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Trace for agents · Free

Your agent should know what tech is doing today.

Paste one URL into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI. Sign in with Google, click Allow, and your agent reads today’s top tech stories, notable builds and practitioner conversations. No key to copy.

https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp
  • Read only
  • Free for everyone
  • MCP with Google sign-in

How it
works

  1. Paste the URL

    Into any MCP client that supports remote servers.

  2. Sign in once

    With Google, then click Allow. No key to copy.

  3. Just ask

    “What happened in tech today?” Your agent picks the tool.

Step 1

Paste the URL into your app

Any MCP client that supports remote servers works. Most take just the URL: https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp

Claude

Web and desktop
  1. Open Connectors: Customize in the sidebar, or Settings → Connectors on some versions.
  2. Click + Add, then “Add custom connector”.
  3. Name it Trace, paste the URL and click Continue.
https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp

ChatGPT

Paid plans, developer mode
  1. Turn on Developer mode: Settings → Security and login (older versions: Settings → Apps → Advanced settings).
  2. Open Plugins (or Apps) and click + or Create.
  3. Name it Trace, paste the URL and click Create.
https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http trace https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp

Then run /mcp, pick trace and sign in.

Cursor

~/.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trace": {
      "url": "https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}
Or add to Cursor in one click

Codex

codex mcp add trace --url https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp

If no browser opens, run codex mcp login trace.

Gemini CLI

gemini mcp add --transport http trace https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp

If it asks, run /mcp auth trace inside Gemini CLI.

Coding agents

Or let your agent add Trace itself.

Paste this into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or Gemini CLI. It adds the server; you sign in once when it connects.

Add the Trace MCP server for me.

1. Add a remote MCP server named "trace" with URL https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp (Streamable HTTP), using my client's native MCP setup.
2. There is no API key: Trace uses OAuth. When the connection needs it, I'll sign in with Google in my browser and click Allow.
3. Verify it works by fetching today's top 3 tech stories from Trace and summarizing each in one line.

Notes: the server is read-only. Machine-readable setup docs: https://www.yourtrace.online/agents/llms.txt

Step 2

Sign in once

You can also get the daily brief by email. The Allow page has a box, ticked by default, that sends you Trace’s morning brief around 8:30am UK time. Unsubscribe from any email and your agent keeps access. If your daily email is off, connecting leaves it off.

To disconnect, remove Trace from your app, which deletes its sign-in there. Access tokens last an hour, and a sign-in that goes unused for 90 days stops working.

Tools

Then just ask

“What happened in tech today?” “Any new open-source tools worth a look?” Your agent picks the tool. All four are read-only and return up to 20 items.

  • get_daily_tech_briefTop news, builds and conversations in one answer
  • get_top_tech_newsThe biggest technology and AI stories, grouped across sources
  • get_latest_buildsOpen-source projects, launches and developer tools
  • get_tech_conversationsTechnical discussions worth paying attention to

A skill for personal agents

Teach a personal agent when and how to fetch your brief. The skill works in Claude Code and any agent that reads SKILL.md files.

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/trace-tech-brief
curl -fsSL -o ~/.claude/skills/trace-tech-brief/SKILL.md \
  https://www.yourtrace.online/agents/skill.md
Read the skill file

Advanced

Header-based access with an Agent Key

For bots, scripts and clients that can’t open a sign-in page. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer … to the MCP server or the HTTPS brief endpoint. The URL above doesn’t need one.

Checking your sign-in…

Configs that use an Agent Key

Codex

export TRACE_AGENT_KEY="your_key_here"
codex mcp add trace \
  --url https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp \
  --bearer-token-env-var TRACE_AGENT_KEY

MCP clients with headers

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trace": {
      "url": "https://www.yourtrace.online/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${TRACE_AGENT_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Custom agents and bots (HTTPS)

curl "https://www.yourtrace.online/api/agents/brief?limit=8" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRACE_AGENT_KEY"

Delivery channels

Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack

Trace supplies the intelligence. Your bot or agent decides where to send it. Any system that can call MCP or HTTPS can fetch the brief and post it into the channel you already use.

Permissions

What the connection can access

Allowed

  • Today’s structured Trace feed
  • Grouped news, builds, and conversations
  • Summaries, takeaways, timestamps, and source links

Never allowed

  • Changing your Trace account
  • Publishing, purchasing, or writing data
  • Access after the key is revoked

Machine-readable setup notes: /agents/llms.txt · Privacy policy

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