Changelog

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Trace 1.4.0-beta — June 2026

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New Features

• Matched Length Groups — A first-class, persisted PCB object that ties a set of nets together and length-matches them to a shared target (the longest member, an explicit length, or a matched-length DRC constraint), with configurable tolerance and optional time-domain (delay) matching. Handles signals split by series termination resistors (the group sums across the nets), shows a live per-signal status overlay, is editable in the Properties panel, and is flagged by DRC when out of tolerance. Create it from Route → Create Matched Length Group, the track-tuning toolbar, or the Net Inspector. Tuning any member with the length tuner (7) automatically matches it to the group’s target. See Length Tuning & Matched Length Groups.
• AI length matching — Ask the assistant to “length-match the DDR data lines” via the new match_lengths tool, including nets split across series resistors.

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Trace 1.4.0-beta — May 2026

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New Features

• Design Review — AI-powered pre-flight check in the Send to Manufacturer dialog. Uses a streaming agent session to run DRC violations analysis and signal path tracing. Shows an “Issues Found — Send to Chat” button when problems are identified.
• DRC Import — Upload any .kicad_dru file, name the manufacturer, and constraints are auto-written to TraceRules for AI awareness.
• Custom DRC Handling — AI uses custom constraints from rules.md directly, skipping preset lookup when a custom manufacturer is configured.
• TraceRules (.trace/rules.md) — Project-specific AI preferences that persist across sessions. Set placement strategy, preferred manufacturer, passive sizes, naming conventions, and more.
• Workspace Context (.trace/context.md) — AI-maintained design notebook that persists learnings across conversations.
• In-app TraceRules Editor — Edit your project rules directly in the chat panel. Open in Finder/Explorer for manual editing.
• Team Workspace Selector — Switch between personal and team workspaces in the desktop app. Each workspace has its own AI context and conversation history.
• Bring Your Own Manufacturer — Connect your own fab partner via their API. Trace validates designs against your manufacturer’s specific process capabilities.
• Real-time DFM Validation — AI auto-loads manufacturer constraints from TraceRules and validates during design.
• Context Window Meter — Shows remaining capacity during conversations.

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Manufacturing

• Payment via Stripe for PCB orders
• PCBWay and Pikkolo order tracking
• AI autofill for manufacturer parameters
• BOM enrichment improvements
• DRC Switcher for manufacturer presets
• Better error detail parsing from manufacturer responses

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Security

• Sandboxed grep and list_dir tools to project directory only
• Quota enforcement thread safety fix
• Upgraded mermaid, dompurify, lodash-es to patch CVEs

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Improvements

• Free-plan mode switch UX: uses banner instead of fake activity status
• list_dir tool improvements for better project navigation
• Path resolution fix for subdirectory files (e.g., .trace/rules.md)
• .md files added to allowed extensions for project context
• team_id sent with all AI requests for team-scoped conversations
• Windows build fixes

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Trace 1.3.2 — May 2026

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New Features

• TraceRules (.trace/rules.md) — Project-specific AI preferences that persist across sessions. Set placement strategy, preferred manufacturer, passive sizes, naming conventions, and more. The AI loads these rules at the start of every conversation.
• Workspace Context (.trace/context.md) — AI-maintained design notebook that persists learnings across conversations. The AI updates this as it learns about your project.
• In-app TraceRules Editor — Edit your project rules directly in the chat panel. Open in Finder/Explorer for manual editing.
• Team Workspace Selector — Switch between personal and team workspaces in the desktop app. Each workspace has its own AI context and conversation history.
• Bring Your Own Manufacturer — Connect your own fab partner via their API. Trace validates designs against your manufacturer’s specific process capabilities.
• Real-time DFM Validation — AI auto-loads manufacturer constraints from TraceRules and validates during design.

