Question 1

What is MCP Trace Observatory?

Accepted Answer

MCP Trace Observatory is an AI-First observability platform for debugging and understanding AI agents. It visualizes tool calls, arguments, latency, failures, and retries in real-time. Think of it as a telescope that lets you see inside any AI's mind.

Question 2

What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

Accepted Answer

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a standard for AI agents to communicate with tools and resources. It defines how agents discover, call, and receive results from external capabilities. MCP enables interoperability between different AI systems and tool providers.

Question 3

How do I send traces to MCP Trace?

Accepted Answer

Send traces via our REST API at POST /api/v1/traces. Include trace metadata (name, agent, model) and spans (individual operations). Traces can be sent in real-time as they execute or after completion. See our documentation at /docs for full API reference.

Question 4

What is a trace versus a span?

Accepted Answer

A trace represents a complete operation or workflow - like an AI agent completing a task. A span is a single step within that trace - like one tool call. Traces contain multiple spans arranged in a tree structure showing parent-child relationships.

Question 5

What is the AI Health Score?

Accepted Answer

The AI Health Score (0-100) is an automatic quality assessment for each trace. It considers factors like: execution time, error rate, retry count, tool efficiency, and anomaly detection. Higher scores indicate healthier, more efficient agent behavior.

Question 6

What is Plain English Mode?

Accepted Answer

Plain English Mode transforms technical jargon into simple explanations that anyone can understand - even a 5th grader. Toggle it on to see 'tool calls' become 'superpowers' and 'spans' become 'steps'. It makes AI behavior accessible to everyone.

Question 7

How does Time Travel Debugging work?

Accepted Answer

Time Travel lets you pause at any span, fork the trace, change arguments, and compare 'what actually happened' vs 'what would have happened'. It's like a debugging time machine that shows counterfactual scenarios.

Question 8

What is the Platphorm News Network?

Accepted Answer

The Platphorm News Network is a federation of 90+ sites powered by MCP. It includes 18 MCP-enabled sites with 71 tools, 16 resources, and 23 prompts. MCP Trace Observatory is part of this network.

Question 9

Is MCP Trace free to use?

Accepted Answer

Yes! MCP Trace is free and open source. Public traces are visible to everyone. Optional API keys provide higher rate limits for production use. The platform is built for the community by the community.

Question 10

What languages and frameworks are supported?

Accepted Answer

MCP Trace accepts standard OpenTelemetry-compatible trace data via REST API. Any language or framework that can make HTTP requests can send traces. We provide examples for JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Go, and Rust in our documentation.

Question 11

How do I export traces for postmortems?

Accepted Answer

Export any trace via GET /api/v1/traces/{traceId}/export with format=json or format=markdown. JSON exports include all raw data. Markdown exports create human-readable postmortem documents with AI-generated summaries and recommendations.

Question 12

Who created MCP Trace Observatory?

Accepted Answer

MCP Trace Observatory was created by Michael Barbine as part of the Platphorm News Network (https://platphormnews.com). It integrates with the MCP Hub at https://mcp.platphormnews.com and the JSON API at https://json.platphormnews.com/api/mcp.

faq.title

faq.stillHaveQuestions

?What is MCP Trace Observatory?

?What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

?How do I send traces to MCP Trace?

?What is a trace versus a span?

?What is the AI Health Score?

?What is Plain English Mode?

?How does Time Travel Debugging work?

?What is the Platphorm News Network?

?Is MCP Trace free to use?

?What languages and frameworks are supported?

?How do I export traces for postmortems?

?Who created MCP Trace Observatory?

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