Flow Tracing

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What is Flow Tracing?

Flow tracing follows data and signals across your entire codebase from source to sink. It’s fundamentally different from text search. Instead of finding where a string appears, it understands the semantic connections between code elements.

Consider this scenario: your UI shows “Unknown” for an order status. A text search for “Unknown” might return dozens of results. Flow tracing starts at the UI label, follows the binding back to the data source, traces through the manager that populates it, and identifies exactly where the string originates. Maybe it’s a default value in Order.gd that’s set when the status enum doesn’t match.

This semantic understanding is what makes GodotIQ’s flow tools powerful for debugging, refactoring, and understanding complex game logic.

godotiq_trace_flow

Trace execution flow from a function or signal through the entire codebase. Returns chain of calls, signal emissions, failure points.

When to Use It

Debugging: “where does this value come from?” or “where does this data end up?”
Understanding complex event chains that span multiple scripts and scenes
Finding all code paths that affect a specific game state

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`trigger`	`string`	required	Exact function or signal name to trace (e.g., `"start_print_job"`, `"order_completed"`)
`depth`	`int`	`10`	Maximum recursion depth
`detail`	`string`	`"normal"`	`"brief"` (steps only), `"normal"` (+ line numbers, failure points), `"full"`

Example

Prompt: “The order status shows ‘Unknown’ in the UI. Trace where that comes from.”

{
  "tool": "godotiq_trace_flow",
  "args": {
    "trigger": "get_status_text"
  }
}

{
  "trigger": "get_status_text",
  "paths": [
    {
      "path": [
        {
          "file": "res://scenes/ui/OrderPanel.gd",
          "line": 34,
          "code": "status_label.text = order.get_status_text()",
          "type": "method_call"
        },
        {
          "file": "res://scripts/data/Order.gd",
          "line": 48,
          "code": "func get_status_text() -> String:",
          "type": "method_def"
        },
        {
          "file": "res://scripts/data/Order.gd",
          "line": 52,
          "code": "return \"Unknown\"  # default fallback",
          "type": "return_value",
          "note": "Reached when status enum has no match"
        }
      ],
      "conclusion": "Default fallback in Order.get_status_text() at line 52"
    }
  ],
  "total_paths": 1,
  "depth_reached": 3
}

Tips

The depth parameter prevents infinite loops in circular references. Increase it for deeply nested architectures.
Use detail: "brief" when you just need the execution path steps

Code analysis: godotiq_signal_map and godotiq_dependency_graph provide the structural data that flow tracing builds on
Spatial tools: Combine spatial analysis with flow tracing to understand gameplay systems
Guides: Workflows: Common debugging workflow patterns

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