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.

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.

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.

Speed Optimization

Targets

Step 1: Measure

Quick manual check:

• Open your app in Chrome → Right-click → Inspect → Network tab → Reload
• Look at the “Load” time at the bottom. That’s your page load time.
• Click a button that calls your API. Look for the request time in the Network tab.

Tell AI:

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

Common Mistakes

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