Pvanalyze

What it does

When your agent uses it

• : the user mentions pvanalyze
• PerfView-style CLI trace analysis
• Cross-platform .nettrace inspection
• The task starts from an existing .nettrace file and needs

Example prompts

• “/pvanalyze”

Requirements

• Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Requires .NET 8 or later to run `pvanalyze`; trace collection usually requires `dotnet-trace`. Some scenarios require traces captured with verbose runtime providers or .NET 9+ DATAS events.

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Confirm the trace path and whether it was collected with the events needed for the question.
2. 2Run pvanalyze info first to verify the file opens and contains the expected processes.
3. 3Pick one focused analysis command
4. 4Prefer --format json when another tool or agent will consume the output.
5. 5Add --from and --to only after the baseline command confirms the interesting time window.
6. 6Use pvanalyze clean when generated .pvanalyze.etlx cache files should be removed.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 535dd55. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • dotnet
  • git

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

  • github.com

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

• Compatibility

  Requires .NET 8 or later to run `pvanalyze`; trace collection usually requires `dotnet-trace`. Some scenarios require traces captured with verbose runtime providers or .NET 9+ DATAS events.

  From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Pvanalyze loads about 2k tokens when it runs, and up to ~3.7k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 156 tokens; SKILL.md has 717 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~156

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~2k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~3.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from managedcode/dotnet-skills at commit 535dd55, republished under its MIT licence (© managedcode). 717 words, ~1,978 tokens.

name

pvanalyze

description

Use `pvanalyze` to inspect existing .NET `.nettrace` files from the command line, including GC, JIT, CPU stacks, allocation, DATAS, events, exceptions, timeline, and call-tree analysis with JSON or SpeedScope. USE FOR: the user mentions pvanalyze, PerfView-style CLI trace analysis, or cross-platform .nettrace inspection; the task starts from an existing .nettrace file and needs. DO NOT USE FOR: unrelated stacks; generic tasks that do not need this specific guidance. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.

compatibility

Requires .NET 8 or later to run `pvanalyze`; trace collection usually requires `dotnet-trace`. Some scenarios require traces captured with verbose runtime providers or .NET 9+ DATAS events.

# .NET 10+ one-shot execution path
dnx pvanalyze

# Global tool path
dotnet tool install --global pvanalyze

git clone https://github.com/adityamandaleeka/pvanalyze
cd pvanalyze
dotnet build -c Release
dotnet run -c Release -- info ./trace.nettrace

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-trace
dotnet-trace --version
pvanalyze --help

pvanalyze info ./trace.nettrace
pvanalyze gcstats ./trace.nettrace --format json
pvanalyze gcstats ./trace.nettrace --timeline --longest 5
pvanalyze gcstats ./trace.nettrace --from 1000 --to 2000 --timeline --format json

pvanalyze cpustacks ./trace.nettrace --top 20
pvanalyze cpustacks ./trace.nettrace --group-by module --top 10 --format json
pvanalyze cpustacks ./trace.nettrace --format speedscope --output ./trace.speedscope.json

pvanalyze events ./trace.nettrace --list --format json
pvanalyze events ./trace.nettrace --provider DotNETRuntime --type GCStart --limit 50
pvanalyze exceptions ./trace.nettrace --type NullReference --format json
pvanalyze calltree ./trace.nettrace --hot-path --depth 5 --format json
pvanalyze calltree ./trace.nettrace --caller-callee "Serialize"

dotnet-trace collect --process-id <PID> --output ./trace.nettrace
dotnet-trace collect -- dotnet run -c Release

dotnet-trace collect --providers "Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntime:0x200001:5" -- dotnet run -c Release
pvanalyze alloc ./trace.nettrace --group-by type --top 20 --format json

DOTNET_GCDynamicAdaptationMode=1 dotnet-trace collect -p <PID> --providers "Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntime:0x4C14FCCBD:5"
pvanalyze datas ./trace.nettrace --changes-only --format json

© managedcode, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 3 other files (references) in catalog/Tools/pvanalyze/skills/pvanalyze of managedcode/dotnet-skills.

• SKILL.md
• manifest.json
• references/commands.md
• references/overview.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 535dd55