Performance

Performance Scratchpad

Track performance metrics, optimization discoveries, and site speed insights.

Current Performance Baseline

Build Performance

Date: 2025-08-28

Metrics (as of implementation):

• Full build time: ~2.6 seconds
• Incremental builds: Near-instant with hot reloading
• Production build: Includes static generation + image optimization + search indexing
• TypeScript checking: ~1 second of build time

Build output size:

dist/_astro/ec.v4551.css         18.22 kB │ gzip: 3.96 kB
dist/_astro/ui-core.Ft0Z9wO7.js  68.07 kB │ gzip: 21.71 kB

Analysis: Very efficient for current content volume Tracking: Monitor build time as content grows

Runtime Performance

Date: 2025-08-28

Page Load Metrics (localhost testing):

• Initial page load: ~200ms (local dev server)
• Navigation: Instant (client-side routing)
• Search: Near-instant with Pagefind index

Cloudflare Pages Performance:

• Cold start: ~300-500ms (first visit)
• Cached response: ~50-100ms (subsequent visits)
• Global edge distribution: Automatic via Cloudflare CDN

Optimization Status: Excellent baseline performance

Performance Optimizations Applied

Image Processing

Date: 2025-08-28

Implementation: Using Astro’s built-in image optimization with Sharp

houston.CZZyCf7p_Z2wV2f.webp (reused cache entry)

Benefits:

• Automatic WebP conversion for modern browsers
• Responsive image generation
• Build-time optimization with caching
• Lazy loading by default

Impact: Reduced image payload size, improved loading times

Asset Bundling

Date: 2025-08-28

Observation: Astro automatically optimizes asset bundling

• CSS is extracted and minimized
• JavaScript is chunked and tree-shaken
• Assets are hashed for cache busting
• Gzip compression is highly effective (21.71kB → 68.07kB)

Configuration: No manual optimization needed - works out of the box

Search Optimization

Date: 2025-08-28

Implementation: Pagefind integration provides efficient full-text search

Indexed 5 pages
Indexed 413 words
Finished in 0.027 seconds

Performance characteristics:

• Index generation: Very fast (27ms for current content)
• Search latency: Near-instant client-side search
• Index size: Scales linearly with content
• No server-side processing required

Performance Monitoring Ideas

Automated Tracking

Date: 2025-08-28

Build Time Monitoring:

• Track build duration in CI pipeline
• Alert on significant increases (>50% regression)
• Monitor bundle size changes in PRs
• Track dependency impact on build performance

Implementation idea:

# GitHub Actions step
- name: Performance Check
  run: |
    BUILD_TIME=$(time npm run build 2>&1 | grep real | awk '{print $2}')
    echo "Build time: $BUILD_TIME"
    # Compare with baseline and alert if regression

Status: Idea phase - could be valuable for preventing performance regressions

User Experience Metrics

Date: 2025-08-28

Cloudflare Analytics Integration:

• Core Web Vitals tracking
• Page load distribution analysis
• Geographic performance variations
• Search usage patterns

Potential Implementation:

• Enable Cloudflare Web Analytics
• Set up performance budgets
• Create performance dashboard
• Monitor search effectiveness metrics

Value: Data-driven performance optimization decisions

Performance Challenges & Solutions

CSS Loading Issue Resolution

Date: 2025-08-28

Problem: Initial deployment showed unstyled content Root Cause: Asset path configuration mismatch between local and Cloudflare Pages Solution: Removed base path configuration, updated site URL Prevention: Always test deployment configuration with production builds

Learning: Asset path issues are common in static site deployment Documentation: Added to troubleshooting guide for future reference

Build Cache Optimization

Date: 2025-08-28

Observation: Astro maintains build cache in node_modules/.astro/ Benefits: Faster incremental builds, reduced processing time Management: Cache is automatically managed, persists across builds

Best Practice: Include .astro/ in .gitignore but preserve in CI cache CI Integration: GitHub Actions automatically caches node_modules including Astro cache

Future Performance Considerations

Scaling Challenges

Date: 2025-08-28

Anticipated Issues:

• Search index size growth with content expansion
• Image processing time for large asset collections
• Build time increases with documentation volume
• CDN cache invalidation complexity

Proactive Solutions:

• Monitor content-to-performance ratios
• Implement image optimization workflows
• Consider build parallelization for large sites
• Plan CDN cache strategy for frequent updates

Advanced Optimizations

Date: 2025-08-28

Potential Enhancements:

• Service worker implementation for offline access
• Critical CSS inlining for above-the-fold content
• Preloading strategies for common navigation paths
• Progressive enhancement for interactive features

Evaluation Criteria: Implement only when measurable performance need exists Philosophy: Optimize based on data, not assumptions

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Performance Measurement Guidelines

Benchmarking Process

1. Baseline establishment: Document current metrics before changes
2. Controlled testing: Use consistent testing environment and conditions
3. Multiple measurements: Average results across multiple test runs
4. Real-world validation: Test with actual deployment environment
5. Documentation: Record findings with context and methodology

Optimization Priorities

1. User-perceived performance: Focus on metrics users actually experience
2. Development productivity: Balance optimization with development speed
3. Maintenance burden: Avoid complex optimizations that are hard to maintain
4. Measurable impact: Only optimize when improvement can be quantified

Monitoring Strategy

• Track key metrics consistently over time
• Set performance budgets and alerts
• Review performance impact of all major changes
• Use performance data to inform development decisions