This page covers the Trace Plugin companion for Altium Designer and KiCad, not Trace desktop or the coding-agent plugin and MCP integration.
Find your version and update
The companion's home-screen footer shows its installed version. Choose Check for updates… from its menu to check the update channel available to that installation.
On supported packaged installations, an available update downloads in the background. Once it is ready, the home screen shows the offered version and a short summary. Restart to update installs it immediately; it can also install when you quit.
Before restarting, let active work settle and save your intended host documents. An update is not a CAD rollback or a guarantee that an interrupted task or prompt queue can be recovered after restart.
Linux self-update depends on running a supported AppImage; development runs do not use the installed-app updater. An update error is not evidence that you already have the newest version. Preserve your work and contact hello@buildwithtrace.com if it persists.
Release availability
A published companion version and release date have not been verified for this documentation refresh. This page therefore does not announce a shipped release or turn a source-note date into a release date.
Use your installed companion's update notice for the version and summary actually offered to you, and check product availability. For a fresh install, visit the official download page and choose Trace Plugin only if offered. Otherwise contact support; a Trace desktop download is not a companion installer.
Current source feature overview
The following notes cover source changes since October 7, 2026, 11:00 PM Eastern, through October 11, 2026. These are source-review dates, not release dates.
Compatible builds include source support for:
- Browser sign-in, design-tool selection, project lists and a project/document connection header.
- Altium Designer on Windows, plus KiCad 10 live board edits and saved-file schematic edits with platform-specific refresh.
- Ask, Agent and Plan, tool rows, question and component-review cards, and setting-preserving queued prompts.
- The current four-model picker: GPT Astra, GPT Sol, Trace Genie 2.0 Flash and Trace Genie 2.0.
- Personal Across projects and Current project Artifacts, with cloud indexing only where enabled.
- Retained hosted chat-run status and lost-reply observation, with explicit recovery for the original task. Stop ends chat activity but does not undo earlier CAD effects.
- Dictated drafts, text-only steering of a running Ask/Agent turn, suggested next drafts and a Report a problem entry point, with matching service support and deliberate send/review.
- Account AI Workflows defaults and project overrides for design-for-debugging guidance, automatic simulation review and firmware handoff notes.
- Altium hierarchical sheet/port authoring and supported cached Altium 365 workspace parts, with host-specific connectivity and cache limits.
- Generated-component automatic approval only when every required check passes, no checks are waived and an independent second look approves; library-name conflicts remain manual decisions.
- Supported generated STEP-body attachment and rounded-rectangle pad conversion in Altium, with live installed-host checks still required.
- Supported library installation, board checks, basic routing cards and fabrication outputs. Trace's placement/routing engines still require their corresponding host and result-application verification.
This is a feature overview, not a verified release announcement. Read the companion guide, Altium guide and KiCad guide for prerequisites, review steps and known limits.
Library Remediation
The companion now has an independent library-review window: local folder audits, configurable compliance rulesets, symbol/footprint pictures and HTML/PDF/Markdown/CSV reports. Supported Altium integrated/database libraries and Excel/CSV rows are distinguished from authorized SQL/web source copies.
Optional hosted AI review has its own model picker, scope confirmation, usage charging and retained progress/results. Selected fixes are checked and written into a separate output folder, with a change log and database proposals; the original libraries and live database are not overwritten.
Recorded Altium checks cover selected fixed libraries saved and read back, plus an Excel copy read through the database library's own provider. They do not establish every format, visual/mechanical fit or a shipped installer. See library review and fixes.
Simulation
Current source includes the app's simulation engine and a separate Simulation window for supported KiCad and Altium projects. KiCad exports saved schematics through its command-line tools; Altium reads current documents and compiled connectivity, not a separate disk snapshot. Repeated Altium multi-channel sheets remain unsupported.
Temporary experiments and saved-result viewing are distinct from persistent bench/model writes. Unknown, stale, partial or no-assertion evidence is non-certifying. Linux engine-backed tests do not prove a published package or complete live-host acceptance on Windows/macOS. See plugin simulation.
Native Workspaces, a Layout Classification panel and a Component Editor tab remain outside the companion. Paid advanced layout, some host navigation/save paths and KiCad routing/custom-pad paths still need the corresponding live-host acceptance checks.
Report a version-specific problem
Include your companion version, operating system, design-tool version, what you attempted and the safe error message. Remove private project names, credentials and design content from screenshots or logs before sending them to hello@buildwithtrace.com.