optimize
On-demand performance and optimization analysis. Use when identifying bottlenecks, improving build times, reducing bundle size, or optimizing code performance. Trigger keywords - "optimize", "performance", "bottleneck", "bundle size", "build time", "speed up".
Best use case
optimize is best used when you need a repeatable AI agent workflow instead of a one-off prompt.
On-demand performance and optimization analysis. Use when identifying bottlenecks, improving build times, reducing bundle size, or optimizing code performance. Trigger keywords - "optimize", "performance", "bottleneck", "bundle size", "build time", "speed up".
Teams using optimize should expect a more consistent output, faster repeated execution, less prompt rewriting.
When to use this skill
- You want a reusable workflow that can be run more than once with consistent structure.
When not to use this skill
- You only need a quick one-off answer and do not need a reusable workflow.
- You cannot install or maintain the underlying files, dependencies, or repository context.
Installation
Claude Code / Cursor / Codex
Manual Installation
- Download SKILL.md from GitHub
- Place it in
.claude/skills/optimize/SKILL.mdinside your project - Restart your AI agent — it will auto-discover the skill
How optimize Compares
| Feature / Agent | optimize | Standard Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Support | Not specified | Limited / Varies |
| Context Awareness | High | Baseline |
| Installation Complexity | Unknown | N/A |
Frequently Asked Questions
What does this skill do?
On-demand performance and optimization analysis. Use when identifying bottlenecks, improving build times, reducing bundle size, or optimizing code performance. Trigger keywords - "optimize", "performance", "bottleneck", "bundle size", "build time", "speed up".
Where can I find the source code?
You can find the source code on GitHub using the link provided at the top of the page.
SKILL.md Source
# Optimize Skill
## Overview
The optimize skill provides comprehensive on-demand performance and optimization analysis for your codebase. It identifies bottlenecks, slow builds, large bundles, inefficient code patterns, and opportunities for performance improvements across all supported technology stacks.
**When to Use**:
- Performance issues and slow response times
- Large bundle sizes and slow page loads
- Long build and compile times
- High memory usage
- Database query optimization
- API endpoint performance tuning
- CI/CD pipeline optimization
**Technology Coverage**:
- React/TypeScript/JavaScript (Vite, Webpack, Rollup)
- Go applications (build time, runtime performance)
- Rust projects (compile time, binary size)
- Python codebases (runtime optimization)
- Full-stack applications
- Database queries (SQL, ORM)
## Optimization Categories
### 1. Build Performance
**What Gets Analyzed**:
- Build duration and bottlenecks
- Dependency resolution time
- TypeScript compilation speed
- Asset processing (images, fonts)
- Code splitting effectiveness
- Cache utilization
**Common Issues**:
- Unnecessary re-builds of unchanged code
- Large dependency trees
- Inefficient TypeScript configuration
- Missing build caching
- Redundant asset processing
**Optimization Targets**:
- Reduce build time by 30-50%
- Enable incremental builds
- Optimize dependency resolution
- Improve cache hit rates
### 2. Bundle Size
**What Gets Measured**:
- Total bundle size (uncompressed/gzipped)
- Individual chunk sizes
- Duplicate dependencies
- Tree-shaking effectiveness
- Unused code in bundles
- Third-party library sizes
**Bundle Analysis**:
```
Bundle Size Breakdown:
├── vendor.js: 847 KB (312 KB gzipped)
│ ├── react-dom: 142 KB
│ ├── lodash: 71 KB (should use lodash-es)
│ ├── moment: 67 KB (consider date-fns)
│ └── ...