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Improvements

• Context window meter shows remaining capacity during conversations
• list_dir tool improvements for better project navigation
• Path resolution fix for subdirectory files (e.g., .trace/rules.md)
• .md files added to allowed extensions for project context

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Manufacturing

• PCBWay order flow refinements
• Pikkolo Assembly integration updates
• AI autofill for manufacturer parameters
• BOM enrichment improvements

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Trace 1.3.1 — May 2026

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Team Workspaces

Team-scoped views are now functional across the dashboard. When you switch to your team workspace:

• Projects show shared team conversations (all members can view)
• Usage shows per-member breakdown (owners/admins see who used what)
• Orders show all team members’ manufacturing orders
• Billing accurately reflects team subscription context

Team data is isolated — personal workspace only shows your own projects (never team content).

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Security Improvements

• WebSocket notifications now use first-message authentication (JWT no longer exposed in URLs/logs)
• Token refresh is deduplicated — expired tokens trigger exactly one refresh instead of a thundering herd
• All team-scoped API endpoints verify membership server-side before returning data
• localStorage caches are cleared on logout (prevents data leakage between users on shared devices)

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Performance

• Profile data centralized in context (eliminates 3-5 duplicate /user/profile fetches per page load)
• In-flight GET request deduplication (simultaneous identical requests are coalesced)
• N+1 query fix for team member enrichment (batch profile fetch)
• Loading skeletons match exact page structure (no layout shift)

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Desktop App

• Added team_id parameter to chat requests (backward-compatible, defaults to personal)
• Ready for team-scoped conversations in a future release

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Web Dashboard

• Project thumbnails: AI-generated abstract art for every project card (Gemini)
• Full conversation history viewer with message timeline
• Daily rate limit for web sessions (25 requests/day, ask mode only)
• Crash reporting: opt-in dialog with batched notifications to the team

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Billing

• Stripe proration on plan upgrades (pay only the difference)
• On-demand credits: dollar-based billing ($20/$40 packs, actual token cost deducted)
• Per-seat team billing with automatic quantity sync

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Trace 1.3.0 — May 2026

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KiCad 10 Foundation

Trace 1.3 is built on the stable KiCad 10.0.0 release, bringing all upstream improvements.

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DRC Rule Editor

A new visual DRC Rule Editor for creating and managing PCB design rules. Build rules through constraint panels instead of writing custom expressions. Includes Scintilla autocomplete, dynamic unit labels, matched-length skew constraints, and courtyard bitmap references.

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Design Variants

Full design variant support for managing alternate board configurations. Variant text variables in drawing sheets, variant-aware footprint properties, CLI --variant flag for all PCB exports (Gerber, STEP, SVG, PDF, DXF, IPC-2581, ODB++), plot dialog variant dropdown, and Altium project variant import.

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New EDA Importers

• gEDA / Lepton EDA — Import schematic files with 39 built-in symbol mappings and an 11-step symbol resolution chain
• Cadence Allegro v18+ — Binary format import with footprints, vias, padstacks, zone fills, teardrops, differential pairs, and constraint sets
• Mentor PADS — ASCII format import for PCB layouts and schematics
• Altium — Expanded file extension support and variant import

See the Importing from Other EDA Tools guide.

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.tracerules (Beta)

Define custom rules that shape how the AI designs your circuits. Create a .tracerules file in your project root with your preferences — component choices, layout conventions, manufacturing targets, schematic style — and the AI follows them automatically in every conversation. Like .cursorrules for hardware. See the .tracerules documentation for details and examples.

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Signal Path Tracing

New signal path analysis engine that traces connectivity through hierarchical sheets and PCB nets. Improves the AI’s ability to understand multi-sheet designs with complex bus routing and sheet-to-sheet connections.

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Multi-Agent Orchestrator

The AI now runs a multi-agent orchestrator that parallelizes server-side research tasks (web search, parts search, symbol search, footprint search) before handing results to the main agent. This significantly reduces latency for complex requests.

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Extended Thinking

The AI’s reasoning process is now visible in real-time with a 10,000-token thinking budget per step. Collapsible thinking blocks show how the AI analyzes your design, considers tradeoffs, and plans its approach.

