Concurrency Profiling — Instruments Workflows

Profile and optimize Swift async/await code using Instruments.

When to Use

✅ Use when:

• UI stutters during async operations
• Suspecting actor contention
• Tasks queued but not executing
• Main thread blocked during async work
• Need to visualize task execution flow

❌ Don't use when:

• Issue is pure CPU performance (use Time Profiler)
• Memory issues unrelated to concurrency (use Allocations)
• Haven't confirmed concurrency is the bottleneck

Swift Concurrency Template

What It Shows

Track	Information
Swift Tasks	Task lifetimes, parent-child relationships
Swift Actors	Actor access, contention visualization
Thread States	Blocked vs running vs suspended

Statistics

• Running Tasks: Tasks currently executing
• Alive Tasks: Tasks present at a point in time
• Total Tasks: Cumulative count created

Color Coding

• Blue: Task executing
• Red: Task waiting (contention)
• Gray: Task suspended (awaiting)

Workflow 1: Diagnose Main Thread Blocking

Symptom: UI freezes, main thread timeline full

1. Profile with Swift Concurrency template
2. Look at main thread → "Swift Tasks" lane
3. Find long blue bars (task executing on main)
4. Check if work could be offloaded

Solution patterns:

// ❌ Heavy work on MainActor
@MainActor
class ViewModel: ObservableObject {
    func process() {
        let result = heavyComputation()  // Blocks UI
        self.data = result
    }
}

// ✅ Offload heavy work
@MainActor
class ViewModel: ObservableObject {
    func process() async {
        let result = await Task.detached {
            heavyComputation()
        }.value
        self.data = result
    }
}

Workflow 2: Find Actor Contention

Symptom: Tasks serializing unexpectedly, parallel work running sequentially

1. Enable "Swift Actors" instrument
2. Look for serialized access patterns
3. Red = waiting, Blue = executing
4. High red:blue ratio = contention problem

Solution patterns:

// ❌ All work serialized through actor
actor DataProcessor {
    func process(_ data: Data) -> Result {
        heavyProcessing(data)  // All callers wait
    }
}

// ✅ Mark heavy work as nonisolated
actor DataProcessor {
    nonisolated func process(_ data: Data) -> Result {
        heavyProcessing(data)  // Runs in parallel
    }

    func storeResult(_ result: Result) {
        // Only actor state access serialized
    }
}

More fixes:

• Split actor into multiple (domain separation)
• Use Mutex for hot paths (faster than actor hop)
• Reduce actor scope (fewer isolated properties)

Workflow 3: Thread Pool Exhaustion

Symptom: Tasks queued but not executing, gaps in task execution

Cause: Blocking calls exhaust cooperative pool

1. Look for gaps in task execution across all threads
2. Check for blocking primitives
3. Replace with async equivalents

Common culprits:

// ❌ Blocks cooperative thread
Task {
    semaphore.wait()  // NEVER do this
    // ...
    semaphore.signal()
}

// ❌ Synchronous file I/O in async context
Task {
    let data = Data(contentsOf: fileURL)  // Blocks
}

// ✅ Use async APIs
Task {
    let (data, _) = try await URLSession.shared.data(from: fileURL)
}

Debug flag:

SWIFT_CONCURRENCY_COOPERATIVE_THREAD_BOUNDS=1

Detects unsafe blocking in async context.

Workflow 4: Priority Inversion

Symptom: High-priority task waits for low-priority

1. Inspect task priorities in Instruments
2. Follow wait chains
3. Ensure critical paths use appropriate priority

// ✅ Explicit priority for critical work
Task(priority: .userInitiated) {
    await criticalUIUpdate()
}

Thread Pool Model

Swift uses a cooperative thread pool matching CPU core count:

Aspect	GCD	Swift Concurrency
Threads	Grows unbounded	Fixed to core count
Blocking	Creates new threads	Suspends, frees thread
Dependencies	Hidden	Runtime-tracked
Context switch	Full kernel switch	Lightweight continuation

Why blocking is catastrophic:

• Each blocked thread holds memory + kernel structures
• Limited threads means blocked = no progress
• Pool exhaustion deadlocks the app

Quick Checks (Before Profiling)

Run these checks first:

1. Is work actually async?

   • Look for suspension points (await)
   • Sync code in async function still blocks

2. Holding locks across await?

   // ❌ Deadlock risk
   mutex.withLock {
       await something()  // Never!
   }
   

3. Tasks in tight loops?

   // ❌ Overhead may exceed benefit
   for item in items {
       Task { process(item) }
   }
   
   // ✅ Structured concurrency
   await withTaskGroup(of: Void.self) { group in
       for item in items {
           group.addTask { process(item) }
       }
   }
   

4. DispatchSemaphore in async context?

   • Always unsafe — use withCheckedContinuation instead

Common Issues Summary

Issue	Symptom in Instruments	Fix
MainActor overload	Long blue bars on main	Task.detached, nonisolated
Actor contention	High red:blue ratio	Split actors, use nonisolated
Thread exhaustion	Gaps in all threads	Remove blocking calls
Priority inversion	High-pri waits for low-pri	Check task priorities
Too many tasks	Task creation overhead	Use task groups

Safe vs Unsafe Primitives

Safe with cooperative pool:

• await, actors, task groups
• os_unfair_lock, NSLock (short critical sections)
• Mutex (iOS 18+)

Unsafe (violate forward progress):

• DispatchSemaphore.wait()
• pthread_cond_wait
• Sync file/network I/O
• Thread.sleep() in Task

Resources

WWDC: 2022-110350, 2021-10254

Docs: /xcode/improving-app-responsiveness

Skills: axiom-swift-concurrency, axiom-performance-profiling, axiom-synchronization