performance-testing

name	performance-testing
description	Profiles application performance under load using k6, Artillery, or JMeter to measure latency, throughput, and error rates. Use when planning load tests, stress tests, soak tests, benchmarking APIs, or identifying performance bottlenecks.
category	specialized-testing
priority	high
tokenEstimate	1100
agents	["qe-performance-tester","qe-quality-analyzer","qe-production-intelligence"]
implementation_status	optimized
optimization_version	1
last_optimized	"2025-12-02T00:00:00.000Z"
dependencies	[]
quick_reference_card	true
tags	["performance","load-testing","stress-testing","scalability","k6","bottlenecks"]
trust_tier	3
validation	{"schema_path":"schemas/output.json","validator_path":"scripts/validate-config.json","eval_path":"evals/performance-testing.yaml"}

Performance Testing

<default_to_action> When testing performance or planning load tests:

1. DEFINE SLOs: p95 response time, throughput, error rate targets
2. IDENTIFY critical paths: revenue flows, high-traffic pages, key APIs
3. CREATE realistic scenarios: user journeys, think time, varied data
4. EXECUTE with monitoring: CPU, memory, DB queries, network
5. ANALYZE bottlenecks and fix before production

Quick Test Type Selection:

• Expected load validation → Load testing
• Find breaking point → Stress testing
• Sudden traffic spike → Spike testing
• Memory leaks, resource exhaustion → Endurance/soak testing
• Horizontal/vertical scaling → Scalability testing

Critical Success Factors:

• Performance is a feature, not an afterthought
• Test early and often, not just before release
• Focus on user-impacting bottlenecks </default_to_action>

Quick Reference Card

When to Use

• Before major releases
• After infrastructure changes
• Before scaling events (Black Friday)
• When setting SLAs/SLOs

Test Types

Type	Purpose	When
Load	Expected traffic	Every release
Stress	Beyond capacity	Quarterly
Spike	Sudden surge	Before events
Endurance	Memory leaks	After code changes
Scalability	Scaling validation	Infrastructure changes

Key Metrics

Metric	Target	Why
p95 response	< 200ms	User experience
Throughput	10k req/min	Capacity
Error rate	< 0.1%	Reliability
CPU	< 70%	Headroom
Memory	< 80%	Stability

Tools

• k6: Modern, JS-based, CI/CD friendly
• JMeter: Enterprise, feature-rich
• Artillery: Simple YAML configs
• Gatling: Scala, great reporting

Agent Coordination

• qe-performance-tester: Load test orchestration
• qe-quality-analyzer: Results analysis
• qe-production-intelligence: Production comparison

---

Defining SLOs

Bad: "The system should be fast" Good: "p95 response time < 200ms under 1,000 concurrent users"

export const options = {
  thresholds: {
    http_req_duration: ['p(95)<200'],  // 95% < 200ms
    http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'],     // < 1% failures
  },
};

---

Realistic Scenarios

Bad: Every user hits homepage repeatedly Good: Model actual user behavior

// Realistic distribution
// 40% browse, 30% search, 20% details, 10% checkout
export default function () {
  const action = Math.random();
  if (action < 0.4) browse();
  else if (action < 0.7) search();
  else if (action < 0.9) viewProduct();
  else checkout();

  sleep(randomInt(1, 5)); // Think time
}

---

Common Bottlenecks

Database

Symptoms: Slow queries under load, connection pool exhaustion Fixes: Add indexes, optimize N+1 queries, increase pool size, read replicas

N+1 Queries

// BAD: 100 orders = 101 queries
const orders = await Order.findAll();
for (const order of orders) {
  const customer = await Customer.findById(order.customerId);
}

// GOOD: 1 query
const orders = await Order.findAll({ include: [Customer] });

Synchronous Processing

Problem: Blocking operations in request path (sending email during checkout) Fix: Use message queues, process async, return immediately

Memory Leaks

Detection: Endurance testing, memory profiling Common causes: Event listeners not cleaned, caches without eviction

External Dependencies

Solutions: Aggressive timeouts, circuit breakers, caching, graceful degradation

---

k6 CI/CD Example

// performance-test.js
import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';

export const options = {
  stages: [
    { duration: '1m', target: 50 },   // Ramp up
    { duration: '3m', target: 50 },   // Steady
    { duration: '1m', target: 0 },    // Ramp down
  ],
  thresholds: {
    http_req_duration: ['p(95)<200'],
    http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'],
  },
};

export default function () {
  const res = http.get('https://api.example.com/products');
  check(res, {
    'status is 200': (r) => r.status === 200,
    'response time < 200ms': (r) => r.timings.duration < 200,
  });
  sleep(1);
}