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IPC-2581 Improvements

• BomRef and AvlRef elements for approved vendor lists
• Board profile cutouts for internal routing
• Multi-outline geometry merging
• Pin 1 orientation inference from pin position
• Synthesized stable reference designators
• Schematic revision metadata in BOM output

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New DRC Check

• Track endpoints not centered on via — Detects misaligned track-to-via connections from the interactive router

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New ERC Check

• Local labels with no local pin connections — Flags labels on a sheet that don’t connect to any pin on that sheet

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Rendering & Performance

• 3D Viewer stencil buffer for correct export FBO rendering
• Improved zone fill parallelism and indexing
• Parallelized NearestObstacle computation for routing
• Rate-limited OpenGL redraws reducing GPU utilization
• OpenGL context recovery after sleep/wake

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PCB Editor

• Backdrill sizes in Track & Via Properties dialog
• Zone merge with different priorities
• Negative outset values for insetting zone boundaries
• Negative silkscreen clearance values
• Search pane copy context menu
• Rule areas in Edit → Attributes menu
• GLAD replaces GLEW for OpenGL (runtime GLX/EGL selection on Linux)
• EGL canvas support on wxWidgets 3.3.2+ (Wayland)

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One-Click Manufacturing

Submit your design to PCB fabs and assembly houses directly from inside Trace — no distributor hopping, no manual form-filling, no leaving the editor:

• PCBWay integration — Fabrication and assembly (Turnkey, Kitted, Combo) up to 14 layers via the PCBWay Partner API
• Pikkolo Assembly integration — US-based small-batch assembly (Denver, CO) with lead-free and leaded options
• AI-assisted autofill — The AI analyzes your .trace_pcb file and pre-fills layer count, dimensions, trace/space, drill sizes, surface finish, silkscreen, via process, and copper weight
• Manufacturer DRC presets — pcbway_2layer_1oz, pcbway_4layer_1oz, pcbway_6plus_layer_1oz, pikkolo_standard and more. Loads into .kicad_dru and re-runs DRC so fab-specific violations are caught before submission
• Quote and freight — Live pricing, PCBWay freight calculation for 7 carriers (DHL, FedEx, EMS, SF Express, and more)
• Payment — Partner Account (monthly settlement) or PCBWay Online Payment. Idempotent confirmation prevents duplicate orders on retry
• Live tracking — Fabrication stage progress (material prep → e-test → QC → shipping) pulled from the partner API on demand
• Order management — List, view, cancel, resume payment, and re-download submitted files for all your orders
• Loading animations during BOM enrichment and order submission
• PCBWay API fully complete (all order lifecycle endpoints)

Available on Pro, Pro Team, Ultra, Ultra Team, and On-Demand plans. See the One-Click Manufacturing guide. New AI tools:

• get_manufacturer_capabilities — Query a manufacturer’s layer count, min trace/space, hole sizes, surface finishes, and assembly options
• set_preferred_manufacturer — Persist a manufacturer choice to the project, tuning DRC and sourcing
• set_manufacturer_drc — Swap the project’s .kicad_dru for a manufacturer preset
• upload_to_manufacturer — Submit Gerber/BOM/PnP files for quoting or ordering

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Beta Program

• In-app feedback system — Submit bug reports, feature requests, and feedback with file attachments (images, video, audio, PDF) directly from the beta dashboard
• Beta points — Earn points for feedback submissions, tracked on the leaderboard
• Linux builds — First official Linux support as AppImage (x86_64)

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Bug Fixes

• Windows refocus bug — Fixed the AI panel stealing window focus on Windows 11 while processing, which prevented working in other applications simultaneously
• Cross-project chat bleed — Conversations are now strictly scoped to the project they were created in. Previously, switching projects could show conversations from another project.
• Windows build fix — Fixed CMake chat UI header generation on Windows
• Stencil layer bug — Fixed stencil layer handling in manufacturer integration
• Assembly order bug — Fixed assembly order submission for turnkey builds
• Subscription cancellation crash — Fixed a crash when cancelling subscriptions through Stripe
• Webhook race condition — Fixed a race condition in payment webhook processing
• Stuck streaming UI — Fixed streaming state never clearing on quota/plan restriction errors
• Text segment fragmentation — Fixed assistant text splitting at activity boundaries mid-word
• Bridge retries — Increased webview bridge ready window to 15s with exponential backoff (fixes “stuck on Sign In” on slow machines)
• Token efficiency — Reduced token consumption through better context scoping and more focused AI responses

