Use this skill when optimizing Core Web Vitals - LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), INP (Interaction to Next Paint), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift). Triggers on page speed optimization, Lighthouse score improvement, fixing layout shifts, improving responsiveness, setting up performance monitoring with CrUX or RUM, and framework-specific CWV fixes for Next.js, Nuxt, Astro, and Remix.
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Use this skill when optimizing Core Web Vitals - LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), INP (Interaction to Next Paint), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift). Triggers on page speed optimization, Lighthouse score improvement, fixing layout shifts, improving responsiveness, setting up performance monitoring with CrUX or RUM, and framework-specific CWV fixes for Next.js, Nuxt, Astro, and Remix.
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Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals (CWV) are Google's user-centric page experience signals that directly affect
Search ranking. They measure three dimensions of real-user experience: loading performance
(LCP), interactivity (INP), and visual stability (CLS). Unlike synthetic benchmarks, CWV are
evaluated on real user data collected via the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) at the
75th percentile - meaning 75% of your users must meet the threshold for a page to "pass".
Poor CWV can suppress rankings regardless of content quality; good CWV is a ranking boost.
When to use this skill
Trigger this skill when the user:
Asks why a page has poor Google Search ranking or Page Experience signals
Wants to improve Lighthouse performance scores or pass Core Web Vitals assessment
Reports layout shifts, janky interactions, or slow initial render
Needs to diagnose which CWV metric is failing via CrUX or Lighthouse
Wants to set up real user monitoring (RUM) for performance metrics
Is configuring Lighthouse CI or performance budgets in a CI/CD pipeline
Asks about fetchpriority, preload, scheduler.yield, or font-display
Do NOT trigger this skill for:
General frontend performance work unrelated to CWV (e.g. reducing bundle size for DX, not UX)
Backend-only optimizations with no user-facing impact (database query tuning, server caching)
Key principles
Field data (CrUX) trumps lab data (Lighthouse) for ranking - Lighthouse runs in a controlled lab environment. Google ranks pages on CrUX field data from real Chrome users. A perfect Lighthouse score does not guarantee a "Good" CrUX assessment. Always verify with Search Console's Core Web Vitals report or the CrUX API.
LCP < 2.5s, INP < 200ms, CLS < 0.1 are pass/fail gates - These are not targets to aim near; they are thresholds at the 75th percentile of real users. A page "passes" only when at least 75% of measured sessions hit "Good" for all three metrics simultaneously.
Fix the LCP element, not the whole page - LCP is always a single element (hero image, H1, video poster). Identify that element first using DevTools or Lighthouse. Optimizing the rest of the page won't move the metric if the LCP resource is still slow.
INP = Input Delay + Processing Time + Presentation Delay - Reducing INP requires understanding which phase is slow. A blocked main thread causes input delay; heavyweight event handlers cause processing time; forced style/layout causes presentation delay. Profile before optimizing.
CLS is about reserving space, not removing animations - Most CLS comes from unsized images, late-injected banners, or fonts causing reflow. Animations using CSS transform and opacity do not cause CLS. Fix the root cause (missing dimensions, no space reservation) rather than disabling motion.
Core concepts
The three metrics and their thresholds:
Metric
What it measures
Good
Needs improvement
Poor
LCP
Time to render the largest visible content
< 2.5s
2.5s - 4.0s
> 4.0s
INP
Worst interaction latency across the visit
< 200ms
200ms - 500ms
> 500ms
CLS
Sum of unexpected layout shift scores
< 0.1
0.1 - 0.25
> 0.25
How they're measured:
CWV come from two sources:
Field data (CrUX): Real user measurements from Chrome browsers, aggregated over 28 days, reported at the 75th percentile. This is what Google uses for ranking. Available in Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and the CrUX API.
Lab data (Lighthouse / WebPageTest): Synthetic measurement from a controlled environment. Fast feedback loop during development, but does not directly affect rankings. Useful for catching regressions before shipping.
What elements trigger each metric:
LCP candidates: <img>, <image> inside SVG, <video> with a poster, block-level elements with a background image, block-level text nodes. The browser picks the largest by area in the viewport at paint time.
INP interactions: Any discrete interaction - click, tap, key press. Hover and scroll are excluded. INP reports the highest latency interaction (capped at 98th percentile for long visits).
CLS triggers: Layout shifts where elements move unexpectedly without a user gesture. Shifts within 500ms of a user interaction (tap, scroll) are excluded from the score.
The 75th percentile rule:
A page "passes" CWV assessment only when 75% or more of its real-user sessions fall in the "Good" range for all three metrics. This means even if your median user has great performance, a slow tail of users (slow devices, poor networks) can fail the assessment. Optimize for the 75th percentile, not the average.
Common tasks
1. Diagnose which CWV metric is failing
Start with field data, not Lighthouse. Use the CrUX API to get real-user metrics per URL.
The fastest path to LCP improvement is ensuring the LCP resource is discovered and loaded early.
<!-- Step 1: Identify your LCP element, then preload it --><!-- Add this to <head> - discovered before the browser parses <body> --><linkrel="preload"href="/hero.webp"as="image"fetchpriority="high"><!-- Step 2: Mark the image with fetchpriority so the browser prioritizes it --><imgsrc="/hero.webp"fetchpriority="high"loading="eager"width="1200"height="630"alt="Hero description"
/><!-- Step 3: Never use lazy loading on the LCP element --><!-- BAD: <img src="/hero.webp" loading="lazy"> -->
For LCP elements that are CSS background images, use <link rel="preload"> with imagesrcset:
Load references/lcp-optimization.md for TTFB optimization, critical CSS inlining, and LCP debugging in DevTools.
