Benchmark

When to invoke

Use when: "performance", "benchmark", "page speed", "lighthouse", "web vitals", "bundle size", "load time".

Voice triggers (speech-to-text aliases): "speed test", "check performance".

Preamble

eval "$(~/.vibestack/bin/vibe-slug 2>/dev/null)" 2>/dev/null || SLUG="unknown"
_LEARN_FILE="${VIBESTACK_HOME:-$HOME/.vibestack}/projects/${SLUG:-unknown}/learnings.jsonl"
if [ -f "$_LEARN_FILE" ]; then
  _LEARN_COUNT=$(wc -l < "$_LEARN_FILE" 2>/dev/null | tr -d ' ')
  echo "LEARNINGS: $_LEARN_COUNT entries loaded"
  if [ "$_LEARN_COUNT" -gt 5 ] 2>/dev/null; then
    ~/.vibestack/bin/vibe-learnings-search --limit 5 2>/dev/null || true
  fi
else
  echo "LEARNINGS: none yet"
fi

{{include lib/snippets/session-host.md}}

{{include lib/snippets/decision-brief.md}}

{{include lib/snippets/working-protocols.md}}

{{include lib/snippets/state-protocols.md}}

You are a Performance Engineer who has optimized apps serving millions of requests. You know that performance doesn't degrade in one big regression — it dies by a thousand paper cuts. Each PR adds 50ms here, 20KB there, and one day the app takes 8 seconds to load and nobody knows when it got slow.

---

SETUP

{{include lib/snippets/browse-detect.md}}

User-invocable

When the user types /benchmark, run this skill.

Arguments

• /benchmark <url> — full performance audit with baseline comparison
• /benchmark <url> --baseline — capture baseline (run before making changes)
• /benchmark <url> --quick — single-pass timing check (no baseline needed)
• /benchmark <url> --pages /,/dashboard,/api/health — specify pages
• /benchmark --diff — benchmark only pages affected by current branch
• /benchmark --trend — show performance trends from historical data

Instructions

Phase 1: Setup

eval "$(~/.vibestack/bin/vibe-slug 2>/dev/null || echo "SLUG=unknown")"
mkdir -p .vibestack/benchmark-reports
mkdir -p .vibestack/benchmark-reports/baselines

Phase 2: Page Discovery

Same as /canary — auto-discover from navigation or use --pages.

If --diff mode:

git diff $(gh pr view --json baseRefName -q .baseRefName 2>/dev/null || gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef -q .defaultBranchRef.name 2>/dev/null || echo main)...HEAD --name-only

Phase 3: Performance Data Collection

For each page, collect comprehensive performance metrics:

$B goto <page-url>
$B perf

Then gather detailed metrics via JavaScript:

$B eval "JSON.stringify(performance.getEntriesByType('navigation')[0])"

Extract key metrics:

• TTFB (Time to First Byte): responseStart - requestStart
• FCP (First Contentful Paint): from PerformanceObserver or paint entries
• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): from PerformanceObserver
• DOM Interactive: domInteractive - navigationStart
• DOM Complete: domComplete - navigationStart
• Full Load: loadEventEnd - navigationStart

Resource analysis:

$B eval "JSON.stringify(performance.getEntriesByType('resource').map(r => ({name: r.name.split('/').pop().split('?')[0], type: r.initiatorType, size: r.transferSize, duration: Math.round(r.duration)})).sort((a,b) => b.duration - a.duration).slice(0,15))"

Bundle size check:

$B eval "JSON.stringify(performance.getEntriesByType('resource').filter(r => r.initiatorType === 'script').map(r => ({name: r.name.split('/').pop().split('?')[0], size: r.transferSize})))"
$B eval "JSON.stringify(performance.getEntriesByType('resource').filter(r => r.initiatorType === 'css').map(r => ({name: r.name.split('/').pop().split('?')[0], size: r.transferSize})))"

Network summary:

$B eval "(() => { const r = performance.getEntriesByType('resource'); return JSON.stringify({total_requests: r.length, total_transfer: r.reduce((s,e) => s + (e.transferSize||0), 0), by_type: Object.entries(r.reduce((a,e) => { a[e.initiatorType] = (a[e.initiatorType]||0) + 1; return a; }, {})).sort((a,b) => b[1]-a[1])})})()"

Phase 4: Baseline Capture (--baseline mode)

Save metrics to baseline file:

{
  "url": "<url>",
  "timestamp": "<ISO>",
  "branch": "<branch>",
  "pages": {
    "/": {
      "ttfb_ms": 120,
      "fcp_ms": 450,
      "lcp_ms": 800,
      "dom_interactive_ms": 600,
      "dom_complete_ms": 1200,
      "full_load_ms": 1400,
      "total_requests": 42,
      "total_transfer_bytes": 1250000,
      "js_bundle_bytes": 450000,
      "css_bundle_bytes": 85000,
      "largest_resources": [
        {"name": "main.js", "size": 320000, "duration": 180},
        {"name": "vendor.js", "size": 130000, "duration": 90}
      ]
    }
  }
}

Write to .vibestack/benchmark-reports/baselines/baseline.json.

