Diagnosing TraceDecay analytics

TraceDecay records three telemetry streams: durable analytics_events in the user-level global store (mcp_tool_call rows from the MCP server, hook_route rows from daemon routing, and hook_<agent> rows bridged from hook logs), append-only hook_analytics.jsonl files (one per project store plus a user-level fallback for hooks that could not resolve a project), and the per-project session store used for message-level usage. Adoption and health questions are answered from the durable table — never by opening store databases directly.

Commands

1. tracedecay analytics diagnostics — the one-stop summary. Imports any new hook-log rows into the durable table first, then prints event, tool, and hook counts, the TraceDecay tool-call count, per-tool/per-hook rollups, hook_sources with per-file row counts, and usage ratios. Flags: --all (every project, not just the current one), --no-sync (skip the import pass; read-only). Use the read-only MCP twin tracedecay_analytics when the answer should be returned inside an agent tool call instead of a shell command.
2. tracedecay analytics sync — run only the hook-log import and report how many rows each source contributed.
3. tracedecay doctor — per-agent install health: hook registration, MCP config, binary staleness. Run this first when a hook seems silent (Codex hooks may exist but stay skipped until trusted in Codex's own hooks approval prompt).
4. tracedecay tool lcm_status --provider all --json and tracedecay tool lcm_doctor --provider codex --mode diagnose --json — session-store ingest and compression health per provider.
5. tracedecay sessions search "mcp__tracedecay" --provider all — find tool usage evidence inside ingested transcripts across providers.
6. tracedecay gain / tracedecay cost — token savings ledger and spend rollups.
7. Dashboard: tracedecay dashboard serves the same summaries at /api/plugins/analytics/overview|diagnostics|usage|hints.

Reading the diagnostics output

• source: "analytics_events" means durable data answered; a session_messages_and_hook_analytics source means no durable events matched and the summary fell back to hook logs only.
• hook_sources lists each hook-log file with rows_total vs rows_included. A large gap means rows written before project attribution existed; they are visible under --all but cannot be assigned to a project. rows_malformed / first_malformed_line show JSONL corruption that the reader skipped and should usually be investigated as a concurrent append bug.
• project_id: null means the command ran outside an indexed project and reported globally. Run from an indexed project root for per-project scope, or pass --all deliberately.
• import.imported greater than zero means a hook-log backlog was just bridged — re-read the counts, they include it.
• A high hook-call count with a low TraceDecay tool-call count is an adoption gap: hooks fire, but sessions are not using tracedecay tools. Check by_prompt_category to see which task types miss it.

Guardrails

• A zero-row analytics_events table inside a project store is not evidence that telemetry is broken — durable events live in the user-level store. Run tracedecay analytics diagnostics before concluding anything is dead.
• Never query store databases with sqlite3 or scripts; schemas are internal. The diagnostics JSON already merges every relevant source.
• If the MCP transport is down, every command above still works — they are plain CLI subcommands (see tracedecay:using-the-cli).

If tools are deferred or MCP fails

• This skill is already CLI-first: the tracedecay analytics / doctor / sessions subcommands run over shell and need no MCP transport.
• The tracedecay tool lcm_status / lcm_doctor calls also work via MCP; if those tools are deferred, load once with ToolSearch — select:tracedecay_lcm_status,tracedecay_lcm_doctor — or just use the CLI form shown above (see tracedecay:using-the-cli).

Deliverable

Do not end this workflow without: headline counts (events, MCP tool calls, tracedecay calls, hook calls) with the exact command used, plus any gaps found: unattributed hook rows, stale or missing sources, providers with hooks firing but zero tool usage. Report any tracedecay_metrics: line to the user.