Instruments Analyzer

This tool gives you programmatic access to Apple Instruments trace data. Instruments is normally a GUI tool — this tool bridges the gap by exporting .trace files into DuckDB, where you can query them with SQL.

When to use this tool

• You have (or want to record) an Instruments .trace file
• You want to analyze performance data: CPU profiling, hitches, hangs, signposts, Core Animation, SwiftUI updates, RunLoop activity, etc.
• You want root-cause analysis backed by frame-level or event-level evidence

For scroll & animation jank diagnosis: See scroll_and_animation.md — a frame-first workflow for isolating interaction windows, ranking dropped frames, cascade analysis, per-frame attribution, and producing a prioritized fix plan.

Workflow overview