# GitHub Actions
- name: Run k6 test
  uses: grafana/k6-action@v0.3.0
  with:
    filename: performance-test.js

---

Analyzing Results

Good Results

Load: 1,000 users | p95: 180ms | Throughput: 5,000 req/s
Error rate: 0.05% | CPU: 65% | Memory: 70%

Problems

Load: 1,000 users | p95: 3,500ms ❌ | Throughput: 500 req/s ❌
Error rate: 5% ❌ | CPU: 95% ❌ | Memory: 90% ❌

Root Cause Analysis

1. Correlate metrics: When response time spikes, what changes?
2. Check logs: Errors, warnings, slow queries
3. Profile code: Where is time spent?
4. Monitor resources: CPU, memory, disk
5. Trace requests: End-to-end flow

---

Anti-Patterns

❌ Anti-Pattern	✅ Better
Testing too late	Test early and often
Unrealistic scenarios	Model real user behavior
0 to 1000 users instantly	Ramp up gradually
No monitoring during tests	Monitor everything
No baseline	Establish and track trends
One-time testing	Continuous performance testing

---

Agent-Assisted Performance Testing

// Comprehensive load test
await Task("Load Test", {
  target: 'https://api.example.com',
  scenarios: {
    checkout: { vus: 100, duration: '5m' },
    search: { vus: 200, duration: '5m' },
    browse: { vus: 500, duration: '5m' }
  },
  thresholds: {
    'http_req_duration': ['p(95)<200'],
    'http_req_failed': ['rate<0.01']
  }
}, "qe-performance-tester");

// Bottleneck analysis
await Task("Analyze Bottlenecks", {
  testResults: perfTest,
  metrics: ['cpu', 'memory', 'db_queries', 'network']
}, "qe-performance-tester");

// CI integration
await Task("CI Performance Gate", {
  mode: 'smoke',
  duration: '1m',
  vus: 10,
  failOn: { 'p95_response_time': 300, 'error_rate': 0.01 }
}, "qe-performance-tester");

---

Agent Coordination Hints

Memory Namespace

aqe/performance/
├── results/*       - Test execution results
├── baselines/*     - Performance baselines
├── bottlenecks/*   - Identified bottlenecks
└── trends/*        - Historical trends

Fleet Coordination

const perfFleet = await FleetManager.coordinate({
  strategy: 'performance-testing',
  agents: [
    'qe-performance-tester',
    'qe-quality-analyzer',
    'qe-production-intelligence',
    'qe-deployment-readiness'
  ],
  topology: 'sequential'
});

---

Pre-Production Checklist

• Load test passed (expected traffic)
• Stress test passed (2-3x expected)
• Spike test passed (sudden surge)
• Endurance test passed (24+ hours)
• Database indexes in place
• Caching configured
• Monitoring and alerting set up
• Performance baseline established

---

Related Skills

• agentic-quality-engineering - Agent coordination
• api-testing-patterns - API performance
• chaos-engineering-resilience - Resilience testing

---

Remember

Performance is a feature: Test it like functionality Test continuously: Not just before launch Monitor production: Synthetic + real user monitoring Fix what matters: Focus on user-impacting bottlenecks Trend over time: Catch degradation early

With Agents: Agents automate load testing, analyze bottlenecks, and compare with production. Use agents to maintain performance at scale.

Run History

After each performance test run, append results to run-history.json in this skill directory:

node -e "
const fs = require('fs');
const h = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('.claude/skills/performance-testing/run-history.json'));
h.runs.push({date: new Date().toISOString().split('T')[0], scenario: 'load', p95_ms: P95, throughput_rps: RPS, error_rate_pct: ERR});
fs.writeFileSync('.claude/skills/performance-testing/run-history.json', JSON.stringify(h, null, 2));
"

Read run-history.json before each run — compare with baselines. Alert if p95 increases >20% from baseline.

Gotchas

• k6 scripts generated by agent often hardcode base URLs — use environment variables for portability
• Load tests in containers hit resource limits before app limits — ensure container has 2x the resources of target
• Agent forgets to include think time between requests — without it, load is unrealistically bursty
• P95 vs P99 matters — agent defaults to averages which hide tail latency problems
• Baseline comparison requires consistent environment — CI runner variance can cause 20%+ noise