pprofessor

PProfessor is a macOS pprof toolkit:

• pprofessor is a Rust CLI capture tool that samples a process and writes gzip-compressed pprof protobuf files.
• PProfessor.app is a native SwiftUI viewer for opening and exploring those profiles.

Requirements

• macOS 15.0+ for the viewer
• macOS 14.0+ for the CLI
• Xcode 16+
• Rust stable
• XcodeGen for app project generation

Build

make build
make test

Build and run the app:

make run-app

Build the sandboxed App Store viewer variant, with attachment and the bundled CLI excluded:

make build-app-store

Archive, export, upload, and submit the App Store build with:

export APPLE_TEAM_ID="YOUR_TEAM_ID"
export ASC_KEY_ID="YOUR_KEY_ID"
export ASC_ISSUER_ID="YOUR_ISSUER_ID"
export ASC_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH="$HOME/.asc/AuthKey_YOUR_KEY_ID.p8"
export ASC_APP_ID="YOUR_NUMERIC_APP_STORE_CONNECT_APP_ID"

make app-store-upload APP_VERSION=1.0 BUILD_NUMBER=1
make app-store-wait
make app-store-build-info APP_VERSION=1.0 BUILD_NUMBER=1
make app-store-submit APP_VERSION=1.0 BUILD_NUMBER=1 ASC_BUILD_ID="BUILD_RESOURCE_ID"

The upload and submission tasks require the asc CLI (brew install asc). Submission is deliberately separate and requires the processed build resource ID so uploading cannot accidentally send a version to review.

Build the universal release CLI helper used by app and release packaging:

make cli-helper-universal

CLI Usage

pprofessor run --output profile.pb.gz ./my-app
sudo pprofessor attach --output profile.pb.gz 12345
pprofessor processes

The CLI uses macOS task_for_pid, so profiling another process requires root or a trusted signature with the debugger entitlement.

When PProfessor.app is open, CLI run and attach sessions are discovered automatically and stream continuously symbolized pprof deltas to the app over loopback TCP at 127.0.0.1:57557. The listener is never exposed to the network. The final gzip profile is retained by the app alongside its session metadata. Pass --no-publish to keep a capture CLI-only.

The GitHub release app's Attach button lists attachable processes owned by the current user. The App Store build omits all in-app attachment controls; live sessions still appear when captured by a separately installed CLI. Live, completed, imported, failed, and interrupted captures remain in the Sessions sidebar until explicitly deleted.

App CLI Installation

GitHub release app builds bundle the pprofessor CLI at PProfessor.app/Contents/Helpers/pprofessor. The App Store build does not bundle or install an executable helper; install the free CLI separately from Homebrew or a GitHub release to stream live profiles into it. Use Tools > Install CLI tools in the app to install it to:

~/.local/bin/pprofessor

Add ~/.local/bin to your shell PATH if needed.

Layout

.
├── src/                 # Rust CLI/library
├── tests/               # Rust tests
├── apps/macos/          # SwiftUI app and PProfessorKit
├── Cargo.toml
└── Makefile