Memtrace
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What is Memtrace?
Memtrace is the code intelligence built into Orbit: it indexes each project for semantic code search and the Code Graph, so you and your agents can find code by meaning and see what a change would affect before making it.
A third-party code intelligence tool integrated with Orbit that indexes your codebase for fast semantic search, symbol lookup, and compressed source reading — reducing token cost when navigating large files.
Memtrace is a third-party bi-temporal code intelligence tool deeply integrated with Orbit. It indexes your codebase into a semantic graph, enabling fast symbol lookup, code search, and compressed source reading — operations that would otherwise require reading entire large files. Orbit uses Memtrace automatically when working with files over 100KB, surfacing a warning and suggesting Memtrace tools instead of raw file reads. Memtrace runs as a background daemon and is free for solo developers.
How it relates to Orbit
Orbit’s Code Graph uses Memtrace to search source symbols and inspect code relationships. See Memtrace Code Intelligence for details.
When you would use it
Memtrace is active automatically. You benefit from it whenever an agent navigates your codebase — find_symbol, find_code, and get_source_window calls go through Memtrace's semantic index rather than reading files raw. If Memtrace isn't running, you'll see a warning in Orbit's server logs.
Common operations
- Navigating to a function or symbol in a large codebase without reading the whole file.
- Finding where a pattern or integration is wired in across multiple files.
- Reducing token cost when working with files over 100KB.
Frequently asked questions
How does Memtrace keep its index current?
A Memtrace daemon starts automatically with Orbit, indexes every registered project path, and keeps the index live as the code changes. See Memtrace Code Intelligence.
Where do I see Memtrace in Orbit?
In each project window’s Code Graph tab, and through search tools that agents and AI clients can call. See Memtrace.
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