├── main.js: 234 KB (89 KB gzipped)
└── [lazy chunks]: 156 KB total
```
**Optimization Goals**:
- Keep initial bundle under 200 KB (gzipped)
- Lazy load non-critical code
- Remove duplicate dependencies
- Use lighter alternatives
### 3. Runtime Performance
**What Gets Profiled**:
- Function execution time
- Component render performance
- Memory allocation patterns
- Garbage collection pressure
- Event loop blocking
- Async operation efficiency
**Performance Metrics**:
- Time to First Byte (TTFB)
- First Contentful Paint (FCP)
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- Total Blocking Time (TBT)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
**Detection Methods**:
- Profiling data analysis
- Flame graph generation
- Hot path identification
- Memory leak detection
### 4. Memory Usage
**What Gets Monitored**:
- Heap allocation patterns
- Memory leaks
- Large object retention
- Closure memory overhead
- Cache memory usage
- Buffer allocation
**Red Flags**:
- Growing heap over time (leak)
- Excessive garbage collection
- Large retained objects
- Detached DOM nodes (React)
- Unclosed connections/subscriptions
### 5. API and Database Performance
**What Gets Analyzed**:
- Query execution time
- N+1 query problems
- Missing database indexes
- API response times
- Network round trips
- Cache effectiveness
**Database Optimization**:
- Slow query identification
- Index recommendations
- Query plan analysis
- Connection pooling efficiency
## Analysis Patterns
### Identifying Bottlenecks
**Step 1: Measure Current Performance**
Collect baseline metrics:
- Build time: `time npm run build`
- Bundle size: Analyze with webpack-bundle-analyzer
- Runtime: Browser DevTools Performance tab
- API: Response time logs
**Step 2: Profile and Identify Hot Paths**
Find where time is spent:
- CPU profiling for computation
- Heap snapshots for memory
- Network waterfall for I/O
- Flame graphs for call stacks
**Step 3: Prioritize Optimizations**
Focus on:
1. Highest impact (largest bottleneck)
2. Lowest effort (quick wins)
3. Most frequent (called often)
**Step 4: Measure Impact**
After optimization:
- Re-run benchmarks
- Compare before/after metrics
- Validate improvements
### Tools and Commands
**JavaScript/TypeScript**:
```bash
# Bundle analysis
npx webpack-bundle-analyzer dist/stats.json
# Build performance
npm run build -- --profile --json > stats.json
# Runtime profiling
node --prof app.js
node --prof-process isolate-*.log > processed.txt
```
**Go**:
```bash
# Build time analysis
go build -x 2>&1 | ts '[%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S]'
# CPU profiling
go test -cpuprofile=cpu.prof -bench=.
go tool pprof cpu.prof
# Memory profiling
go test -memprofile=mem.prof -bench=.
go tool pprof mem.prof
```
**Rust**:
```bash
# Compile time analysis
cargo build --timings
# Binary size analysis
cargo bloat --release
# Runtime profiling
cargo flamegraph --bench benchmark_name
```
## Optimization Report Format
### Performance Report Structure
```markdown
# Performance Optimization Report
**Generated**: 2026-01-28 14:32:00
**Scope**: Full application analysis
**Baseline**: Established 2026-01-21
## Executive Summary
**Overall Performance Score**: 67/100 (Needs Improvement)
**Key Findings**:
- Build time: 142s (Target: <60s) - 58% slower
- Bundle size: 1.2 MB gzipped (Target: <200 KB) - 6x over
- LCP: 3.8s (Target: <2.5s) - Poor
- API p95: 847ms (Target: <500ms) - Slow
**Estimated Impact of Recommendations**:
- Build time: -65s (46% improvement)
- Bundle size: -800 KB (67% reduction)
- LCP: -1.5s (39% improvement)
- API p95: -400ms (47% improvement)
## Critical Bottlenecks
### [PERF-001] Lodash Full Library Import
**Category**: Bundle Size
**Impact**: HIGH
**Effort**: LOW
**Issue**: Full lodash library imported, adding 71 KB to bundle.
**Current**:
```typescript
import _ from 'lodash';
const result = _.debounce(handler, 300);
```
**Problem**: Imports entire library for single function.
**Recommendation**: Use lodash-es with tree-shaking.
**Optimized**:
```typescript
import { debounce } from 'lodash-es';
const result = debounce(handler, 300);
```
**Savings**: -65 KB gzipped
---
### [PERF-002] Moment.js for Simple Date Formatting
**Category**: Bundle Size
**Impact**: MEDIUM
**Effort**: LOW
**Issue**: moment.js adds 67 KB for basic date formatting.
**Current**:
```typescript
import moment from 'moment';
const formatted = moment(date).format('YYYY-MM-DD');
```
**Recommendation**: Replace with date-fns or native Intl.
**Optimized**:
```typescript
import { format } from 'date-fns';
const formatted = format(date, 'yyyy-MM-dd');
