Memory Leak Debugging

Diagnose memory leaks in the Qwen Code Node.js CLI by capturing heap snapshots and analyzing retained object sizes via chrome-devtools CLI tooling.

Prerequisites

• chrome-devtools CLI (from chrome-devtools-mcp package). If not found, install with: npm i chrome-devtools-mcp@latest -g after user confirmation. See https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp/blob/main/docs/cli.md
• Node.js 22+ (for --heapsnapshot-signal support)

Step 1: Start the CLI with Snapshot Signal

Use tmux so you can interact with the TUI and trigger snapshots from another pane. Use the tmux-real-user-testing helper script:

HELPER=.qwen/skills/tmux-real-user-testing/scripts/tmux-real-user-log.sh
eval "$(bash "$HELPER" start memleak . \
  env QWEN_CODE_NO_RELAUNCH=true NODE_OPTIONS=--heapsnapshot-signal=SIGUSR2 \
  npm run dev)"
echo "SESSION=$SESSION OUTDIR=$OUTDIR"

The eval exports SESSION and OUTDIR. Note: shell environment does not persist across separate tool calls — save the session name from the output and use it explicitly in subsequent commands.

Notes:

• npm run dev runs from TypeScript source via tsx — no build step needed and changes to core/cli are reflected immediately.
• QWEN_CODE_NO_RELAUNCH=true prevents the CLI from spawning a child process, so PID management is simpler.
• NODE_OPTIONS propagates the flag through npm → tsx → node.

Get the PID of the actual node process. With npm run dev, there's a process chain (npm → node scripts/dev.js → tsx → node CLI), so walk the tree to the innermost node child:

NODE_PID=$(bash .qwen/skills/memory-leak-debug/scripts/find-leaf-node.sh "<session-name>")

To profile the production bundle instead (e.g., verifying tree-shaking): npm run bundle first, then use env QWEN_CODE_NO_RELAUNCH=true node --heapsnapshot-signal=SIGUSR2 dist/cli.js as the command. Since node is the direct pane process, PID discovery is simpler:

NODE_PID=$(tmux list-panes -t "<session-name>" -F '#{pane_pid}')

Step 2: Exercise the Suspected Leak

Drive the TUI via tmux (see tmux-real-user-testing skill for patterns). Take snapshots at intervals to compare:

kill -USR2 $NODE_PID   # snapshot 1 (baseline)
# ... use the CLI via tmux send-keys ...
kill -USR2 $NODE_PID   # snapshot 2 (after activity)
# ... more activity ...
kill -USR2 $NODE_PID   # snapshot 3 (confirm growth trend)

Snapshots are written to the CLI's working directory as Heap.<timestamp>.<pid>.<seq>.heapsnapshot.

Step 3: Start chrome-devtools Daemon

chrome-devtools start --experimentalMemory --headless --no-usage-statistics

This starts the daemon in file-analysis mode — no browser or live Node connection is needed. The memory tools work entirely on .heapsnapshot files.

Step 4: Identify the Leak

Load and summarize

chrome-devtools load_memory_snapshot /abs/path/to/snapshot.heapsnapshot

Returns total heap size, V8 heap breakdown, node count.

Get class-level aggregates with retained sizes

chrome-devtools get_memory_snapshot_details /abs/path/to/snapshot.heapsnapshot

Output is CSV: uid, className, count, selfSize, maxRetainedSize.

Compare across snapshots to find classes whose count or retained size grows unboundedly.

Inspect instances of a leaking class

chrome-devtools get_nodes_by_class /abs/path/to/snapshot.heapsnapshot <uid>

Where <uid> is from the get_memory_snapshot_details output. Returns individual instances with their id, retainedSize, and nodeIndex.

Trace retainer chains

chrome-devtools get_node_retainers /abs/path/to/snapshot.heapsnapshot <nodeId>

Where <nodeId> is the id field from get_nodes_by_class. Shows what holds the object alive — follow the chain to find the root retention path.

Step 5: Identify Root Cause

Common patterns:

• Unbounded buffer/array: An array that accumulates entries without eviction (e.g., performance.measure() → measureEntryBuffer).
• Event listener leak: Listeners registered on long-lived emitters without cleanup.
• Closure capture: A closure inadvertently captures a large object that outlives its intended scope.
• Module-level cache: A Map/Set at module scope that grows with usage.

The retainer chain tells you what holds the object; the class aggregate growth rate tells you how fast it leaks.

Step 6: Verify Fix

After applying the fix:

1. Rebuild: npm run bundle
2. Repeat Steps 1-4 with the same workload.
3. Confirm the leaking class count stabilizes (no longer grows with activity).

Cleanup

HELPER=.qwen/skills/tmux-real-user-testing/scripts/tmux-real-user-log.sh
bash "$HELPER" finish "<session-name>" "<outdir>"
chrome-devtools stop
rm *.heapsnapshot  # if no longer needed

Worked Example

See examples/react-reconciler-performance-measure-leak.md for the ink 7 upgrade leak that caused ~143 MB retention from PerformanceMeasure objects.