--- title: GummyCat - Visualize the activity of the .NET garbage... description: GummyCat is a new open-source tool that visualizes the memory layout of the .NET garbage collector heap, showing which regions are reserved and for what... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/gummycat---visualize-the-activity-of-the-net-garbage-collector-26dhe977a twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: GummyCat - Visualize the activity of the .NET garbage collector | daily.dev og:description: GummyCat is a new open-source tool that visualizes the memory layout of the .NET garbage collector heap, showing which regions are reserved and for what... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/gummycat---visualize-the-activity-of-the-net-garbage-collector-26dhe977a og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/26DHe977A.png og:image:alt: GummyCat - Visualize the activity of the .NET garbage collector og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # GummyCat - Visualize the activity of the .NET garbage collector **[Kevin Gosse \(minidump.net\)](https://daily.dev/sources/minidump)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary GummyCat is a new open-source tool that visualizes the memory layout of the .NET garbage collector heap, showing which regions are reserved and for what purpose. Originally built as a demo aid for a conference talk on .NET memory management, it evolved into a full tool usable with live processes or memory dumps. It targets .NET 7+ applications using GC regions, offers both a 'defrag' and 'logical' view, and relies on event-pipes and ClrMD under the hood. It's distributed as a dotnet tool via NuGet, with source available on GitHub, and is built with Avalonia UI for potential cross-platform support, though only tested on Windows so far. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How can I visualize what the .NET garbage collector is doing to the heap? GummyCat is a dotnet tool that visualizes the memory layout of the .NET garbage collector heap, showing reserved GC regions and their purpose. It works with .NET 7+ applications using GC regions, supports live processes and memory dumps, and offers a 'defrag' layout view plus a compact 'logical' view showing region occupancy percentages. Install it with 'dotnet tool install -g GummyCat'. _daily.dev surfaces tools like this for developers debugging .NET memory and GC behavior._ ### How does GummyCat capture GC heap snapshots under the hood? It combines two diagnostic mechanisms: event-pipes capture GC events to detect when a collection happens, and ClrMD then attaches to the process to capture a heap snapshot afterward. A known caveat is that GC events arrive asynchronously, so the memory layout may already have changed, or another GC may have occurred, before ClrMD captures the snapshot. _Developers piecing together .NET diagnostics internals track tools like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The Fasting Developer: Memory Discipline and GC Awareness in .NET](https://daily.dev/posts/the-fasting-developer-memory-discipline-and-gc-awareness-in-net-5yq85h552) · We Are .NET · 12 upvotes · 0 comments - [The .NET Tools Blog](https://daily.dev/posts/the-net-tools-blog-scy79z1yx) · JetBrains · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#performance](https://daily.dev/tags/performance), [#.net](https://daily.dev/tags/.net) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/gummycat---visualize-the-activity-of-the-net-garbage-collector-26dhe977a) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"GummyCat - Visualize the activity of the .NET garbage collector","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/gummycat---visualize-the-activity-of-the-net-garbage-collector-26dhe977a","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/gummycat---visualize-the-activity-of-the-net-garbage-collector-26dhe977a"},"datePublished":"2026-10-04T13:06:49.398Z","dateModified":"2026-10-04T13:12:21.068Z","description":"GummyCat is a new open-source tool that visualizes the memory layout of the .NET garbage collector heap, showing which regions are reserved and for what...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5523d86ebcd34ef8d29032867aa28fbe?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5523d86ebcd34ef8d29032867aa28fbe?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Kevin Gosse (minidump.net)","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Kevin Gosse (minidump.net)","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--8KHn1aFB--/f_auto,q_auto/v1791119046/logos/minidump?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/minidump"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/gummycat---visualize-the-activity-of-the-net-garbage-collector-26dhe977a","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"performance,.net","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kevin Gosse (minidump.net)","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/minidump"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"GummyCat - Visualize the activity of the .NET garbage collector"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/gummycat---visualize-the-activity-of-the-net-garbage-collector-26dhe977a#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How can I visualize what the .NET garbage collector is doing to the heap?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"GummyCat is a dotnet tool that visualizes the memory layout of the .NET garbage collector heap, showing reserved GC regions and their purpose. 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