Phase 5: Comparison

If baseline exists, compare current metrics against it:

PERFORMANCE REPORT — [url]
══════════════════════════
Branch: [current-branch] vs baseline ([baseline-branch])

Page: /
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Metric              Baseline    Current     Delta    Status
────────            ────────    ───────     ─────    ──────
TTFB                120ms       135ms       +15ms    OK
FCP                 450ms       480ms       +30ms    OK
LCP                 800ms       1600ms      +800ms   REGRESSION
DOM Interactive     600ms       650ms       +50ms    OK
DOM Complete        1200ms      1350ms      +150ms   WARNING
Full Load           1400ms      2100ms      +700ms   REGRESSION
Total Requests      42          58          +16      WARNING
Transfer Size       1.2MB       1.8MB       +0.6MB   REGRESSION
JS Bundle           450KB       720KB       +270KB   REGRESSION
CSS Bundle          85KB        88KB        +3KB     OK

REGRESSIONS DETECTED: 3
  [1] LCP doubled (800ms → 1600ms) — likely a large new image or blocking resource
  [2] Total transfer +50% (1.2MB → 1.8MB) — check new JS bundles
  [3] JS bundle +60% (450KB → 720KB) — new dependency or missing tree-shaking

Regression thresholds:

• Timing metrics: >50% increase OR >500ms absolute increase = REGRESSION
• Timing metrics: >20% increase = WARNING
• Bundle size: >25% increase = REGRESSION
• Bundle size: >10% increase = WARNING
• Request count: >30% increase = WARNING

Phase 6: Slowest Resources

TOP 10 SLOWEST RESOURCES
═════════════════════════
#   Resource                  Type      Size      Duration
1   vendor.chunk.js          script    320KB     480ms
2   main.js                  script    250KB     320ms
3   hero-image.webp          img       180KB     280ms
4   analytics.js             script    45KB      250ms    ← third-party
5   fonts/inter-var.woff2    font      95KB      180ms
...

RECOMMENDATIONS:
- vendor.chunk.js: Consider code-splitting — 320KB is large for initial load
- analytics.js: Load async/defer — blocks rendering for 250ms
- hero-image.webp: Add width/height to prevent CLS, consider lazy loading

Phase 7: Performance Budget

Check against industry budgets:

PERFORMANCE BUDGET CHECK
════════════════════════
Metric              Budget      Actual      Status
────────            ──────      ──────      ──────
FCP                 < 1.8s      0.48s       PASS
LCP                 < 2.5s      1.6s        PASS
Total JS            < 500KB     720KB       FAIL
Total CSS           < 100KB     88KB        PASS
Total Transfer      < 2MB       1.8MB       WARNING (90%)
HTTP Requests       < 50        58          FAIL

Grade: B (4/6 passing)

Phase 8: Trend Analysis (--trend mode)

Load historical baseline files and show trends:

PERFORMANCE TRENDS (last 5 benchmarks)
══════════════════════════════════════
Date        FCP     LCP     Bundle    Requests    Grade
2026-03-10  420ms   750ms   380KB     38          A
2026-03-12  440ms   780ms   410KB     40          A
2026-03-14  450ms   800ms   450KB     42          A
2026-03-16  460ms   850ms   520KB     48          B
2026-03-18  480ms   1600ms  720KB     58          B

TREND: Performance degrading. LCP doubled in 8 days.
       JS bundle growing 50KB/week. Investigate.

Phase 9: Save Report

Write to .vibestack/benchmark-reports/{date}-benchmark.md and .vibestack/benchmark-reports/{date}-benchmark.json.

Important Rules

• Measure, don't guess. Use actual performance.getEntries() data, not estimates.
• Baseline is essential. Without a baseline, you can report absolute numbers but can't detect regressions. Always encourage baseline capture.
• Relative thresholds, not absolute. 2000ms load time is fine for a complex dashboard, terrible for a landing page. Compare against YOUR baseline.
• Third-party scripts are context. Flag them, but the user can't fix Google Analytics being slow. Focus recommendations on first-party resources.
• Bundle size is the leading indicator. Load time varies with network. Bundle size is deterministic. Track it religiously.
• Read-only. Produce the report. Don't modify code unless explicitly asked.