Mike Trace
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Investigation infrastructure for developers & AI agents

TRACK.TRACE.TARGET.TACKLE.

Mike Trace keeps the evidence behind every software investigation in one durable case file, so you and your AI coding agents work through bugs systematically and spend less time reconstructing what was already learned.

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Works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Claude Desktop and other MCP-compatible agents.

Mission Control · illustrative preview

The problem

Debugging keeps starting over.

AI coding agents can move fast, but investigations rarely survive the session they happened in. The evidence lives in scrollback, screenshots and memory, and it is gone when you need it most.

01

Context evaporates

A session ends, a chat resets, a laptop closes. What was tried, what was ruled out and why goes with it.

02

Claims pass for evidence

"It should be fixed now" gets treated like proof. Without a record of what was actually observed, it is hard to tell the difference.

03

Agents repeat each other

The next agent, or the next teammate, re-runs the same dead ends because nothing told them those paths were already explored.

Engineering time

Spend more cycles building. Fewer cycles rediscovering.

Debugging time isn't only spent finding defects. It's spent reproducing failures, rebuilding context, retracing code paths, repeating failed approaches, and handing investigations between people and agents. Mike Trace preserves evidence and investigation state so each debugging cycle can build on the last.

  • Reproducing failures
  • Rebuilding context
  • Retracing code paths
  • Repeating failed approaches
  • Handing investigations between people and agents
Traditional investigation
  1. Reproduce
  2. Search
  3. Guess
  4. Test

Lose context

Start again

With Mike Trace
  1. TRACK
  2. TRACE
  3. TARGET
  4. TACKLE

Evidence accumulates

Verified outcome

Investigation survives

A conceptual comparison, not a literal account of every investigation. The difference is what survives between attempts.

The goal isn't to make debugging disappear. It's to stop paying for the same investigation twice.

The workflow

TRACK → TRACE → TARGET → TACKLE

Every investigation in Mike Trace moves through the same four stages, and what each stage learns carries forward into the next. Humans and agents always know where a bug stands, what has already been tried and what comes next.

Capture the problem and the first evidence.

Open a case for the failure and record what was observed, what was expected, screenshots, and the environment it happened in. That starting evidence stays with the case for every investigator who follows.

  • Human reports are kept in their own words
  • Screenshots and observations attach to the case
  • Expected versus observed is recorded up front

In practice

Debug like you normally do. Keep the investigation.

Mike Trace works alongside your coding agent. Ask the agent to investigate with Mike Trace, reproduce the problem, and let the evidence accumulate with the case.

  1. Developer
  2. Coding agent
  3. Mike Trace
  4. Evidence
  5. Answer

No separate debugging ritual. No investigation document to maintain by hand. The agent investigates; Mike Trace preserves the trail.

  1. Developer

    Codex, use Mike Trace to find this bug. The image loads correctly, but the generated stones are smaller and shifted toward the top-left.

  2. Codex

    I'll open a Mike Trace case and trace the failing path before changing code.

  3. Mike Trace Case MT-0009

    • TRACK Symptom captured
    • TRACE Render path confirmed
    • TRACE Previous attempted path disproved
    • TARGET DPI / coordinate boundary
  4. Codex

    The evidence points to a DPI mismatch at the coordinate conversion boundary. I'm testing that hypothesis against the failing reproduction before changing the implementation.

  5. Mike Trace Case MT-0009

    • + Evidence added
    • TARGET Hypothesis supported
    • TACKLE Fix tested
    • TACKLE Verification recorded
  6. Codex

    Cause confirmed. The stones were being converted using a DPI that didn't match the image they were positioned against. The correction passed the targeted regression test. The evidence and investigation history remain attached to the case.

  7. Developer

    Done.

Illustrative walkthrough of the intended workflow. The case number and session are examples, not a recorded customer investigation.

Evidence-first

Evidence stays separate from opinions.

Mike Trace keeps what was reported, what was observed and what was concluded apart. A confident claim never quietly becomes the answer. Conclusions have to be backed by evidence before an investigation can be closed.

