Tools & Workflows

The Limelight MCP server gives your AI assistant 11 tools for querying and analyzing your app’s runtime. This page explains how they work together, what to ask, and what your AI sees.

How Your AI Uses the Tools

You don’t call these tools directly — your AI calls them automatically based on your questions. When you ask “why is my app slow?”, the AI might:

Call limelight_get_session_overview to get the big picture
Call limelight_find_issues to scan for detected anti-patterns
Call limelight_get_render_profile to check for expensive re-renders
Call limelight_query_network to find slow requests
Call limelight_investigate_error on anything problematic

The tools are designed to guide the AI through a debugging workflow — from broad overview to specific root cause.

Debugging Workflows

”Something is broken”

Best for: errors, crashes, unexpected behavior.

You: "My checkout is failing silently"

AI workflow:
1. limelight_get_session_overview → sees 3 failed requests, 2 error logs
2. limelight_investigate_error → runs Debug IR on the most recent error
   → returns causal chain: POST /api/orders → 422 → missing required field
   → violation: request body missing `shippingAddress` after state refactor
3. limelight_get_state_snapshot → confirms shippingAddress is null in cartStore
4. AI suggests the fix with full context

”Something is slow”

Best for: performance issues, render jank, slow API calls.

You: "My app feels sluggish when I navigate to the dashboard"

AI workflow:
1. limelight_get_session_overview → sees high render counts
2. limelight_get_render_profile(sort_by: "render_cost") → finds DashboardChart
   rendering 47 times in 2 seconds
3. limelight_investigate_component("DashboardChart") → unstable `data` prop
   (new array reference every render), parent StatsPanel re-rendering on
   unrelated state changes
4. AI suggests React.memo + useMemo fix

”Something is wrong with data”

Best for: stale data, wrong values, state bugs.

You: "Search results show old data after I type"

AI workflow:
1. limelight_query_network(url_pattern: "search") → finds overlapping requests
2. limelight_get_timeline(last_n_seconds: 5) → sees out-of-order responses
3. limelight_investigate_error(error_pattern: "search") → full Debug IR
   → causal chain: two search requests, slower one resolved last, overwrote
   correct state
4. AI suggests AbortController pattern

”What’s happening right now?”

Best for: understanding runtime state, verifying behavior.

You: "What's the current state of my auth flow?"

AI workflow:
1. limelight_get_state_snapshot(store_id: "authStore", include_history: true)
   → current state + recent changes
2. limelight_query_network(url_pattern: "auth") → recent auth requests
3. limelight_get_timeline(last_n_seconds: 10) → chronological view of events

”Run a health check”

Best for: proactive scanning, code review, before shipping.

You: "Do you see any issues with my app?"

AI workflow:
1. limelight_find_issues(limit: 10) → scans everything
   → returns: 2 N+1 queries, 1 render cascade, 3 components with unstable props
2. AI prioritizes by severity and walks through each issue

Tool Reference

Overview Tools

`limelight_get_session_overview`

The starting point. Returns a high-level snapshot: event counts, error summary, suspicious items, top-rendered components, and session metadata. Your AI almost always calls this first.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`last_n_seconds`	number	—	Only include events from the last N seconds

Returns: session info, event counts by type, error/warning counts, suspicious items (failed requests, errors, hot components), top 3 most-rendered components.

`limelight_find_issues`

Proactive scanner. Scans all captured events for performance issues, bugs, and anti-patterns. Runs the correlation engine and Debug IR pipeline on anything that looks problematic.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`verbose`	boolean	false	Include causal summaries and event IDs
`limit`	number	5	Max issues to return
`deduplicate`	boolean	true	Group similar issues (e.g., 20 components with same unstable props become 1 entry)

Detects: failed requests, render loops, N+1 queries, race conditions, unstable props, render cascades, retry storms, stale closures, rapid state updates, request bursts.

Investigation Tools

`limelight_investigate_error`

The most powerful tool. Runs the full Debug IR pipeline on an error — produces a causal chain, state deltas, violations, excluded causes, and suggested fixes.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`error_id`	string	—	Specific event ID to investigate
`error_pattern`	string	—	Substring to match against error messages, URLs, and stack traces
`scope`	`"most_recent"` \| `"all"`	`"most_recent"`	Investigate one error or all matches
`verbose`	boolean	false	Full detail including raw state deltas and extended causal chains

Provide error_id, error_pattern, or neither (investigates the most recent error).

`limelight_investigate_component`

Component deep-dive. Full analysis of a React component — render history, prop changes driving re-renders, and correlated state/network activity.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`component_name`	string	—	Component to investigate (partial matches supported)
`verbose`	boolean	false	Full analysis with causal chain, state deltas, excluded causes

Returns: render profile (count, cost, velocity, suspicious flag), prop changes with reference stability analysis, instance count, correlated events, and Debug IR analysis.