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Dashboard & Platform

• Web chat — Chat with Trace AI directly from the browser dashboard (full SSE streaming, conversation history)
• Dashboard redesign — New projects view with session cards and infinite scroll, improved orders page, confirmation modals
• Dark mode — Full dark mode support across the dashboard
• Mobile improvements — Responsive stat card sizing, plan badge in navbar, correct section ordering
• Notification system — In-app notifications with read/unread state
• Project thumbnails — Visual previews on project cards

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Teams & Enterprise

• Team infrastructure — Per-seat billing, team creation, invite flows
• Magic link login — Passwordless email login with one-click magic links
• Email change — Authenticated email address change flow
• Notification guard — Respect user email preferences before sending

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Conversations API

• List conversations with pagination and filtering
• Fetch full message history for a conversation
• Archive/unarchive conversations

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Infrastructure

• Backend API upgraded to v3 (adds todo_write/todo_read tools by default)
• Analytics cleanup and conversion tracking
• Invite-only career application system (HMAC-signed tokens)

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Trace 1.3.0-beta — April 2026

​

KiCad 10 Foundation

Trace 1.3 is built on the stable KiCad 10.0.0 release, bringing all upstream improvements.

​

DRC Rule Editor

A new visual DRC Rule Editor for creating and managing PCB design rules. Build rules through constraint panels instead of writing custom expressions. Includes Scintilla autocomplete, dynamic unit labels, matched-length skew constraints, and courtyard bitmap references.

​

Design Variants

Full design variant support for managing alternate board configurations. Variant text variables in drawing sheets, variant-aware footprint properties, CLI --variant flag for all PCB exports (Gerber, STEP, SVG, PDF, DXF, IPC-2581, ODB++), plot dialog variant dropdown, and Altium project variant import.

​

New EDA Importers

• gEDA / Lepton EDA — Import schematic files with 39 built-in symbol mappings and an 11-step symbol resolution chain
• Cadence Allegro v18+ — Binary format import with footprints, vias, padstacks, zone fills, teardrops, differential pairs, and constraint sets
• Mentor PADS — ASCII format import for PCB layouts and schematics
• Altium — Expanded file extension support and variant import

See the Importing from Other EDA Tools guide.

​

Multi-Agent Orchestrator

The AI now runs a multi-agent orchestrator that parallelizes server-side research tasks (web search, parts search, symbol search, footprint search) before handing results to the main agent. This significantly reduces latency for complex requests.

​

Extended Thinking

The AI’s reasoning process is now visible in real-time with a 10,000-token thinking budget per step. Collapsible thinking blocks show how the AI analyzes your design, considers tradeoffs, and plans its approach.

​

IPC-2581 Improvements

• BomRef and AvlRef elements for approved vendor lists
• Board profile cutouts for internal routing
• Multi-outline geometry merging
• Pin 1 orientation inference from pin position
• Synthesized stable reference designators
• Schematic revision metadata in BOM output

​

New DRC Check

• Track endpoints not centered on via — Detects misaligned track-to-via connections from the interactive router

​

New ERC Check

• Local labels with no local pin connections — Flags labels on a sheet that don’t connect to any pin on that sheet

​

Rendering & Performance

• 3D Viewer stencil buffer for correct export FBO rendering
• Improved zone fill parallelism and indexing
• Parallelized NearestObstacle computation for routing
• Rate-limited OpenGL redraws reducing GPU utilization
• OpenGL context recovery after sleep/wake

​

PCB Editor

• Backdrill sizes in Track & Via Properties dialog
• Zone merge with different priorities
• Negative outset values for insetting zone boundaries
• Negative silkscreen clearance values
• Search pane copy context menu
• Rule areas in Edit → Attributes menu
• GLAD replaces GLEW for OpenGL (runtime GLX/EGL selection on Linux)
• EGL canvas support on wxWidgets 3.3.2+ (Wayland)

​

Beta Program

• In-app feedback system — Submit bug reports, feature requests, and feedback with file attachments (images, video, audio, PDF) directly from the beta dashboard
• Beta points — Earn points for feedback submissions, tracked on the leaderboard
• Linux beta builds — First official Linux support as AppImage (x86_64)
• Education Program — Students and university programs can apply for free access at buildwithtrace.com/education