  1. What someone said "The total looks wrong after I remove the coupon."
  2. What was observed Screenshot: total $84.10, expected $89.00
  3. What the evidence supports Recalculation is skipped when the coupon list empties
  4. What was verified Fresh capture after the fix shows the correct total

Human words, preserved

Bug reports are kept exactly as written, next to the evidence, so the original intent is never paraphrased away.

Agents show their work

When an agent proposes a cause, the evidence it relied on sits right beside it, ready for a human or another agent to review.

Verification means proof

"Fixed" is backed by fresh evidence gathered after the change, not by a status message.

The case

Every investigation gets a case file.

In Mike Trace, each problem gets a case: a persistent record with its own reference, like MT-0142. The fix matters. So does everything you learned getting there. A case preserves both, no matter who investigated it or how many sessions it took.

MT-0142 Your account › Storefront › Checkout
  • Symptoms & reports What went wrong, in the reporter’s own words.
  • Evidence Screenshots, runtime observations, code and environment context.
  • Explanations Every theory considered, including the ones ruled out.
  • Attempts What was tried and what happened, so every failed attempt makes the next one more informed.
  • Current handoff Where things stand and the next best step.
  • Resolution The cause, the fix and the proof that it worked.

Organized the way you already work

Cases live inside projects, projects inside workspaces, and everything inside your own account. Structure stays clear as investigations pile up.

Account Workspace Project Case

Multi-agent continuity

A handoff shouldn't mean a restart.

Investigations outlive any single session or agent. Don't restart the investigation when the agent changes: the next one picks up from the latest handoff, with the evidence, attempts and open questions already in front of it.

  1. Codex Monday

    Opens MT-0142, captures the failing checkout and records two possible explanations.

  2. Codex Monday

    Rules one explanation out with evidence and leaves a handoff with the next step.

  3. Claude Code Tuesday

    Picks up the case, reads the handoff and continues from the open explanation.

  4. You Tuesday

    Reviews the evidence, approves the fix and sees it verified before closing.

One agent at a time

Mike Trace keeps track of who is actively investigating a case, so agents don't collide or overwrite each other's work.

Evidence belongs to the case

Everything gathered stays with the investigation, not with the agent that collected it. Change agents without losing the trail.

Mix and match agents

Start in one tool, continue in another. An authorized connected agent can pick up the case with the investigation history intact.

Agent integrations

Your agents do the coding. Mike Trace keeps the case.

Mike Trace is not another coding assistant. It is the investigation layer your existing agents work through, connected over the Model Context Protocol (MCP), so investigation context keeps moving forward when you switch tools.

  • Claude Code Coding agent MCP · browser approval
  • Codex Coding agent MCP · browser approval
  • Cursor AI code editor MCP · browser approval
  • Claude Desktop Desktop assistant MCP · OAuth sign-in
  • Other MCP clients Any MCP-compatible agent MCP · OAuth or browser approval
Working with agents About MCP

Reasoning vs. investigation

Your AI can reason. Mike Trace gives it an investigation system.

Modern AI agents can read code, form hypotheses, run commands, and propose fixes. Reasoning ability alone doesn't automatically provide a consistent debugging environment.

During a difficult investigation, an agent may need to determine what evidence to collect, how to observe a failing boundary, how to compare known-good and failing behavior, how to preserve what has already been disproved, and how to carry that evidence forward when the investigation moves between sessions or agents.

Mike Trace provides that investigation layer. It equips connected AI agents with purpose-built debugging capabilities designed for machine investigators. Instead of rebuilding an investigation strategy from scratch each time, an agent can work through a structured system for gathering evidence, testing hypotheses, observing software behavior, preserving failed attempts, and verifying outcomes.

The AI is the investigator. Mike Trace is the investigation system.

The agent still does the reasoning. Mike Trace gives that reasoning somewhere to work — and it doesn't simply dump more logs into the model's context. Its role is to preserve and structure investigation evidence so agents can reason from what has actually been observed.

AI alone
  1. Problem
  2. Agent reasoning
  3. Decide what to inspect
  4. Assemble / adapt debugging techniques
  5. Gather observations
  6. Keep context in the current session
  7. Reason about cause

Capable reasoning — but each session still has to invent how the investigation proceeds.

