Agent skill

Trace

Evidence-driven tracing with competing hypotheses in parallel.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Trace

skills CLI

$ npx skills add zereight/gitlab-mcp --skill trace -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install zereight/gitlab-mcp trace --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/trace .claude/skills/trace && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Paste into Claude Code

Install the "trace" agent skill from https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp/tree/main/.github/skills/trace into .claude/skills/trace/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "trace", then confirm the skill loads.

Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

$skill-installer

$skill-installer install https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp/tree/main/.github/skills/trace

Type this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add zereight/gitlab-mcp --skill trace -a codex

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install zereight/gitlab-mcp trace --agent codex

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/trace .agents/skills/trace && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.

Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/

Paste into Codex

Install the "trace" agent skill from https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp/tree/main/.github/skills/trace into .agents/skills/trace/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "trace", then confirm the skill loads.

Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add zereight/gitlab-mcp --skill trace -a cursor

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install zereight/gitlab-mcp trace --agent cursor

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/trace .cursor/skills/trace && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.

Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/

Paste into Cursor

Install the "trace" agent skill from https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp/tree/main/.github/skills/trace into .cursor/skills/trace/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "trace", then confirm the skill loads.

Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

gemini skills install

$ gemini skills install https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp.git --path .github/skills/trace

--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add zereight/gitlab-mcp --skill trace -a gemini-cli

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install zereight/gitlab-mcp trace --agent gemini-cli

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/trace .gemini/skills/trace && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.

Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into Gemini CLI

Install the "trace" agent skill from https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp/tree/main/.github/skills/trace into .gemini/skills/trace/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "trace", then confirm the skill loads.

Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install zereight/gitlab-mcp trace

Installs for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

skills CLI

$ npx skills add zereight/gitlab-mcp --skill trace -a github-copilot

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/trace .github/skills/trace && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.

GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into GitHub Copilot

Install the "trace" agent skill from https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp/tree/main/.github/skills/trace into .github/skills/trace/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "trace", then confirm the skill loads.

GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add zereight/gitlab-mcp --skill trace -a opencode

OpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install zereight/gitlab-mcp trace --agent opencode

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/trace .opencode/skills/trace && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.

OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into OpenCode

Install the "trace" agent skill from https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp/tree/main/.github/skills/trace into .opencode/skills/trace/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "trace", then confirm the skill loads.

OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

Facts

Skill name: trace
GitHub stars: 2k
Used in: 1 other repo
Token cost: ~412 tokens
SKILL.md length: 125 words
Files: 1
Skills in repo: 24
Repo updated: Oct 6, 2026
First seen: Oct 7, 2026
Licence: MIT

At a glance

Evidence-driven tracing with competing hypotheses in parallel.

Works in 7 steps: Restate the observed result precisely → Generate 3 deliberately different… → Assign @tracer to each hypothesis lane → …
Says: trace this
SKILL.md covers Good Entry Cases, Core Contract, Workflow and Output
Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Trace is an agent skill from zereight/gitlab-mcp. Evidence-driven tracing with competing hypotheses in parallel. Activate when user says: trace this, trace, why did this happen, root cause analysis, investigate why.

Its SKILL.md is about 410 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Development, covering Root cause analysis. The repository describes itself as: First gitlab mcp for you, building together. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

Says: trace this
Why did this happen
Root cause analysis
Investigate why

Example prompts

“/trace”

Workflow steps

7 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

Restate the observed result precisely
Generate 3 deliberately different hypotheses
Assign @tracer to each hypothesis lane
Each lane: evidence for, evidence against, critical unknown, discriminating probe
Apply lenses: Systems, Premortem, Science
Rebuttal round between top two hypotheses
Rank, detect convergence, synthesize

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 0109168. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Trace loads about 412 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 43 tokens; SKILL.md has 125 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it: ~43
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches: ~412

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from zereight/gitlab-mcp at commit 0109168, republished under its MIT licence (© zereight). 125 words, ~412 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/trace/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).

name: trace
description: Evidence-driven tracing with competing hypotheses in parallel. Activate when user says: trace this, trace, why did this happen, root cause analysis, investigate why.
argument-hint: <observation to trace>

Trace

Evidence-driven causal tracing using competing hypotheses. Use for ambiguous, causal, evidence-heavy questions where the goal is to explain WHY something happened.