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One-Click Manufacturing

Submit your design to PCB fabs and assembly houses directly from inside Trace — no distributor hopping, no manual form-filling, no leaving the editor:

• PCBWay integration — Fabrication and assembly (Turnkey, Kitted, Combo) up to 14 layers via the PCBWay Partner API
• Pikkolo Assembly integration — US-based small-batch assembly + fabrication (beta) (Denver, CO) with lead-free and leaded options, ships in as little as 24 hours
• AI-assisted autofill — The AI analyzes your .trace_pcb file and pre-fills layer count, dimensions, trace/space, drill sizes, surface finish, silkscreen, via process, and copper weight
• Manufacturer DRC presets — pcbway_2layer_1oz, pcbway_4layer_1oz, pcbway_6plus_layer_1oz, pikkolo_standard and more. Loads into .kicad_dru and re-runs DRC so fab-specific violations are caught before submission
• Quote and freight — Live pricing, PCBWay freight calculation for 7 carriers (DHL, FedEx, EMS, SF Express, and more)
• Payment — Partner Account (monthly settlement) or PCBWay Online Payment. Idempotent confirmation prevents duplicate orders on retry
• Live tracking — Fabrication stage progress (material prep → e-test → QC → shipping) pulled from the partner API on demand
• Order management — List, view, cancel, resume payment, and re-download submitted files for all your orders

Available on Pro, Pro Team, Ultra, Ultra Team, and On-Demand plans. See the One-Click Manufacturing guide. New AI tools:

• get_manufacturer_capabilities — Query a manufacturer’s layer count, min trace/space, hole sizes, surface finishes, and assembly options
• set_preferred_manufacturer — Persist a manufacturer choice to the project, tuning DRC and sourcing
• set_manufacturer_drc — Swap the project’s .kicad_dru for a manufacturer preset
• upload_to_manufacturer — Submit Gerber/BOM/PnP files for quoting or ordering

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Trace 1.2.1 — March 2026

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AI Capabilities

• Symbol creation — AI can create new schematic symbols from descriptions with correct pins, groupings, and electrical types
• Footprint generation — AI can create PCB footprints from component package descriptions
• Undo/redo for AI edits — Full atomic undo/redo stack for AI-generated changes via the AI_COMMIT pipeline
• “Add to Chat” context popup — Right-click schematic or PCB elements to add them as AI context
• Sheet switching — AI navigates between hierarchical sheets with get_hierarchy and switch_sheet tools
• PCB layer switching — AI controls layers with switch_layer, get_layers, apply_layer_preset, and set_layer_visibility tools
• Placeholder symbol generation — When a library symbol is missing locally, the AI generates a placeholder with correct pins
• fetch_component_pins — AI queries local KiCad libraries for component pin data
• Silent AI edits — File modifications no longer trigger UI prompts or dialogs
• BOM Preview & Approval — Interactive BOM table with sortable columns, supplier links, pricing, and accept/modify/cancel workflow

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Plan Mode Enhancements

• Research Summary Card — Collapsible card streaming server-side research findings in real-time
• Structured Questions — Multi-choice requirement gathering via PlanQuestionsBar
• Progressive question streaming — Questions stream in 80-character chunks
• Plan/implementation phase persistence — Plan and execution state persists across tab reopens
• Todo tracking from plans — AI creates todo checklists from approved plan steps

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Server-Side Changes

• Server-side vector search — Symbol and footprint search moved from local to server-side vector database
• DigiKey API integration — Component search queries DigiKey for availability and pricing
• Mouser API integration — Component search queries Mouser for availability and pricing
• Datasheet parsing — PDF datasheet extraction for pinouts and recommended circuits
• Web search — Research phase web search for datasheets and reference designs

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Platform

• Configurable backend URL — Settings panel in all editors for changing the backend API URL
• Crash reporting — Consent-based crash log upload dialog on startup after a crash
• API v2 endpoints — All backend URLs migrated from /api/v1 to /api/v2

