Lightning-AI / Lightning-AI/lightning-thunder

Support profiling in examine() to measure execution time and speedup

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enhancement
Dominant language
Python
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Description

### Issue Description:

Currently, thunder.examine() helps verify whether Thunder can successfully compile and run a given function. However, it lacks visibility into runtime performance improvements, which can be important for users evaluating the benefits of Thunder JIT.

**Proposed Feature:**

- Introduce a profile=True flag to examine() that:

- Measures and prints the execution time of the original (eager) function.

- Measures and prints the execution time of the compiled (Thunder) function.

- Calculates and displays the speedup factor.

**Example Usage:**

```
from thunder.examine import examine

model = MyModel(...)
examine(model, *args, profile=True)
```

**Expected Output:**

```
The function appears to be working as expected
Execution time - original: 0.1234s
Execution time - compiled: 0.0678s
Speedup: 1.82x
```

**Also Includes:**

- Update to docs/source/fundamentals/examine.rst

- Unit test test_examine_profile using capsys to assert profiling output

**Motivation:**

This feature adds valuable insight into Thunder’s runtime optimization benefits and allows users to quantify performance gains directly using the examine utility.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at the examine entry point imported from thunder.examine and review docs/source/fundamentals/examine.rst. Use the requested test_examine_profile with capsys as the completion check, confirming that profile=True reports original time, compiled time, and speedup.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
documentation, performance, testing
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
58/100

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