Optimize

Reduce waste and improve efficiency. Only optimize after you have real users and real problems — premature optimization is the most common waste of founder time.

This skill is for making existing things faster and leaner. For building features, use build. For fixing bugs, use debug. For monitoring performance in production, use monitor. For database schema design, use database.

Workflow

Optimize your app:
- [ ] Measure first — get actual numbers (page load, API speed, bundle size)
- [ ] Speed — fix the slowest page or API endpoint
- [ ] Dependencies — update packages, remove unused ones
- [ ] Database — clean orphaned data, optimize slow queries
- [ ] Code — remove dead code and unused files
- [ ] Re-measure — verify improvements with numbers

When to Optimize (and When NOT To)

Don't optimize when:

• Building your MVP
• Fewer than ~100 active users
• Everything works fine
• You haven't measured the problem

Optimize when:

• Users complain about slowness (Speed)
• Bundle size warnings or security alerts appear (Dependencies)
• App noticeably slower than when you launched (Speed/Database)
• You're paying for hosting you shouldn't need (Speed/Database)

Rule: Make it work → get users → measure → THEN make it lean.

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Priority Order

When multiple things need work:

1. Speed — Users feel this immediately. Slow = churn.
2. Dependencies — Security vulnerabilities are urgent. Bundle bloat affects speed.
3. Database — Affects long-term performance and hosting costs.
4. Code — Affects maintainability. Lowest user impact.

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Speed Optimization

Targets

Metric	Good	Bad
Page load	< 3s	> 5s
API response	< 500ms	> 1s
Time to interactive	< 5s	> 8s

Step 1: Measure

Claude Code (can measure directly):

Audit app performance:
- Measure page load times for the 3 most important pages
- Log API response times for the 5 most-used endpoints
- Identify the slowest database queries
- Check total bundle size
Report findings with specific numbers.

Lovable / Replit / Cursor (measure manually first):

1. Open your app in Chrome → Right-click → Inspect → Network tab → Reload
2. Note the "Load" time at the bottom — that's your page load time
3. Click a button that calls your API — note the request time in Network tab
4. Then paste findings into chat:

My app's performance numbers:
- Homepage loads in [X] seconds
- [Main feature] API takes [X] seconds
- [Other page] loads in [X] seconds
What's slow and how do I fix it?

Step 2: Fix

Tell AI:

Optimize these performance issues:
[paste audit findings]

Apply fixes in this order:
1. Add caching for slow API calls
2. Add database indexes for slow queries
3. Optimize and lazy-load images
4. Code split large bundles
Run build and tests after each fix.

Step 3: Prevent

Tell AI:

Add performance monitoring:
- Log API calls > 500ms
- Log database queries > 100ms
- Alert if page load > 3s

See PERFORMANCE-CHECKS.md for detailed testing methods.

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Dependencies Optimization

The most relevant optimization at any stage — even pre-launch.

Signs You Need This

• Security vulnerability warnings when you run npm install
• Bundle size > 500KB
• "What does this package do?"

Audit

Tell AI:

Audit dependencies:
- List packages not imported anywhere in code
- List packages with security vulnerabilities
- Analyze bundle size by package
- Find packages with lighter alternatives

Report: package name, size impact, and recommendation.

Fix

Tell AI:

Clean up dependencies:
[paste audit findings]

Steps:
- Remove unused packages from package.json
- Update packages with security vulnerabilities
- Replace heavy packages with lighter alternatives
After changes: delete node_modules, fresh npm install, run build and tests.

Common replacements:

Heavy	Light Alternative
moment.js	date-fns or dayjs
lodash (full)	lodash-es (tree-shakeable)
axios	fetch (built-in)

Prevent

Tell AI:

Set up dependency hygiene:
- Add npm audit to CI pipeline
- Configure Dependabot for automatic security updates

See DEPENDENCIES.md for detailed patterns.

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Database Optimization

When this matters: After months of real usage, when queries slow down or hosting costs climb.

Signs You Need This

• Pages that were fast are now slow
• Database hosting costs increasing
• Queries timing out under load

Audit and Fix

Tell AI:

Audit database for optimization opportunities:
- Find missing indexes on frequently queried columns
- Find slow queries (> 100ms)
- Find orphaned records (foreign keys pointing to deleted rows)
- Find tables with no recent reads/writes

For each issue, apply the fix:
- Add indexes for slow queries
- Set up ON DELETE CASCADE for dependent records
- Create cleanup job for orphaned/soft-deleted records (> 90 days)
Always backup before making schema changes.

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Code Cleanup

When this matters: After your codebase has grown significantly through AI-assisted iteration. Multiple rounds of "build feature, rebuild feature" leave dead code.

Signs You Need This

• Files you don't recognize
• Components that aren't used anywhere
• "I'm afraid to delete this"

Audit and Fix

Tell AI:

Audit codebase for unused code:
- Find components not imported anywhere
- Find functions never called
- Find commented-out code blocks
- Find duplicate/similar code

For each: verify nothing references it, then remove it.
Run build and tests after cleanup.

Safety rule: If unsure, comment out first and test. Delete after confirming nothing breaks.

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Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Optimizing before measuring	AUDIT first, always
Optimizing during MVP	Ship first, optimize when users complain
Updating all packages at once	Update one at a time, test each
Deleting code without verifying	Check imports/references before removing
Dropping database columns in production	Test migrations on staging first

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Success Looks Like

After optimization, you should see:

• Pages load < 3 seconds
• Zero security vulnerabilities in dependencies
• No obviously unused packages
• Database queries respond < 100ms
• Automated checks catch future regressions

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Related Skills

• monitor — Track performance in production after optimizing
• debug — Fix broken things (optimize fixes slow things)
• deploy — Hosting configuration affects performance
• database — Schema design and query optimization
• build — Feature development (optimize after building, not during)