Performance Skill

Purpose

Analyze code for performance issues, inefficient algorithms, memory problems, and optimization opportunities.

When to Use

• •When code contains performance-sensitive patterns
• •During Gate 3 (implementation quality)
• •During Gate 4 (integration verification)
• •For database operations
• •For loops and batch processing

Trigger Patterns

This skill is conditionally triggered when code matches:

database|query|cache|batch|loop|sort|search|O\(n

Checklist

P0 - Blocking (Must Pass)

• • No O(n^3) algorithms without justification
• • No O(n^2) algorithms in hot paths without justification
• • No unbounded recursion
• • No obvious memory leaks
• • No unbounded memory growth
• • No N+1 query patterns
• • No unbounded result sets

P1 - Critical (Must Pass)

• • O(n^2) algorithms have justification
• • Efficient data structures chosen
• • Large allocations not in tight loops
• • Query patterns are efficient

P2 - Warning (Should Address)

• • Caching considered where beneficial
• • Pagination implemented for large datasets
• • Resource cleanup implemented
• • Timeouts on external calls

P3 - Informational (Nice-to-have)

• • Performance benchmarks documented
• • Resource usage profiled
• • Optimization opportunities noted
• • Scalability considerations documented

Pass Criteria

Evidence Output

Path: .tad/evidence/reviews/{date}-performance-{task}.md

Execution Contract

• •Input: file_paths[], context{}, patterns_found[]
• •Output: {passed: bool, findings: [{category, severity, file, line, description, recommendation}], evidence_path: string}
• •Timeout: 180s
• •Parallelizable: true

Claude Enhancement

When running on Claude Code, call subagent performance-optimizer for deeper analysis. Reference: .tad/templates/output-formats/performance-review-format.md

Performance Categories

Algorithm Complexity

• •O(n^3) without justification → P0
• •O(n^2) in hot path without justification → P0
• •Unbounded recursion → P0
• •O(n^2) with justification → P1
• •Inefficient data structure choice → P1

Memory Usage

• •Obvious memory leak → P0
• •Unbounded growth → P0
• •Large allocation in tight loop → P0
• •Large allocation in loop → P1
• •Potential memory pressure → P2

Database Access

• •N+1 query pattern → P0
• •Missing index on frequent query → P0
• •Unbounded result set → P0
• •Could benefit from caching → P2
• •Consider pagination → P2

Network/IO

• •Synchronous blocking in async context → P0
• •No timeout on external calls → P2
• •Missing retry logic → P2
• •Inefficient serialization → P3