```
**Savings**: -60 KB gzipped
---
### [PERF-003] TypeScript Compilation Bottleneck
**Category**: Build Time
**Impact**: HIGH
**Effort**: MEDIUM
**Issue**: TypeScript taking 89s of 142s build time (63%).
**Current Config**:
```json
{
"compilerOptions": {
"incremental": false,
"skipLibCheck": false
}
}
```
**Problems**:
- No incremental compilation
- Checking all .d.ts files
- No build cache
**Optimized**:
```json
{
"compilerOptions": {
"incremental": true,
"skipLibCheck": true,
"tsBuildInfoFile": ".tsbuildinfo"
}
}
```
**Savings**: -45s build time (first build), -70s (subsequent)
---
### [PERF-004] N+1 Query in User Profile API
**Category**: API Performance
**Impact**: CRITICAL
**Effort**: LOW
**Issue**: Loading user posts in a loop, causing 100+ database queries.
**Current**:
```typescript
const users = await db.getUsers();
for (const user of users) {
user.posts = await db.getPostsByUserId(user.id); // N+1!
}
```
**Problem**: 1 query + N queries = 101 total for 100 users.
**Optimized**:
```typescript
const users = await db.getUsers();
const userIds = users.map(u => u.id);
const posts = await db.getPostsByUserIds(userIds); // 1 query
const postsByUser = groupBy(posts, 'userId');
users.forEach(user => {
user.posts = postsByUser[user.id] || [];
});
```
**Savings**: 99 database queries eliminated, 95% faster
## Build Performance Analysis
### Current Build Breakdown
```
Total Build Time: 142s
Phase Breakdown:
├── Dependencies (npm install): 23s (16%)
├── TypeScript Compilation: 89s (63%)
├── Asset Processing: 18s (13%)
├── Bundling (Webpack): 9s (6%)
└── Minification: 3s (2%)
Bottleneck: TypeScript (63% of time)
```
### Optimization Recommendations
**1. Enable Incremental TypeScript** (HIGH IMPACT)
- Savings: -70s on subsequent builds
- Add `incremental: true` to tsconfig.json
**2. Parallelize Asset Processing** (MEDIUM IMPACT)
- Savings: -10s
- Use worker threads for image optimization
**3. Use SWC Instead of Babel** (MEDIUM IMPACT)
- Savings: -5s
- 20x faster than Babel
**Total Potential Savings**: -85s (60% improvement)
**Target Build Time**: 57s
## Bundle Size Analysis
### Current Bundle Breakdown
```
Total Bundle Size: 1.2 MB gzipped
Dependencies:
├── react + react-dom: 142 KB (12%)
├── lodash: 71 KB (6%)
├── moment: 67 KB (6%)
├── chart.js: 54 KB (5%)
├── Other vendor: 445 KB (37%)
└── Application code: 421 KB (34%)
Issues:
- Lodash not tree-shaken
- Moment.js unnecessary
- Large chart library for simple use
```
### Optimization Recommendations
**1. Replace Heavy Dependencies** (HIGH IMPACT)
- lodash → lodash-es: -65 KB
- moment → date-fns: -60 KB
- chart.js → lightweight-charts: -40 KB
- Total: -165 KB (14% reduction)
**2. Code Splitting** (HIGH IMPACT)
- Lazy load admin panel: -200 KB from initial
- Lazy load dashboard charts: -150 KB from initial
- Total: -350 KB from initial load (29% reduction)
**3. Tree Shaking Improvements** (MEDIUM IMPACT)
- Fix sideEffects in package.json
- Remove unused exports
- Estimated: -100 KB (8% reduction)
**Total Potential Savings**: -615 KB (51% reduction)
**Target Bundle Size**: 585 KB gzipped
## Runtime Performance Analysis
### Core Web Vitals
```
Current Performance:
- LCP: 3.8s (Poor) - Target: <2.5s
- FID: 120ms (Needs Improvement) - Target: <100ms
- CLS: 0.05 (Good) - Target: <0.1
Time to Interactive: 5.2s (Poor) - Target: <3.5s
```
### Bottlenecks Identified
**1. Large Initial JavaScript Bundle** (CRITICAL)
- 1.2 MB blocks rendering
- Recommendation: Code split, lazy load
**2. Heavy Initial Data Fetch** (HIGH)
- 847 KB JSON downloaded before first paint
- Recommendation: Pagination, defer non-critical data
**3. Expensive Re-renders** (MEDIUM)
- UserList component re-renders 47 times on page load
- Recommendation: React.memo, useMemo
## API Performance Analysis
### Slow Endpoints
```
Top 5 Slowest Endpoints (p95):
1. GET /api/users (with posts)
- Current: 1,247ms
- Target: <300ms
- Issue: N+1 queries
- Fix: Batch query + caching
2. GET /api/dashboard
- Current: 892ms
- Target: <400ms
- Issue: Sequential queries
- Fix: Parallel query execution
3. POST /api/orders
- Current: 673ms
