AI Workflows controls proactive assistance during design. In compatible builds, Design for debugging, Automatic simulation review, and Firmware handoff notes are Off by default. Choose them independently.
Choose Global Defaults or Project Overrides
In native Trace, global defaults live in Preferences → AI Workflows. Check or uncheck the three workflows, then save Preferences with Apply or OK. Checkbox changes are drafts until Preferences saves successfully.
For project overrides, save the project and open its chat's Workflows button, labelled AI Workflows. These controls are dropdowns, not the global checkboxes.
Project choices are:
- Use global (On/Off): inherit the saved global preference.
- On for this project: enable the workflow for this project.
- Off for this project: disable proactive behavior for this project.
Native defaults and project overrides are saved locally on this computer. Project overrides are not team-shared settings, and a shared design notebook does not set them.
In Trace Plugin, the home screen's AI Workflows switches save account defaults locally when changed. The chat's Workflows panel provides project overrides for the supported workflows. An unavailable simulation engine keeps that workflow unavailable even if its default is On. These companion settings are separate from native Preferences; follow companion simulation for host-specific export and viewing limits.
Save the Settings
- In the intended saved project's chat, choose Workflows to open AI Workflows.
- Check the project name and current effective settings.
- Choose the available workflow settings independently.
- Click Save and wait for Saved to this computer. This message confirms the project overrides, not a separate global Preferences change.
- Use the saved settings on the next new request or plan action.
Selections remain drafts until saved. Closing with unsaved choices offers Keep editing, Discard changes, or Save and close. Save and close must finish saving before closing; discarding a draft does not undo a save that may already have been sent.
What Each Workflow Does
Design for Debugging
When On, Trace considers test access during ordinary schematic design. It asks about purpose and extent early, then resolves device-dependent choices from actual circuit and pinout facts.
Confirmed access requirements guide normal CAD edits and review. They do not authorize energizing, probing, programming, or measuring physical hardware. A drawn test point does not prove that an assembled board exposes a safe contact.
Automatic Simulation Review
When On, Trace considers simulation feasibility early, before selecting active analog parts, including exact-part model coverage where relevant. Function, electrical fitness, and explicit part choices still take priority; a convenient model is not permission to substitute a part.
Near schematic completion, Trace performs a bounded behavioral review using the saved design and known operating conditions. When the design is runnable, it can inspect and run a grounded bench, then read the result. Missing models or conditions are named gaps, not permission to invent supply voltages or claim a pass.
This is not a solver run after every edit and does not block completion indefinitely. See Simulation for result interpretation.
Firmware Handoff Notes
When On, Trace maintains plain-Markdown notes for a design's programmable target: requirements, pin maps, buses, device setup, power/reset/boot, and bring-up checks. Relevant Agent design changes can update the affected notes; placement or routing with unchanged connections does not require rewriting them.
The notes live in the project's .trace/firmware/ folder and are editable in your own editor. They are a user-reviewed handoff, not implemented, compiled, tested, or flashed firmware. Unknown pin mappings, conflicting design facts, and missing document sources must remain open questions.
Use Open or Export… under the firmware row to work with existing notes. These actions happen immediately; they do not save a workflow dropdown draft. See Firmware Notes for review and sharing.
Other Preferences on This Page
Native Preferences → AI Workflows also contains two separate, computer-wide settings:
- Download datasheets on this computer when Trace's servers are blocked: allows the fallback described in Attachments. It still sends the downloaded PDF to the assistant.
- Auto-approve components that pass every check: On by default in compatible builds. Eligible generated parts can install without a review click; other parts remain on their review cards. See Component Editor.
These are not additional proactive workflows and have no project override dropdowns.
New Requests and Resume
Saved settings apply to new requests and new plan actions. Resume of an existing interrupted task retains that task's original workflow settings; saving a preference does not change the flags of work already underway.
Off prevents proactive workflow behavior. It does not disable ERC, and it does not prevent a direct, affirmative request for simulation, debug-access design, or firmware notes where the host supports it. Ask and read-only requests can explain firmware notes without writing them. Simulation requires a supported schematic session and available engine; it is not a PCB-editor solver.
Older clients that omit workflow preferences retain their legacy near-completion simulation review; omission is not an explicit Off setting. Early simulation-feasibility guidance is enabled only by an explicit On preference.
If Saving Does Not Finish
Read the specific error. If the project or account changed, close and reopen the panel for the correct project. If saving is uncertain, reopen and check the saved effective settings before retrying. Do not assume a changed dropdown or closed panel proves the preference was saved.