AI + Mike Trace
  1. Problem
  2. Agent reasoning

  3. Mike Trace investigation layer

    • Structured observation capabilities
    • Evidence collection
    • Hypothesis testing support
    • Investigation state
    • Failed-attempt memory
    • Verification evidence
    • Cross-agent continuity
  4. Evidence-supported conclusion

Same reasoning ability — now working through repeatable investigation infrastructure.

A conceptual comparison, not a claim that AI without Mike Trace cannot debug. The difference is whether each agent and session has to improvise the investigation process.

Designed for agents

Built for AI investigators

Traditional debugging tools were primarily designed around a human developer manually operating them.

Mike Trace's investigation capabilities are designed so authorized AI agents can request observations, receive structured evidence, preserve investigation state, and continue from evidence gathered by another investigator.

The objective isn't to replace the intelligence of the model. It's to give that intelligence better instrumentation, durable evidence, and an investigation process built for agent-driven software development.

Historical knowledge

History suggests. Evidence proves.

Resolved cases don't disappear. They turn debugging history into engineering context: routes that led somewhere before, boundaries already understood, and approaches that already failed. A past cause is a lead, never a verdict. The current investigation still has to establish its own cause with current evidence.

Useful routes

Earlier investigations show where similar problems were found before, and what it took to confirm them.

Known dead ends

Failed approaches stay on record, so the next investigator can see what was already ruled out before repeating it.

Current proof required

History can point the way, but it is never reused as the answer. Today's cause is established by today's evidence.

Over time your cases become a body of knowledge about how your systems actually fail, with attribution intact even after an agent is disconnected or replaced. Less time goes into reconstructing what your team already learned.

Security & isolation

Built with clear boundaries.

Investigation records often contain sensitive details about your systems. Mike Trace is designed so the right people and the right agents see them, and nobody else.

Isolated accounts

Every investigation lives inside your own account and project. Nothing is shared across customers.

You approve every agent

Agents connect only after you approve them in your browser, for a specific project. No tokens pasted into terminals.

Scoped, expiring access

Agent access is limited to investigation work and expires. Disconnect or replace an agent at any time.

Humans stay in charge

Mike Trace records recovery decisions but never executes changes itself. Authorizing risky actions stays with people.

Early Access · Research Program

Bring us your real bugs.

We're opening Mike Trace to the first 100 developers for three months at no cost.

Use Mike Trace on the software you already build and debug. We're looking for real-world investigations across different languages, frameworks, agents, authentication systems and development environments.

In return, help us learn where Mike Trace works, where it gets in the way, and what needs to improve.

  • 100 developers First research cohort
  • 3 months No-cost access
  • Real investigations Not scripted demos
  • No commitment Decide afterward whether to subscribe
Join Early Access

No cost for 3 months · No obligation to subscribe

Participation includes product research. Research & Data Notice

Limited to the first 100 developers.

Built in real investigations. Tested in yours.

Mike Trace has been shaped through real debugging work. The Early Access Research Program expands that testing across different codebases, languages, tools and environments.

We want to understand how investigation techniques transfer across stacks, where agents need better evidence, where integrations create friction, and how well investigation context survives between agents and sessions.

Testing across

  • Programming languages
  • Frameworks
  • Coding agents
  • Authentication systems
  • Development environments
  • Deployment environments
  • Debugging scenarios
  • Application architectures

Your next investigation shouldn't start from zero.

  1. TRACK
  2. TRACE
  3. TARGET
  4. TACKLE

Keep the evidence, the attempts and the reasoning behind every fix, so you and your agents spend more engineering time building and less on investigative repetition.

Get Started View pricing

Basic

Planned pricing

For individual developers getting started with Mike Trace.

$5.99 /month
Get Started

Pro

Recommended Planned pricing

For developers using Mike Trace regularly with multiple agents and more advanced investigation capabilities.

$29.99 /month
Go Pro

Enterprise

For teams and organizations that need multi-user operation, governance, larger agent deployments, organizational controls, and enterprise support.

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Contact Sales