Performance Optimization Guide#

✅ Recent Improvements (Nov 2024)#

Typeface Preload Removal - Saved ~6 seconds 🚀#

• Before: 5689ms to preload Unifont + MatrixChunky8
• After: 0ms (instant stub, on-demand loading)
• Impact: Boot time reduced by ~75% in development

Development Server Optimization#

• Caddy: HTTP/2, zstd compression, no-cache headers
• Fast reload: Instant updates during development

Chrome DevTools Integration#

• Automated testing: Puppeteer + Lighthouse
• Performance tracking: CI/CD integration
• Coverage analysis: Identify unused code

Boot Performance Improvements#

1. Typeface Preloading ✅ OPTIMIZED#

Before: ~6 seconds to preload Unifont + MatrixChunky8 After: Instant (on-demand loading)

Changed in system/public/aesthetic.computer/lib/disk.mjs:

• Set skipTypefacePreload = true (always)
• Glyphs load on-demand when needed
• Saves 5-6 seconds on every boot

2. Auth0 Loading#

Currently loads asynchronously but can block ready state. Consider:

• Lazy load auth0 after initial render
• Use web workers for auth operations
• Cache auth state more aggressively

3. Development Server Optimization#

Caddy (Port 8111) - OPTIMIZED ✅#

:8111 {
  protocols h1 h2c          # HTTP/2 support
  encode zstd gzip          # Better compression
  header Cache-Control "no-store"  # No cache in dev
}

Netlify Dev#

Consider adding to netlify.toml:

[dev]
  targetPort = 8111
  framework = "#static"
  autoLaunch = false
  
[dev.processing]
  skip_processing = true  # Skip build processing in dev

Performance Testing#

Run Tests#

# Basic performance test
npm run test:perf

# Chrome DevTools automated test
npm run test:perf:chrome

# Full Lighthouse audit (slower)
npm run test:perf:lighthouse

Chrome DevTools Automated Testing ✅ INTEGRATED#

The chrome-devtools-test.mjs script provides:

• Performance Metrics: DNS, TCP, TTFB, FCP, DOM timings
• Resource Analysis: Identifies slowest-loading resources
• JavaScript Coverage: Shows unused code percentage
• Lighthouse Audits: Performance scoring and recommendations

Example output:

⏱️  Performance Metrics:
  Total Load Time: 2847ms
  First Contentful Paint: 847ms
  DOM Complete: 2456ms
  
📦 Top 10 Slowest Resources:
  1. boot.mjs - 1234ms (156KB)
  2. bios.mjs - 876ms (234KB)
  
📊 JavaScript Coverage:
  Coverage: 67.3%
  Unused: 142KB

Chrome DevTools Integration#

1. Performance Timeline#

Open Chrome DevTools → Performance tab

• Start recording before page load
• Look for:
  • Script evaluation time
  • Network requests (especially fonts)
  • Long tasks (>50ms)
  • Layout shifts

2. Coverage Analysis#

DevTools → More Tools → Coverage

• Shows unused JavaScript/CSS
• Helps identify code splitting opportunities

3. Network Throttling#

DevTools → Network → Throttling

• Test with "Fast 3G" or "Slow 3G"
• Identifies slow resources

4. Lighthouse#

DevTools → Lighthouse

• Run performance audit
• Focus on:
  • Time to Interactive
  • First Contentful Paint
  • Total Blocking Time

Chrome DevTools MCP (Future)#

Consider integrating:

• @modelcontextprotocol/server-puppeteer for automated testing
• Chrome Performance API for programmatic metrics
• Puppeteer for headless performance testing

Example:

import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';

const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();

// Enable Performance monitoring
await page.tracing.start({ screenshots: true });
await page.goto('https://localhost:8888');

// Wait for boot
await page.waitForFunction(() => window.acBOOT_COMPLETE);

const trace = await page.tracing.stop();
// Analyze trace for bottlenecks

Current Bottlenecks (as of Nov 2024)#

1. Typeface preload: 5689ms ✅ FIXED
2. Auth0 initialization: ~500-1000ms
3. MatrixChunky8 preload: ~14ms (now skipped)
4. Network latency in dev containers

Metrics to Track#

• Boot Start to Ready: Target <2s
• Boot Start to First Paint: Target <500ms
• Disk Load Time: Target <1s
• TypeScript/Module Evaluation: Target <300ms

Future Optimizations#

• Code splitting for pieces (dynamic imports)
• Service worker caching
• Brotli compression in production
• HTTP/3 support
• WebAssembly for compute-heavy pieces
• IndexedDB caching for fonts/assets
• Resource hints (preconnect, dns-prefetch)