- Target: <500ms
- Issue: Synchronous email sending
- Fix: Background job queue
4. GET /api/reports/monthly
- Current: 2,134ms
- Target: <1000ms
- Issue: Large dataset, no pagination
- Fix: Streaming response, pagination
5. GET /api/search
- Current: 524ms
- Target: <300ms
- Issue: Full table scan
- Fix: Add database index
```
### Database Query Optimization
**Missing Indexes Detected**:
```sql
-- Query: SELECT * FROM orders WHERE user_id = ? AND status = 'pending'
-- Execution time: 847ms (table scan)
-- Recommendation: Add composite index
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_user_status ON orders(user_id, status);
-- Estimated improvement: 98% faster (15ms)
```
## Memory Usage Analysis
### Memory Leaks Detected
**1. Event Listener Not Cleaned Up** (HIGH)
```typescript
// Leak in useEffect
useEffect(() => {
window.addEventListener('resize', handleResize);
// Missing cleanup!
});
// Fix:
useEffect(() => {
window.addEventListener('resize', handleResize);
return () => window.removeEventListener('resize', handleResize);
}, []);
```
**2. Growing Cache Without Limits** (MEDIUM)
```typescript
// Unbounded cache grows forever
const cache = new Map();
function memoize(key, fn) {
if (!cache.has(key)) {
cache.set(key, fn());
}
return cache.get(key);
}
// Fix: Use LRU cache with size limit
import LRU from 'lru-cache';
const cache = new LRU({ max: 500 });
```
## Optimization Priority Matrix
```
Impact vs Effort:
HIGH IMPACT, LOW EFFORT (Do First):
- Replace lodash import
- Replace moment.js
- Enable TS incremental
- Fix N+1 query
- Add database index
HIGH IMPACT, MEDIUM EFFORT (Do Soon):
- Code splitting
- Lazy loading
- Background job queue
MEDIUM IMPACT, LOW EFFORT (Quick Wins):
- React.memo on heavy components
- Image optimization
- Enable compression
LOW PRIORITY:
- Micro-optimizations
- Premature abstractions
```
## Recommendations Summary
### Immediate Actions (This Week)
1. Fix N+1 query in /api/users
2. Replace lodash with lodash-es
3. Enable TypeScript incremental
4. Add database index for orders query
**Expected Impact**: 40% performance improvement
### Short Term (This Month)
1. Implement code splitting
2. Replace moment.js with date-fns
3. Lazy load admin panel
4. Add React.memo to UserList
**Expected Impact**: Additional 30% improvement
### Long Term (This Quarter)
1. Implement caching layer (Redis)
2. Add CDN for static assets
3. Database query optimization audit
4. Consider server-side rendering
**Expected Impact**: Additional 20% improvement
**Total Expected Improvement**: 90% (Score: 67 → 127)
```
## Integration with Dev Plugin
### With Audit Skill
Combine performance and security:
```
Run optimization analysis and check performance implications of security fixes
```
### With Test Coverage
Ensure optimizations don't break functionality:
```
Optimize bundle size and verify test coverage remains above 80%
```
### With Code Analysis
Use enrichment for better context:
```
Enrich codebase with claudemem, then identify performance bottlenecks
```
## Best Practices
### 1. Measure Before Optimizing
Always establish baseline:
- Current build time
- Current bundle size
- Current runtime metrics
- Current API response times
**Anti-pattern**: Optimizing without measuring
### 2. Focus on User-Perceived Performance
Prioritize metrics that affect users:
- LCP (loading)
- FID (interactivity)
- CLS (visual stability)
**Anti-pattern**: Optimizing server metrics that users don't notice
### 3. Optimize the Critical Path
Focus on:
- Initial page load
- Time to interactive
- First contentful paint
**Anti-pattern**: Optimizing rarely-used features
### 4. Use Performance Budgets
Set hard limits:
- Max bundle size: 200 KB gzipped
- Max build time: 60s
- Max API response: 500ms p95
**Enforcement**: CI/CD checks fail if exceeded
### 5. Monitor in Production
Use real user monitoring (RUM):
- Track Core Web Vitals
- Monitor API response times
- Alert on regressions
**Tools**: Lighthouse CI, Sentry, DataDog
## Examples
### Example 1: Slow React Application
**Request**:
```
Our React app takes 8 seconds to load. Please identify bottlenecks.
