Profiling the Atom Render Process on macOS with Instruments

Determine the version of Electron for your version of Atom.
- Open the dev tools with alt-cmd-i
- Evaluate process.versions.electron in the console.
Based on this version, download the appropriate Electron symbols from the releases page.
- The file name should look like electron-v1.X.Y-darwin-x64-dsym.zip.
- Decompress these symbols in your ~/Downloads directory.
Now create a time profile in Instruments.
- Open Instruments.app.
- Select Time Profiler
- In Atom, determine the pid to attach to by evaluating process.pid in the dev tools console.
- Attach to this pid via the menu at the upper left corner of the Instruments profiler.
- Click record, do your thing.
- Click stop.
- The symbols should have been automatically located by Instruments (via Spotlight or something?), giving you a readable profile.