Is the Trace MCP skill free?

Yes. The skill itself is free from nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.

What is the Trace MCP SkillProof Score?

8.0/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 6/10, docs & honesty 4/5.

How do I install Trace MCP?

Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.

Can I use Trace MCP with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?

The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.

Trace MCP

Routes code exploration to a code-graph MCP server instead of grep/read.

by nikolai-vysotskyi · nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp

Works with setup

Install — copy the command Download source ↗

Test report

Verdict: Works with setup
Score: 8.0/10
Tested: Jul 13, 2026
Environment: Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
Upstream re-checked: Jul 18, 2026 · ab3b075

Well-designed decision matrix (20+ tools mapped to tasks), but it's a pure routing skill for a separate trace-mcp MCP server — with that server not connected, Claude just falls back to grep anyway, which is exactly what happened in this test on a small repo.

Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works

Installs cleanly 5/5
Triggers reliably 5/5
Output vs. baseline 6/10
Docs & honesty 4/5

What Trace MCP does

A routing skill that redirects code navigation, impact analysis, and call-graph queries to the trace-mcp MCP server instead of native Read/Grep/Bash. Triggers whenever the agent needs to explore, understand, or modify a codebase that has trace-mcp indexed, and ships a token-efficiency decision matrix mapping common tasks (find a symbol, trace a request flow, check change impact) to specific tools.

How to install Trace MCP

git clone https://github.com/nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp
cd trace-mcp
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r skills/trace-mcp ~/.claude/skills/trace-mcp

Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ (per-project). Restart Claude Code after installing.

Commands — how to trigger Trace MCP

/trace-mcp Routes code exploration to a code-graph MCP server instead of grep/read.

It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:

Find where this function is defined and everywhere it's called
Trace the request flow through this codebase for the checkout endpoint
What's the impact if I change this shared utility function

Frequently asked questions

Is the Trace MCP skill free?: Yes. The skill itself is free from nikolai-vysotskyi/trace-mcp. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
Does Trace MCP work with Claude Code?: We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 13, 2026. Verdict: Works with setup. Well-designed decision matrix (20+ tools mapped to tasks), but it's a pure routing skill for a separate trace-mcp MCP server — with that server not connected, Claude just falls back to grep anyway, which is exactly what happened in this test on a small repo.
What is the Trace MCP SkillProof Score?: 8.0/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 6/10, docs & honesty 4/5.
How do I install Trace MCP?: Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
Can I use Trace MCP with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?: The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.