Show HN: TraceAIO – open-source LLM visibility tracker
TraceAIO is an open-source, self-hosted tool (Apache 2.0 license) that monitors how often brands appear in LLM responses from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. It uses real browser sessions rather than APIs, runs on Docker, and includes an MCP server for querying collected data via an LLM. A demo is available at demo.traceaio.org.
Background
- An open-source tool (Apache 2.0, Docker) that uses real browser sessions to monitor whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini mention your brand — and what competitors they surface instead.
- Unlike typical brand-monitoring services, it does not use APIs; it automates browser sessions, mimicking real users. This makes it harder for AI companies to detect and block.
- The author posts on "Show HN" (Hacker News's project showcase) and acknowledges the space feels grifty — like early SEO — before it eventually matures.
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) support means users can query their own monitoring data through an LLM chat interface.
- Key context: as LLMs replace traditional search, companies worry about being invisible to AI chatbots or having competitors recommended instead of them. This tool tracks that over time.