What causes "Cannot add Trace to a program" in NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra?

Do not call loadInto on TenetLoader; use load() / loadTrace(...) which produces a new Trace domain object.

NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · LoadException

Cannot add Trace to a program

Error message

Cannot add Trace to a program

What it means

TenetLoader.loadInto(Program, ImporterSettings) is overridden to unconditionally throw LoadException('Cannot add Trace to a program'). A Tenet trace is itself a separate Trace domain object, not something that can be merged into an existing Program; the API entry point that would imply that is therefore forbidden.

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Debug/Debugger-importers/src/main/java/ghidra/app/util/opinion/TenetLoader.java:318

					.appendMsg("%d ms to load trace | %d ms to flush cache | %d ms total time"
							.formatted(loadDone - start, flushDone - loadDone, flushDone - start));

			return new LoadResults<>(new Loaded<>(trace, settings));
		}
		catch (final CancelledException e) {
			throw e;
		}
		finally {
			if (program != null) {
				program.release(this);
			}
		}
	}

	@Override
	public void loadInto(final Program program, final ImporterSettings settings)
			throws IOException, LoadException, CancelledException {
		throw new LoadException("Cannot add Trace to a program");
	}

	private Trace loadTrace(final ByteProvider provider, final String name, final Program program,
			final Object consumer, final MessageLog log, final TaskMonitor monitor)
			throws LanguageNotFoundException, IOException, CancelledException {

		this.program = program;
		final Language lang = program.getLanguage();
		this.defaultSpace = lang.getAddressFactory().getDefaultAddressSpace();

		final Trace trace = new DBTrace(name, program.getCompilerSpec(), consumer);
		final TraceObjectManager om = trace.getObjectManager();

		try (Transaction tx = trace.openTransaction("Import Tenet Trace: %s".formatted(name));
				BypassWriteCache bypass = om.withoutWriteCache()) {

			om.createRootObject(TENET_SESSION_SCHEMA);

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

Do not call loadInto on TenetLoader; use load() / loadTrace(...) which produces a new Trace domain object.
If writing a generic loader dispatcher, skip loaders whose loadInto throws this contract violation, or check the loader type first.
Report to the caller that traces are created as new domain objects, not merged into programs.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (loader instanceof TenetLoader) {
    // use load() to create a new Trace; never loadInto()
}

Try / catch

try {
    loader.loadInto(program, settings);
} catch (LoadException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("Cannot add Trace to a program")) {
        // fall back to load() to create a standalone Trace
    }
}

Prevention

Never call loadInto on trace loaders; use load() to create a new Trace domain object.
In generic loader dispatchers, skip or special-case trace loaders for the loadInto path.
Remember traces are standalone objects, not merge targets.

When it happens

Trigger: The framework or a caller invokes loadInto(program, settings) on TenetLoader instead of the full load() that creates a new Trace. This is a deliberate API guard: trace loaders do not support adding into a program.

Common situations: A generic importer harness that loops over loaders and calls loadInto on each, hitting the trace loader; a script that assumed loadInto was uniformly supported across all loaders.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4f8bb56b703480e0. Report an issue: GitHub.