June 2, 2026
Profiler? I barely know her
Pyro Caml Continuous Profiler for OCaml
OCaml fans are cheering, joking, and arguing as a long-missing tool finally arrives
TLDR: Semgrep released Pyro Caml, a new tool that helps OCaml programs find slow spots while running live, filling a gap many users said had existed for years. The community reaction was a mix of celebration, jokes, and a sharp debate over whether this is proof OCaml is growing up or still missing basic support.
A niche programming language just got its own always-on performance tracker, and the comment section energy is basically equal parts victory lap, therapy session, and nerdy stand-up set. The big news is that Semgrep, a code-scanning company whose main engine is built in OCaml, released Pyro Caml 1.0, a tool that watches how programs behave while they’re running in the real world. In plain English: it helps developers spot slowdowns without having to recreate customer problems on their own machines.
What really got people talking is the classic underdog angle. OCaml users flooded in with variations of "finally!" because, as many commenters put it, using a smaller language often means watching developers in bigger ecosystems get all the shiny tools first. Others praised the team for not just complaining about the missing software but actually building it and releasing it for everyone. That got a lot of open-source hero applause.
But of course, this is the internet, so there was drama. Some people called it a huge moment for OCaml observability; others rolled their eyes and said the real story is that production software still depends on custom-made tools because the ecosystem is so thin. A few hot takes basically boiled down to: "Congrats, but also this proves the problem." And then came the jokes: people riffing on the name Pyro Caml like it’s a fire-breathing animal, and others joking that OCaml developers are so starved for tools they celebrate version numbers like album drops. The vibe? A real mix of pride, relief, and playful complaining.
Key Points
- •Semgrep announced Pyro Caml 1.0.0, described as a continuous profiler for OCaml.
- •The tool was created to address the lack of continuous profiling support in the OCaml ecosystem.
- •Semgrep needs production profiling because its engineers generally avoid direct access to customer source code used in scans.
- •A prior profiling approach failed in production because gVisor does not implement the Linux perf_event_open system call.
- •The article references open-source and standards-based profiling options including Pyroscope’s SDK and OpenTelemetry’s profiling specification.