The latest articles on DEV Community by Ahmed Allam (@ahmedallam222). https://dev.to/ahmedallam222 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F826825%2F4051ae99-6a02-457f-9339-2757d3597921.png https://dev.to/ahmedallam222 en Ahmed Allam Wed, 18 Feb 2026 05:34:23 +0000 https://dev.to/ahmedallam222/ghosttrace-capture-phantom-branches-to-debug-rejected-decisions-in-ai-agents-2pf https://dev.to/ahmedallam222/ghosttrace-capture-phantom-branches-to-debug-rejected-decisions-in-ai-agents-2pf <p>When an AI agent makes a decision, it evaluates several options and picks one. The rest disappear forever — you never see what it almost did or why it rejected the alternatives.</p> <p>I built <strong>GhostTrace</strong> to fix that.</p> <p>It captures <strong>"Phantom Branches"</strong>: the actions your agent considered but rejected, with the full reasoning for each rejection. Everything is saved to a <code>.ghost.json</code> file that you can replay and inspect anytime.</p> <h3> Quick Demo </h3> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>ghosttrace record </code></pre> </div> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>✓ Recorded 4 decisions with 5 phantom branches 📄 Saved to gt_a1b2c3d4.ghost.json </code></pre> </div> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>ghosttrace replay gt_ghost.json <span class="nt">--show-phantoms</span> </code></pre> </div> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>Step 1: ✓ read_file → src/auth.py 👻 REJECTED: write_file (premature) 👻 REJECTED: search_codebase (too broad) </code></pre> </div> <p>Super simple to get started:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>pip <span class="nb">install </span>ghosttrace </code></pre> </div> <ul> <li>GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/AhmedAllam0/ghosttrace" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/AhmedAllam0/ghosttrace</a> </li> <li>PyPI: <a href="https://pypi.org/project/ghosttrace/" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://pypi.org/project/ghosttrace/</a> </li> </ul> <p>It's framework-agnostic for now, but <strong>what should I integrate first?</strong><br><br> LangChain? CrewAI? OpenAI Agents SDK? </p> <p>Feedback very welcome — let me know what you think, if you'll try it, or what features you'd love to see! 🔥</p> <h1> ai #agents #python #opensource #machinelearning #debugging #llm </h1> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>  </code></pre> </div> agents ai cli showdev