a prospective user.

Back to [trace-mcp](/mcp/trace-mcp).

## Most discussed

### Plugin support: marshmallow

## Plugin request

**Package:** `marshmallow` (==4.3.0)
**Category:** framework
**Priority:** medium

This dependency is detected in my project but has no trace-mcp plugin coverage.

### Expected
A dedicated plugin that extracts framework-specific edges and metadata for `marshmallow`.

### Context
<!-- Describe how you use this package, what patterns you'd like traced -->

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/382) · 2026-08-27 · closed · external user · 2 comments

### Plugin support: click

## Plugin request

**Package:** `click` (==8.3.3)
**Category:** infra
**Priority:** medium

This dependency is detected in my project but has no trace-mcp plugin coverage.

### Expected
A dedicated plugin that extracts framework-specific edges and metadata for `click`.

### Context
<!-- Describe how you use this package, what patterns you'd like traced -->

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/381) · 2026-08-27 · closed · external user · 2 comments

### Output is too verbose by default

Right before I finish a session, I have been asking my agent (claude) to analyze their use of trace-mcp and tell me if the output was too verbose.

Here is what I have got so far:

* Claude realized there are knobs that it didn't use to control the output verbosity
* It recommends to add a detail_level parameter to `get_feature_context` and `get_task_context` 
* Recommended to set the default `detail_level` to `minimal` for `search` and `get_outline` 
* It recommended to add a global default for

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/334) · 2026-08-19 · closed · outside contributor · 4 comments

### MCP server tools unavailable in session despite valid registered project + .mcp.json

## Summary

In a Claude Code session working on an unrelated project (`direct-cli`), none of trace-mcp's MCP tools (`search`, `get_symbol`, `get_outline`, `find_usages`) were available — searching for them returned nothing, and only the PreToolUse hook guard was active, blocking plain `grep`/subagent calls with a "use trace-mcp instead" message. `Read` was eventually allowed through as an explicit fallback, with the guard self-reporting:

> trace-mcp server not running (no heartbeat sentinel). A

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/297) · 2026-08-05 · closed · external user · 4 comments

### Can't get outline of code

Have installed and everything seems to be running great, but I keep getting into this loop of the mcp cant read code (or cant find any, not quite sure) and getting instructions on to use the mcp, this is part of the output:

Bash See Permalink mapping config in Module.cs
IN
grep -n "Permalink" /Users/peppe/Dev/piranha.core/data/Piranha.Data.EF/Module.cs

OUT
Use trace-mcp instead of shell commands for code exploration.
Trace-mcp [get_outline]data/Piranha.Data.EF/Module.cs
OUT
{"error":{"code":"N

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/242) · 2026-07-14 · closed · external user · 2 comments

### Windows: PostToolUse trace-mcp-reindex.cmd opens visible cmd/PowerShell windows on every Edit/Write

Environment:

- OS: Windows 11
- Shell: PowerShell 7.6.3
- Client: Hermes Agent / Claude-compatible hooks
- trace-mcp: current latest
- Hook file:
  C:\Users\USER\.claude\hooks\trace-mcp-reindex.cmd
- Settings file:
  C:\Users\USER\.claude\settings.json

Problem:

After running trace-mcp init / trace-mcp setup-hooks, the PostToolUse auto-reindex hook is installed on Windows as a command similar to:

    {
      "type": "command",
      "command": "cmd /c \"C:\\Users\\USER\\.claude\\hooks\\trace-

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/230) · 2026-07-06 · closed · external user · 1 comment

### MCP server only works over a single project

When using the server in  the MCP server has to be registered with a path to the indexed project (repository) , for example:

```
"mcpServers" : {
  "trace-mcp" : {
      "type" : "http",
      "url"  : "http://127.0.0.1:3741/mcp?project=/path/to/my/repository"
   }
}
```

 This limits the functionality across repositories. As a minimum, a single MCP server should be sufficient (even if tools only works on a single repository per call) Could the project (repository) be rather specified on the to

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/199) · 2026-06-02 · open · outside contributor · 8 comments

### Support for AMP, KiloCode, Cline, Cursor, Antigravity, Kimi, Warp

It would be great to extend support

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/76) · 2026-04-23 · closed · external user · 5 comments

## Most recent

### Want to add your plugin to awesome-ai-plugins?

Hey, we maintain [awesome-ai-plugins](https://github.com/hashgraph-online/awesome-ai-plugins) and came across `trace-mcp`. It looks like a great fit alongside the other claude code extensions, and we'd love to include it.

Would you be up for submitting it? The whole submission is a small PR adding one entry to `README.md`; [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](https://github.com/hashgraph-online/awesome-ai-plugins/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) shows the format.

