explaingit

square/leakcanary

★ 29,921KotlinAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5MaintainedLicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Android library that automatically detects memory leaks during development and shows you exactly which objects are being held unnecessarily.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((LeakCanary))
    What it does
      Detects memory leaks
      Identifies held objects
      Watches during development
    How it works
      Runs alongside app
      Monitors RAM usage
      Reports findings
    Use cases
      Debug slow apps
      Fix crashes
      Optimize performance
    Tech stack
      Kotlin
      Android SDK
      JVM runtime

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Debug why your Android app is getting slower over time by finding objects that aren't being released.

USE CASE 2

Fix crashes caused by out-of-memory errors by identifying which parts of your code are holding onto memory.

USE CASE 3

Optimize app performance during development by catching memory leaks before they reach users.

Tech stack

KotlinAndroid SDKJava

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

LeakCanary is a library for Android apps that automatically detects memory leaks. A memory leak happens when an app holds onto chunks of memory it no longer needs, which over time causes the app to use more and more RAM, slow down, or crash. LeakCanary runs alongside your Android app during development, watches for these leaks, and reports exactly which objects are being held unnecessarily so developers can track down and fix the problem. Written in Kotlin, it integrates directly into Android projects.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I integrate LeakCanary into my Android project to start detecting memory leaks?
Prompt 2
Show me how to interpret a LeakCanary memory leak report and trace it back to my code.
Prompt 3
What's the difference between a real memory leak and a false positive in LeakCanary?
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.