Prerequisites Tracer requires the Rust toolchain. If you don’t have it installed:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
After installation, ensure ~/.cargo/bin is in your PATH.
Quick Install (Recommended) Cargo Install
From Git
From Source
cargo install trace-tracker
The tracer binary will be installed to ~/.cargo/bin/.
Tracer uses bundled SQLite, so no external database dependencies are required.
Option 1: From Git (Current) # Install Rust if needed curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh # Install tracer cargo install --git https://github.com/Abil-Shrestha/tracer
Option 2: Homebrew (Coming Soon) brew tap Abil-Shrestha/tracer brew install tracer
Ubuntu/Debian # Install build dependencies sudo apt update sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev # Install Rust curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh # Install tracer cargo install --git https://github.com/Abil-Shrestha/tracer
Arch Linux (Coming Soon) From Binary Release # Download from releases wget https://github.com/Abil-Shrestha/tracer/releases/latest/download/tracer-linux-amd64 # Make executable chmod +x tracer-linux-amd64 # Move to PATH sudo mv tracer-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/tracer
Option 1: From Source # Install Rust from https://rustup.rs/ # Install tracer cargo install -- git https: // github.com / Abil - Shrestha / tracer
Option 2: From Binary
Download the latest Windows release from GitHub Releases
Extract tracer.exe to a directory in your PATH
Or run directly:
Windows requires Visual C++ build tools. Install from Visual Studio Downloads and select “Desktop development with C++”. Verify Installation After installation, verify Tracer is working correctly:
Check version
Should output: tracer 0.2.0
View help
Should display available commands and options.
Test initialization
mkdir test-project cd test-project tracer init
Should create .trace/bd.db and .trace/issues.jsonl Updating Tracer Cargo Install
From Source
Homebrew
cargo install trace-tracker --force
Uninstalling To remove Tracer from your system:
To also remove project databases, delete the .trace directories:
find . -name ".trace" -type d -exec rm -rf {} +
Troubleshooting
Ensure ~/.cargo/bin is in your PATH: # Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc export PATH = " $HOME /.cargo/bin: $PATH "
Then reload your shell: source ~/.bashrc # or source ~/.zshrc
Install Visual C++ build tools:
Download from Visual Studio Downloads
Run the installer
Select “Desktop development with C++”
Complete installation and retry cargo install
Tracer uses bundled SQLite, so external dependencies aren’t needed. If you see SQLite errors: # Clean and rebuild cargo clean cargo build --release
If the error persists, check that you have write permissions in the project directory.
Permission denied on Linux
If you get permission errors when installing to /usr/local/bin: # Option 1: Use sudo sudo mv tracer /usr/local/bin/ # Option 2: Install to user directory mkdir -p ~/.local/bin mv tracer ~/.local/bin/ export PATH = " $HOME /.local/bin: $PATH "
Development Installation For contributing to Tracer or testing unreleased features:
# Clone repository git clone https://github.com/Abil-Shrestha/tracer.git cd tracer # Build in debug mode cargo build # Run tests cargo test # Run from source (useful for development) cargo run -- --help cargo run -- init cargo run -- create "Test issue" # Build optimized release binary cargo build --release # Binary will be in target/release/tracer ./target/release/tracer --version
The development build includes debug symbols and is slower. Use cargo build --release for production use.
Binary Aliases Tracer provides two binary names for convenience:
tracer - Full command nametr - Short alias for faster typing
Both are identical and can be used interchangeably:
tracer ready tr ready # Same command
Next Steps
Quick Start Initialize your first project and create issues
Introduction Learn more about Tracer’s features and use cases
