Tester Guide

New here? Download and install the extension first.

Basic usage flow

  1. Start recording: Alt/Option + Shift + R
  2. Add voice marker: Alt/Option + Shift + M
  3. Stop recording: Alt/Option + Shift + R
  4. Export your session. There are two export types:
    • Session Report: includes the full video recording. Import it into the TraceGist viewer to review the session visually with timeline, markers, and screenshots. Share this with developers who want to watch the session.
    • Agent Session Export: a structured package without video (interaction timeline, errors, environment snapshot, Playwright script). This is what coding agents consume via the MCP bridge.

Working with a developer’s agent live

Instead of exporting and sending a file, you can let a developer’s coding agent watch your session as it happens, and answer its questions while you’re still in the flow.

Same machine as the agent: turn on Stream session events to MCP bridge in settings. That’s it. Start recording as usual.

Different machines (Remote Live Session):

  1. In the extension popup, click Test with a remote agent.
  2. Read the consent screen and accept it. This is the point where session data starts leaving your machine, so it’s deliberately explicit.
  3. Send the generated session code (TG-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX) to the developer, over chat, email, however you normally talk. The code is also the encryption key, so anyone who has it can join the session.
  4. Start recording. When the developer’s agent joins, a toast confirms it can see the tab; that may happen before or after you start.

While the session runs, the agent may send you a question as a small toast in the page. Answer it with a voice marker (Alt/Option + Shift + M) and, if it helps, a highlight capture (Alt/Option + Shift + S).

Turning it off: click the ✕ on the remote session badge in the popup. This cuts an in-progress stream immediately; you don’t have to finish the recording first.

What the relay can see: none of your session content. It is encrypted on your device before it’s sent, using a key derived from your session code, which the relay never receives. The relay forwards the encrypted data to the developer and doesn’t store it. It does see connection metadata, your IP address and connection timestamps, which Cloudflare processes to route the traffic.

What the developer’s agent can see: more than the tab you started on. While recording runs, console logs, errors and interactions from any tab you use, and every network request your browser makes, are captured and streamed.

Screenshots are the exception: only ones taken on the tab you started on are sent. If you switch away and capture something there, it is withheld from the agent rather than transmitted (it still gets stored locally and still ends up in an exported file). The video is never streamed. Whatever is on the recorded tab is still shared, so close anything private there before you begin. See the privacy policy for detail.

What gets stripped before anything leaves your machine

Whether you export a file or stream live, TraceGist scrubs recognised sensitive values first: API keys, access tokens, passwords, payment card numbers, SSNs and similar. Values you type into password, one-time-code and other sensitive fields are dropped at the moment of capture rather than redacted later.

This applies to text: console logs, network data, URLs and form fields. The screen recording, screenshots and your voice notes capture whatever was on screen or spoken aloud, verbatim; they cannot be scrubbed automatically.

So treat redaction as a safety net rather than a guarantee; it is also pattern-based, and no pattern catches everything. If you’re testing against real production data, watch the video back before you share the session.

Handing off your session

Share the exported TraceGist session zip; that’s the entire artifact. It contains the interaction timeline, captured errors, environment snapshot, and a generated Playwright repro script.

TraceGist viewer

Import a Session Report into the TraceGist viewer to review the session with full video playback, a marker timeline, screenshots, and captured logs. Open the viewer from the extension popup.

Voice notes & transcription

Voice markers (Alt/Option + Shift + M) record audio that ships with your session. Out of the box the audio is not transcribed: the handoff file references a voice.wav and your reviewer (or coding agent) hears it but doesn’t read it. To get text transcripts, pick one:

  • For the extension’s “Analyze with AI”: paste an OpenRouter API key into the extension settings. Your key is stored locally and used only when you run “Analyze with AI”.
  • For the MCP bridge: local Whisper ships with the bridge, so voice-note transcription works on any machine with a C/C++ toolchain. The model file itself is downloaded on first run, so that machine needs network access once. Xcode CLI tools (macOS) and build-essential (Linux) are commonly already installed; on Windows you’ll typically need to install Visual Studio Build Tools explicitly. Forwarding OPENROUTER_API_KEY to the bridge is optional and only used if you want cloud transcription. See the agent integration guide for details.

Analyze with AI

The viewer has an optional “Analyze with AI” feature that generates a structured assessment of the session. It requires an OpenRouter API key; set it once in the extension settings. Your key is stored locally and only used when you trigger analysis.

Settings

Open settings from the extension popup. Key options:

  • OpenRouter API key: required for AI features and (optionally) voice transcription.
  • Transcription mode: choose between local Whisper (via MCP) or OpenRouter for voice note transcription.
  • Deep diagnostics: attaches Chrome’s debugger to the recorded tab for richer network detail. Capturing request/response bodies is a separate switch that sits under it and requires it. Both are on by default, so request and error-response bodies are captured unless you turn them off.
  • Export profile: controls how much detail is included in the agent session export.

For developers: MCP bridge setup

If you want to use TraceGist session packages directly from a coding agent, follow the agent integration guide.