---
id: zereight/gitlab-mcp/trace
version: "1017a8e8"
license: MIT
install: manual
updated: 2026-07-27
---

# trace — Trace systematically investigates why something happened by generating competing hypotheses and evaluating evidence for and against each one. It's built for ambiguous causal questions—runtime bugs, performance regressions, and architecture issues—where you need to explain the most likely explanation. The skill structures your investigation through observation, hypothesis generation, evidence gathering, and discriminating probes.

Publisher: zereight · Stars: 1847 · Updated: 2026-07-27

Install (manual): `git clone https://github.com/zereight/gitlab-mcp`

## SKILL.md

# 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
1. Restate the observed result precisely
2. Generate 3 deliberately different hypotheses:
   - Code-path / implementation cause
   - Config / environment / orchestration cause
   - Measurement / artifact / assumption mismatch
3. Assign @tracer to each hypothesis lane
4. Each lane: evidence for, evidence against, critical unknown, discriminating probe
5. Apply lenses: Systems, Premortem, Science
6. Rebuttal round between top two hypotheses
7. 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]
```


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