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Analytics

• Amplitude integration — 27 tracked events across app lifecycle, auth, AI, versioning, projects, files, and editors
• Pro-level analytics — Autoroute outcomes, chat engagement depth, tool results, undo tracking
• Anonymous session linking — Proper anonymous-to-identified attribution on login

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Bug Fixes

• Fixed streaming UI stuck on quota exceeded (HTTP 402) and plan restricted (HTTP 403) errors
• Fixed tab input state bleed (Tab A streaming no longer disables input for Tab B)
• Fixed text segment fragmentation during streaming at STATUS event boundaries
• Fixed research phase text streamed as plain text then retroactively collapsed
• Fixed switchToTab replaying SetStreaming(true) which wiped the activity timeline
• Fixed version saves going to wrong conversation when user switches tabs during stream completion

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Trace 1.2 — March 2026

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New Features

• KiCad 10 support — Trace is now built on KiCad 10 (v10.0.0 RC1), bringing all upstream improvements including better schematic and PCB tooling and improved rendering
• Plan mode — Multi-step AI design planning with a research phase, structured plan document, and an approve/adjust/reject workflow before execution begins
• Rewritten chat UI — New React-based webview with an interleaved activity feed showing tool calls, thinking steps, and text responses inline in real-time
• Multi-tab parallel streaming — Run multiple AI conversations simultaneously in different chat tabs, each with independent context and streaming state
• Todo tracking — The AI creates and manages a structured todo checklist for multi-step tasks, updating progress as it works
• Template selector — Pick from pre-built prompt templates to get started faster
• File uploads & context — Attach datasheets, reference designs, spec documents, images, and other files directly in the chat for the AI to use as context
• Larger context window — Holds more design context at once for longer, more coherent design sessions
• Constraints & stackup modeling — Model your layer stackup, spacing rules, and placement constraints. Expanding toward pick-and-place constraints, enclosure fit, and EMI-aware placement
• Linux support — Full Linux platform support with AppImage distribution, libsecret keychain, and localhost auth callback

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AI Improvements

• GNN + simulated annealing placement — Graph neural network combined with simulated annealing for optimizing component placement on imported boards
• Import and optimize — Import existing KiCad designs and let the AI iterate on placement, routing, and design review
• ASIC workflow prototyping — Early exploration of standard cell placement, pin assignment, timing-driven floorplanning, differential pair routing, power grid IR drop analysis, and clock tree balancing

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Bug Fixes

• Fixed mid-stream stopping where the AI would cut off responses
• Fixed ghost schematics appearing after rapid edits
• Fixed multi-sheet schematic support for complex designs
• Fixed per-tab event routing so actions in one tab don’t bleed into another
• Fixed text segment fragmentation during streaming (words splitting mid-stream)
• Fixed analytics duplicate event tracking

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Windows Installer

• In-place upgrades replace side-by-side installations — new versions upgrade cleanly instead of installing as separate applications
• Old versioned installations (1.0.0, 1.1.0, 1.2.0, 1.2.1) are automatically detected and removed during upgrade

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Trace 1.1 — February 2026

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New Features

• Schematic versioning — Every AI edit is versioned. Roll back to any previous state with one click
• Improved autorouter — Better trace quality with impedance-aware routing and differential pair support
• Component availability checks — Real-time stock and pricing from JLCPCB, LCSC, DigiKey, Mouser, Texas Instruments, and Amazon

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Improvements

• Faster streaming responses
• Better schematic generation accuracy
• Improved error messages and recovery

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Trace 1.0 — January 8, 2026

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Launch

• AI-native PCB design — Describe circuits in natural language, get component suggestions, schematic generation, and PCB layout assistance
• Built on KiCad — Full compatibility with KiCad project files, no vendor lock-in
• Professional EDA tools — Complete schematic editor and PCB layout tools
• Component library — Thousands of components with footprints and 3D models
• Manufacturing export — Gerber files, drill files, BOMs, and assembly outputs
• DRC/ERC — Design rule and electrical rule checking with AI-assisted fixes
• Desktop-first — Native macOS, Windows, and Linux application, designs stay on your machine
• Free plan — Unlimited Ask mode for AI Q&A about your designs