Definition
Plain language
A tool that measures where a running program spends its time, so a developer can find the slow parts.
As stated in the literature
A performance-analysis tool that instruments or samples a program's execution to report per-function time and resource usage; its output (a profiler dump) serves as structured side information for code- and kernel-optimizing agents.
Also called: profiler dump
Why it matters: Without it, developers and code-optimizing agents are guessing about where the slowdowns are instead of measuring them.
For example, it might report that a program spends 80% of its time inside one slow function, telling the developer exactly where to focus.
Heard on the show
“You can show it a profiler dump.”Episode 065 — One Loop to Optimize Them All: A Universal API for LLM-Driven Discovery