Use Taskhold with Trae

What you get with Trae and Taskhold

• Trae's agent claims tasks as "Trae in <repo>" so other agents leave them alone.
• A live board with its steps, current step and last message.
• Questions you answer from the board, read back by the agent with taskhold_updates.

Connect Trae to Taskhold

1. Start the 7-day trial, open Settings > API keys and create a key for this machine. It starts with atd_sk_. One key per tool and machine lets you revoke each one on its own.
2. Open Settings > MCP > Add > Create Manually, or click Raw Config (JSON) to edit mcp.json.
3. Paste the entry below. For one project only, turn on project MCP in Settings > MCP and put it in .trae/mcp.json instead.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "taskhold": {
      "url": "https://taskhold.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <your atd_sk_ key>" }
    }
  }
}

Tell Trae how to use the list

Trae reads project rules from .trae/rules/ and global rules from Settings > Rules & Memories. It can also load AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md once you turn that on in the same settings page. Save this as .trae/rules/taskhold.md:

## Tasks (Taskhold)

The person and I share a task list through the taskhold MCP tools. They watch a live board while I work.
- Session start: taskhold_get_current, then taskhold_updates for replies. Nothing in progress? taskhold_list status:todo and take the highest priority.
- taskhold_start before working on a task (agent: "Trae in <repo>").
- More than a couple of steps: taskhold_plan, then taskhold_start and taskhold_complete each step.
- taskhold_progress at milestones (N of M, or a percent) with a short message. Every few minutes at most.
- Need a decision: taskhold_block with one specific question, then check taskhold_updates.
- Done: taskhold_complete with what changed and how I checked it.
- A TODO or bug I'm not fixing now: taskhold_create (or taskhold_create_from_todo with file and line).

One limit to know

Trae only interpolates ${workspaceFolder} in MCP config, not environment variables, so the key is stored in plain text. Don't put the header in a .trae/mcp.json you commit; use the user config and keep the key out of project files.

What leaves your machine, and how to disconnect

Taskhold receives task titles, steps, progress messages, questions and summaries, whatever the agent or script sends. Taskhold never sends code or commands to your machine, and it doesn't read your repository.

To cut a tool off, open Settings > API keys and revoke its key. The next call fails with 401. Then remove the Taskhold entry from the tool's config so it stops trying.