A feature trace capability may be provided for features including, but not limited to, automatic quality of service (auto QoS), power over Ethernet (PoE), and fabric compatibility. A network command may be implemented with the capability to validate features across a network path or the network as a whole. The output of this network command may result in the display of details about supported features. Such a command may also result in a listing of what devices require upgrades to support any number of features of interest. Embodiments of the feature trace capability may be configured such that the query gets terminated once a final subnet (or endpoint) is reached. Alternatively, the feature trace capability may be configured such that the query gets terminated after a maximum hop count, or trace total (trace_ttl) is reached. Such a limit may prevent the continuous flooding of the network.