```
**Analysis Process**:
1. Measure bundle size: 2.1 MB gzipped
2. Analyze bundle composition
3. Profile React rendering
4. Check network waterfall
**Findings**:
- Main bundle too large (no code splitting)
- Entire Material-UI library imported
- Heavy initial data fetch (1.2 MB JSON)
- Expensive UserList re-renders
**Optimizations**:
```typescript
// 1. Code splitting
const AdminPanel = lazy(() => import('./AdminPanel'));
// 2. Tree-shakeable imports
import Button from '@mui/material/Button'; // Not: import { Button } from '@mui/material';
// 3. Pagination
const users = await fetchUsers({ page: 1, limit: 20 }); // Not: all users
// 4. Memoization
const UserList = React.memo(({ users }) => { ... });
```
**Results**:
- Bundle: 2.1 MB → 420 KB (80% reduction)
- Load time: 8s → 1.9s (76% improvement)
- LCP: 7.2s → 2.1s (71% improvement)
### Example 2: Slow TypeScript Build
**Request**:
```
TypeScript compilation takes 3 minutes. Speed it up.
```
**Analysis**:
1. Profile build with `--extendedDiagnostics`
2. Identify slow files
3. Check tsconfig.json
**Findings**:
- No incremental compilation
- Checking all node_modules types
- Large union types causing slowness
- No build cache
**Optimizations**:
```json
{
"compilerOptions": {
"incremental": true,
"tsBuildInfoFile": ".tsbuildinfo",
"skipLibCheck": true,
"isolatedModules": true
},
"exclude": ["node_modules", "dist"]
}
```
**Results**:
- First build: 180s → 95s (47% improvement)
- Subsequent builds: 180s → 12s (93% improvement)
### Example 3: Database Query Optimization
**Request**:
```
The /api/orders endpoint is timing out under load
```
**Analysis**:
1. Enable query logging
2. Identify slow queries
3. Analyze query plans
4. Check for missing indexes
**Findings**:
```sql
-- Slow query (12s for 1M rows)
SELECT * FROM orders
WHERE user_id = 12345
AND status IN ('pending', 'processing')
AND created_at > '2026-01-01'
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 20;
-- Query plan: FULL TABLE SCAN (bad)
```
**Optimization**:
```sql
-- Add composite index
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_user_status_date
ON orders(user_id, status, created_at);
-- Query plan now: INDEX SCAN (good)
-- Execution time: 12s → 23ms (99.8% faster)
```
## Stack-Specific Optimization Patterns
### React/TypeScript
**Common Bottlenecks**:
- Large bundle size (heavy dependencies)
- Unnecessary re-renders
- Expensive computations in render
- Large lists without virtualization
**Optimization Tools**:
- webpack-bundle-analyzer
- React DevTools Profiler
- Lighthouse
- Chrome Performance tab
### Go
**Common Bottlenecks**:
- Unnecessary allocations
- Blocked goroutines
- Lock contention
- Inefficient algorithms
**Optimization Tools**:
- `go tool pprof`
- `go tool trace`
- Benchmarks with `-bench`
- Race detector with `-race`
### Rust
**Common Bottlenecks**:
- Large binary size
- Slow compile times
- Unnecessary cloning
- Allocations in hot paths
**Optimization Tools**:
- `cargo build --timings`
- `cargo bloat`
- `cargo flamegraph`
- Criterion benchmarks
## Conclusion
The optimize skill provides comprehensive performance analysis and actionable recommendations. Use it regularly to maintain optimal performance, reduce costs, and improve user experience.
**Key Takeaways**:
- Measure before optimizing
- Focus on high-impact, low-effort wins
- Prioritize user-perceived performance
- Set performance budgets
- Monitor in production
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