Projects listed there can also receive a public profi

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/536) · 2026-08-29 · closed · external user · 1 comment

### File watcher ignores .gitignore, runs full indexing pipeline on gitignored log/DB files every debounce cycle

## Expected vs Actual

**Expected:** the file watcher skips `.gitignore`d paths before running them through the indexing pipeline — zero pipeline passes for a gitignored file.

**Actual:** the watcher's own ignore filter (`TraceignoreMatcher` + `config.exclude`) does not consult `.gitignore` at all, so gitignored files run through the full indexing pipeline on every change event and are only rejected at the *end* of the pipeline (`File too large, skipping` / `Binary file detected, skipping`). Fo

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/324) · 2026-08-14 · closed · external user · 1 comment

### init: no way to write MCP config to project-scope .mcp.json instead of global ~/.claude.json

## Summary

`trace-mcp init` always writes the MCP client configuration to the **global** config file (e.g. `~/.claude.json` for `claude-code`), even though the internal `getConfigPath` resolver already knows about a project-scoped path (`<root>/.mcp.json`). There's no flag to choose project scope.

## Why this matters

Some workflows want trace-mcp registered for one project only, without touching global Claude Code config that affects every other project on the machine (other projects, other r

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/282) · 2026-08-02 · closed · external user · 0 comments

### README: built-in benchmark_project tool is undiscoverable — no clear 'run this now' path

## Problem

The README's "Token reduction" section (lines ~157-220) shows impressive numbers (92.8% reduction) but never makes it obvious that:

1. trace-mcp ships a **working benchmark you can run right now** on your own project
2. The exact command to do it (`npx trace-mcp benchmark .`) is buried under a collapsed `<details><summary>Methodology</summary>` block that most readers won't open
3. There's no beginner-friendly explanation of what the benchmark actually measures, how to interpret the

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/277) · 2026-08-01 · closed · external user · 0 comments

### Indexer crashes with uncaught ENAMETOOLONG on self-referential directory symlinks (Ansible Molecule roles)

## Summary

`trace-mcp index <dir>` crashes with an **uncaught** `ENAMETOOLONG` when the project tree contains a directory symlink that resolves to one of its own ancestors (a filesystem cycle). The indexer follows the symlink and descends into it without cycle detection or a depth cap, so `fs.scandir` eventually receives a path that exceeds `PATH_MAX` and throws. Because the rejection is unhandled, the whole process dies via `triggerUncaughtException`.

This makes it impossible to index any rep

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/218) · 2026-07-01 · closed · external user · 1 comment

### The daemon keeps getting re-installed

I decided that I was going to use, at least for now, just the `trace-mcp serve` in each Claude session; therefore I removed `trace-mcp` from running as a daemon in MacOS (LaunchAgents). Nevertheless, it kept getting reinstalled.

The chain is:

Claude Code session starts → ~/.claude/hooks/trace-mcp-session-start.sh runs
The hook calls trace-mcp memory wake-up
That CLI command calls `tryAutoSpawnDaemon `(line 615 of lifecycle.ts) to ensure the HTTP daemon is up
Spawning` serve-http` calls `ensure

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/202) · 2026-06-07 · closed · outside contributor · 1 comment

### Topology scanning is synchronous, blocking the event loop

For large code bases, the topology scanning blocks the event loop, the MCP becomes unresponsive

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/198) · 2026-06-02 · closed · outside contributor · 1 comment

### Deleted folders and unregistered folder cause trace-mcp failure to start

When deleting a previous project folder or using trace-mcp in a harness I am experiencing the following issues:

Project not found: HOME_DIR, trace_mcp refuses to start
OR: Failed to load MCP 'trace-mcp': MCP error -32603: Backend send failed: Error: Streamable HTTP error: Error POSTing to endpoint: {"error":"Project not found: /Users/user"}

It would be great if these things can get fixed.

I did notice that agents try to circumvent your MCP entirely or blame it as "prompt injection", I am not 

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/168) · 2026-05-21 · closed · external user · 1 comment

### Plugin support: @tanstack/react-table

## Plugin request

**Package:** `@tanstack/react-table` (^8.21.3)
**Category:** ui
**Priority:** medium

This dependency is detected in my project but has no trace-mcp plugin coverage.

### Expected
A dedicated plugin that extracts framework-specific edges and metadata for `@tanstack/react-table`.

### Context
<!-- Describe how you use this package, what patterns you'd like traced -->

[Read the thread](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues/129) · 2026-05-03 · closed · external user · 1 comment

The remaining reports are on [the project's issue tracker](https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp/issues).