Good Entry Cases

Runtime bugs and regressions
Performance / latency behavior
Architecture / premortem / postmortem analysis
Config / routing / orchestration behavior
"Given this output, trace back the likely causes"

Core Contract

Always preserve: Observation → Hypotheses → Evidence For → Evidence Against → Best Explanation → Critical Unknown → Discriminating Probe

Workflow

Restate the observed result precisely
Generate 3 deliberately different hypotheses:
- Code-path / implementation cause
- Config / environment / orchestration cause
- Measurement / artifact / assumption mismatch
Assign @tracer to each hypothesis lane
Each lane: evidence for, evidence against, critical unknown, discriminating probe
Apply lenses: Systems, Premortem, Science
Rebuttal round between top two hypotheses
Rank, detect convergence, synthesize

Output

### Observed Result
[What happened]

### Ranked Hypotheses
| Rank | Hypothesis | Confidence | Evidence Strength |
|------|------------|------------|-------------------|

### Most Likely Explanation
[Current best explanation]

### Critical Unknown
[Single missing fact]

### Recommended Discriminating Probe
[Single next probe]

Files

Just SKILL.md in .github/skills/trace of zereight/gitlab-mcp.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 0109168

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in zereight/gitlab-mcp, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

jmstar85/oh-my-githubcopilot.github/skills/trace

Compare with similar skills

Trace next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Trace compared with similar skills
Skill	Stars	Used in	Tokens	Auto-check	Licence	Repo updated
Trace this skillzereight/gitlab-mcp	2k	1 repos	~412	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	yesterday
Code Design Rationale Investigatorcursor/plugins	10k	9 repos	~2.6k	Automated safety check: Pass	None	today
OpenLogi macOS Permissions TriageAprilNEA/OpenLogi	23k	—	~2.5k	Automated safety check: Notes	Apache-2.0	3 days ago
Bug Finder for daisyUIsaadeghi/daisyui	43k	—	~2.3k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	7 days ago
Root Cause Debugginggarrytan/gstack	136k	—	~1.4k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	today
Graph-Based Bug Tracingtirth8205/code-review-graph	32k	1 repos	~287	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	today

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Code Design Rationale Investigator
cursor/plugins
Official
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10k GitHub starsUsed in 9 repos~2.6k tokens
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Decides whether an OpenLogi device problem on macOS is a privacy-permission (TCC) problem, using agent log lines, and says which identity needs which grant.
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Root Cause Debugging
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Investigates bugs, errors and stack traces in phases and requires a root-cause hypothesis to be confirmed before any fix is written.
136k GitHub stars~1.4k tokensUpdated today
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Graph-Based Bug Tracing
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Questions about Trace

What does Trace do?

Evidence-driven tracing with competing hypotheses in parallel. Trace is an agent skill from zereight/gitlab-mcp. Evidence-driven tracing with competing hypotheses in parallel.

When should I use Trace?

Trace fits situations like: says: trace this; why did this happen; root cause analysis; investigate why.

How do I install Trace in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add zereight/gitlab-mcp --skill trace -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.github/skills/trace in zereight/gitlab-mcp) into .claude/skills/trace in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Trace in Codex?

Run `npx skills add zereight/gitlab-mcp --skill trace -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.github/skills/trace in zereight/gitlab-mcp) into .agents/skills/trace in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Trace in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add zereight/gitlab-mcp --skill trace -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/trace, .gemini/skills/trace, .github/skills/trace and .opencode/skills/trace in your project.

What does Trace need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Trace is instructions for the agent only.

Does Trace access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Trace safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Trace use?

Trace is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Trace use?

About 412 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 1.6k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Trace?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Trace: Code Design Rationale Investigator (cursor/plugins, 10k stars), OpenLogi macOS Permissions Triage (AprilNEA/OpenLogi, 23k stars), Bug Finder for daisyUI (saadeghi/daisyui, 43k stars) and Root Cause Debugging (garrytan/gstack, 136k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Trace?

zereight (a GitHub user) maintains it in zereight/gitlab-mcp, which has 2,027 GitHub stars. The repository holds 24 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 6, 2026.

Source: zereight/gitlab-mcp on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.

Trace

Install Trace

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Workflow steps

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

Trace

Good Entry Cases

Core Contract

Workflow

Output

Files

Used in 1 other repository

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

Code Design Rationale Investigator

OpenLogi macOS Permissions Triage

Bug Finder for daisyUI

Root Cause Debugging

Graph-Based Bug Tracing

Om Auto Fix Issue

More from zereight/gitlab-mcp

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Cross-Language Coding Standards

Remember Project Knowledge

Pre-Commit Security Scan

Skill Inventory Stocktake

Questions about Trace

Install Trace

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Workflow steps

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

Trace

Good Entry Cases

Core Contract

Workflow

Output

Files

Used in 1 other repository

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

More from zereight/gitlab-mcp

Related

Questions about Trace