One of the original issues with this message tracing (as pointed by ...) is that it risks flooding the editor with messages, thus freezing the editor. Since the user needs to be certain what they are doing, I've added a certain amount of button-clicking so that the user is certain they want to be doing this.
As much as I'm a fan of context menus, I thing right-click, then message trace and your editor is frozen isn't a good idea. [Edit: this isn't meant personally this is meant for me it isn't a good idea.]
Then only create stuff (as packages) that you want to use and that you use everyday. Itching scratches or scratching itches that you have are the best way to create stuff that others also will use - even if it's two people and their pets.
As I pointed on in the readme (scroll down) this clamp idea is definitely yours and if you want to create a package that solely does message tracing, then others will use it. This tracing/debug topic pops up so often and yet there isn't yet an "official" solution, so there is a space for pushing ideas out there.
I hope you don't mind me implementing your idea but I didn't want to a) wait for the discussion around the UI/Features b) create something that folks can try and get a feel for c) have something that I can use and d) it was super quick to do.
This whole message tracing has been talked about for years, yet there hasn't been anything "official" (alone in that thread there are two unofficial, unpublished attempts). Hence my stepping out and "just doing it"(TM) - f2k it, having an POC or unpublished plugin just because folks have the feeling it goes against the "node red isn't a dashboard" idea is silly. Node-RED can be and should be a dashboard because that's what folks want and that's where Node-RED has developed towards.
After all these are plugins and not "I want this feature in core" attempts. I don't care whether this ever hits core, who cares, I can just install a plugin and have better insights into what my flows are doing. I want the insights, not a discussion around whether this should be in core or whether the UI is good or not.
And so what if there are 5, 10 or 100 packages that all offer message tracing - great, then each one does it slightly differently - I don't have to install them, nor does anyone else.
Nick does point out that this stuff should go into the debugger package so perhaps begin there.
