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Dev tools · March 26, 2022

WA

Wachy – A UI for eBPF-based performance debugging

eBPF is an amazing technology that allows safely running user-supplied functions at pretty much arbitrary probe points in a kernel/user space context. Much has been written about how amazing this feature is for kernel observability. But as someone who writes user space code, what I find even more amazing is the support for tracing arbitrary user space programs, with no code changes and low overhead. However, doing in-depth analysis can get complicated and time-consuming. My goal with wachy was to make this debugging significantly easier/faster to use, by displaying traces in a TUI…

In plain words

Wachy is a terminal user interface for eBPF-based performance debugging of user space programs. It displays execution traces alongside source code and enables interactive analysis, eliminating the need for code changes or complex manual investigation. Designed for developers who need to debug applications with low overhead, Wachy simplifies the process of tracing and analyzing program behavior in detail through its integrated visualization approach.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

eBPF is an amazing technology that allows safely running user-supplied functions at pretty much arbitrary probe points in a kernel/user space context. Much has been written about how amazing this feature is for kernel observability. But as someone who writes user space code, what I find even more amazing is the support for tracing arbitrary user space programs, with no code changes and low overhead. However, doing in-depth analysis can get complicated and time-consuming. My goal with wachy was to make this debugging significantly easier/faster to use, by displaying traces in a TUI next to the source code and allowing for interactive drilldown analysis. If you get a chance, check out the start of the demo video since (AFAIK) it's quite unique and gives a much clearer idea than I can provide with just text.

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