`limelight_correlate_event`

Trace cause and effect. Given any event ID, finds everything related to it using the correlation engine. Returns a timeline (before/concurrent/after) and a correlation graph with typed edges and confidence scores.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`event_id`	string	—	Event to correlate (required)
`verbose`	boolean	false	Full graph with all nodes and edges

Query Tools

`limelight_query_network`

Network request search. Filter by URL, method, status code, speed, and time range.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`url_pattern`	string	—	URL substring match
`method`	string	—	HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.)
`status_range`	`{ min, max }`	—	Status code range (e.g., `{ min: 400, max: 599 }` for all errors)
`min_duration_ms`	number	—	Only show requests slower than this (ms)
`last_n_seconds`	number	—	Time window
`limit`	number	10	Max results
`include_bodies`	boolean	false	Include request/response bodies

`limelight_query_logs`

Console log search. Filter by level and message content.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`level`	`"error"` \| `"warn"` \| `"log"` \| `"info"` \| `"debug"`	—	Log level filter
`message_pattern`	string	—	Case-insensitive substring search
`limit`	number	10	Max results
`last_n_seconds`	number	—	Time window
`include_stack_traces`	boolean	auto	Include stack traces (defaults to true for errors)

`limelight_get_timeline`

Chronological event view. See everything that happened in a time window — requests, logs, renders, state changes — as timestamped one-line summaries.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`last_n_seconds`	number	10	Time window
`event_types`	array	all	Filter: `["request", "log", "render", "stateUpdate"]`
`min_severity`	`"info"` \| `"warning"` \| `"error"`	—	Minimum severity filter
`offset`	number	0	Skip N events for pagination

`limelight_get_event`

Single event inspection. Retrieve the complete details of any event by ID — full bodies, headers, stack traces, state diffs, or render details depending on event type. Use this after finding event IDs from other tools.

Parameter	Type	Description
`event_id`	string	The event ID to retrieve (required)

Profiling Tools

`limelight_get_render_profile`

Component performance profiling. Shows which components are rendering, how often, how expensively, and why. Sort by render count, total cost, or velocity.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`component_name`	string	—	Filter to one component (substring match)
`suspicious_only`	boolean	false	Only show flagged components
`sort_by`	`"render_count"` \| `"render_cost"` \| `"velocity"`	`"render_cost"`	Sort order
`limit`	number	10	Max results
`verbose`	boolean	false	Full profile with cause breakdown and prop changes

`limelight_get_state_snapshot`

State store inspection. View current Zustand or Redux store contents and recent change history.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`store_id`	string	—	Specific store (e.g., “authStore”)
`path`	string	—	Dot-notation path (e.g., “user.preferences.theme”)
`include_history`	boolean	false	Include recent state changes
`history_limit`	number	10	Max history entries
`verbose`	boolean	false	Full state values instead of type descriptions

What Your AI Sees vs. What You See

When your AI calls a Limelight tool, it receives structured JSON — not screenshots or formatted HTML. This is intentional. Structured data lets the AI:

Cross-reference events across tools (event IDs are consistent)
Build up a mental model of your app’s runtime behavior
Correlate what it sees in the runtime with what it knows from your source code
Suggest precise fixes rather than generic advice

The AI never sees raw, unprocessed data. Every response goes through Limelight’s correlation engine and is formatted as structured Debug IR.

Getting Started

Features

Limelight MCP

Help

Tools & Workflows

How Your AI Uses the Tools

Debugging Workflows

”Something is broken”

”Something is slow”

”Something is wrong with data”

”What’s happening right now?”

”Run a health check”

Tool Reference

Overview Tools

`limelight_get_session_overview`

`limelight_find_issues`

Investigation Tools

`limelight_investigate_error`

`limelight_investigate_component`

`limelight_correlate_event`

Query Tools

`limelight_query_network`

`limelight_query_logs`

`limelight_get_timeline`

`limelight_get_event`

Profiling Tools

`limelight_get_render_profile`

`limelight_get_state_snapshot`

What Your AI Sees vs. What You See

​How Your AI Uses the Tools

​Debugging Workflows

​”Something is broken”

​”Something is slow”

​”Something is wrong with data”

​”What’s happening right now?”

​”Run a health check”

​Tool Reference

​Overview Tools

​limelight_get_session_overview

​limelight_find_issues

​Investigation Tools

​limelight_investigate_error

​limelight_investigate_component

​limelight_correlate_event

​Query Tools

​limelight_query_network

​limelight_query_logs

​limelight_get_timeline

​limelight_get_event

​Profiling Tools

​limelight_get_render_profile

​limelight_get_state_snapshot

​What Your AI Sees vs. What You See

How Your AI Uses the Tools

Debugging Workflows

”Something is broken”

”Something is slow”

”Something is wrong with data”

”What’s happening right now?”

”Run a health check”

Tool Reference

Overview Tools

`limelight_get_session_overview`

`limelight_find_issues`

Investigation Tools

`limelight_investigate_error`

`limelight_investigate_component`

`limelight_correlate_event`

Query Tools

`limelight_query_network`

`limelight_query_logs`

`limelight_get_timeline`

`limelight_get_event`

Profiling Tools

`limelight_get_render_profile`

`limelight_get_state_snapshot`

What Your AI Sees vs. What You See