diff --git a/python/lsst/pipe/base/cmdLineTask.py b/python/lsst/pipe/base/cmdLineTask.py
index 282ceccd8..fa3916045 100644
--- a/python/lsst/pipe/base/cmdLineTask.py
+++ b/python/lsst/pipe/base/cmdLineTask.py
@@ -25,9 +25,14 @@
 
 import contextlib
 import logging
+from collections.abc import Generator
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 
 from deprecated.sphinx import deprecated
 
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    import cProfile
+
 
 @deprecated(
     reason="Replaced by lsst.utils.timer.profile().  Will be removed after v26.0",
@@ -35,7 +40,7 @@
     category=FutureWarning,
 )
 @contextlib.contextmanager
-def profile(filename: str, log: logging.Logger | None = None):
+def profile(filename: str, log: logging.Logger | None = None) -> Generator[cProfile.Profile, None, None]:
     """Context manager for profiling with cProfile.
 
     Parameters
@@ -71,7 +76,7 @@ def profile(filename: str, log: logging.Logger | None = None):
     """
     if not filename:
         # Nothing to do
-        yield
+        yield None  # type: ignore
         return
     from cProfile import Profile