axiom-memory-debugging

# Memory Debugging

## Overview

Memory issues manifest as crashes after prolonged use. **Core principle** 90% of memory leaks follow 3 patterns (retain cycles, timer/observer leaks, collection growth). Diagnose systematically with Instruments, never guess.

## Example Prompts

These are real questions developers ask that this skill is designed to answer:

#### 1. "My app crashes after 10-15 minutes of use, but there are no error messages. How do I figure out what's leaking?"
→ The skill covers systematic Instruments workflows to identify memory leaks vs normal memory pressure, with real diagnostic patterns

#### 2. "I'm seeing memory jump from 50MB to 200MB+ when I perform a specific action. Is this a leak or normal caching behavior?"
→ The skill distinguishes between progressive leaks (continuous growth) and temporary spikes (caches that stabilize), with diagnostic criteria

#### 3. "View controllers don't seem to be deallocating after I dismiss them. How do I find the retain cycle causing this?"
→ The skill demonstrates Memory Graph Debugger techniques to identify objects holding strong references and common retain cycle patterns

#### 4. "I have timers/observers in my code and I think they're causing memory leaks. How do I verify and fix this?"
→ The skill covers the 5 diagnostic patterns, including specific timer and observer leak signatures with prevention strategies

#### 5. "My app uses 200MB of memory and I don't know if that's normal or if I have multiple leaks. How do I diagnose?"
→ The skill provides the Instruments decision tree to distinguish normal memory use, expected caches, and actual leaks requiring fixes

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## Red Flags — Memory Leak Likely

If you see ANY of these, suspect memory leak not just heavy memory use:

- Progressive memory growth: 50MB → 100MB → 200MB (not plateauing)
- App crashes after 10-15 minutes with no error in Xcode console
- Memory warnings appear repeatedly in device logs
- Specific screen/operation makes memory jump (10-5