3. Fix CLS (image dimensions, font reservations, dynamic content)
CLS almost always comes from one of three sources: unsized media, web fonts reflow, or injected content.
<!-- Always set width + height on images - browser reserves space before load --><imgsrc="product.webp"width="400"height="300"alt="Product photo" /><!-- For responsive images, use aspect-ratio as fallback in CSS --><style>img { aspect-ratio: attr(width) / attr(height); }
</style>
/* Font CLS: use font-display: optional to avoid reflow entirely *//* or font-display: swap + size-adjust for metrics matching */@font-face {
font-family: 'Brand';
src: url('/fonts/brand.woff2') format('woff2');
font-display: optional; /* won't shift layout if font loads late */
}
/* Reserve space for ad slots, banners, or embeds */.ad-slot {
min-height: 250px; /* known ad height */contain: layout; /* isolate layout recalculations */
}
Load references/inp-cls-optimization.md for CLS session windows, Layout Shift Regions debugging, and font metrics matching.
4. Improve INP (break long tasks, scheduler.yield)
INP is dominated by main thread blocking. The primary fix is yielding back to the browser between heavy operations.
// Modern approach: scheduler.yield() (Chrome 115+)asyncfunctionhandleClick(event) {
// Do immediate work first (within input delay budget)updateButtonState(event.target);
// Yield before heavy processing - allows browser to paintawait scheduler.yield();
// Now do the expensive workconst result = awaitprocessLargeDataset();
renderResults(result);
}
// Fallback for browsers without scheduler.yieldfunctionyieldToMain() {
returnnewPromise(resolve =>setTimeout(resolve, 0));
}
// Break long synchronous loopsasyncfunctionprocessItems(items) {
for (let i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
processItem(items[i]);
// Yield every 50 items to stay under 50ms task budgetif (i % 50 === 0) await scheduler.yield?.() ?? awaityieldToMain();
}
}
Load references/inp-cls-optimization.md for the three INP components, debouncing strategies, and Web Worker offloading.
5. Set up RUM with the web-vitals library
Capture real user CWV data and send it to your analytics endpoint.
Load references/lighthouse-ci.md for full LHCI setup, assertion configuration, and CrUX integration.
7. Framework-specific quick fixes
Each framework has first-party solutions that address CWV by default:
// Next.js: use next/image - handles sizing, lazy loading, and priority automaticallyimportImagefrom'next/image';
// LCP image: add priority prop (sets fetchpriority="high" + preload)<Imagesrc="/hero.jpg"width={1200}height={630}priorityalt="Hero" />// Below-fold image: lazy loaded by default<Imagesrc="/product.jpg"width={400}height={400}alt="Product" />
<!-- Nuxt: use <NuxtImg> from @nuxt/image module -->
<NuxtImg
src="/hero.jpg"
width="1200"
height="630"
preload
fetchpriority="high"
alt="Hero"
/>
<!-- Astro: use built-in <Image> component -->
import { Image } from 'astro:assets';
import heroImage from '../assets/hero.jpg';
<Image src={heroImage} width={1200} height={630} fetchpriority="high" alt="Hero" />
Load references/framework-cwv-fixes.md for complete per-framework patterns including font optimization, dynamic imports, and streaming.
Anti-patterns / common mistakes
Mistake
Why it's wrong
What to do instead
loading="lazy" on LCP image
Delays discovery and load of the most critical resource
Use loading="eager" + fetchpriority="high" on LCP element
No width/height on images
Browser can't reserve space, causing layout shifts on load
Always set explicit dimensions; use aspect-ratio in CSS
Blocking JS in <head> without defer
Delays HTML parsing and LCP render
Add defer or async; move non-critical scripts to end of body
Client-side redirects for URL normalization
Adds a full round-trip before content loads
Use server-side 301/302 redirects; avoid JS location.href redirects
Animating top/left/width/height
Forces layout recalculation on every frame
Animate transform and opacity - compositor only, no layout cost
Injecting content above the fold after load
Pushes visible content down, creating massive CLS
Reserve space with min-height before content loads
Treating Lighthouse score as CrUX score
Lab score ≠ field score; Google ranks on field data
Verify with CrUX API or Search Console after optimization
font-display: block for body fonts
Invisible text for up to 3 seconds (FOIT)
Use font-display: swap for content fonts
Preloading non-LCP resources aggressively
Competes with LCP resource for bandwidth
Only preload the LCP resource and truly critical fonts
Ignoring mobile CrUX data
Desktop and mobile scores are reported separately
Check both; mobile is typically worse and weighted heavily
Gotchas
Lighthouse score does not equal CrUX pass - A perfect Lighthouse 100 performance score can coexist with a "Poor" CrUX rating. Lighthouse runs on a fast simulated device; CrUX reflects real users on slow networks and low-end phones. Always verify with Search Console's Core Web Vitals report after deploying optimizations.
Preloading non-LCP resources causes regressions - Adding <link rel="preload"> to fonts, CSS, or non-LCP images competes with the actual LCP resource for bandwidth, often making LCP worse. Preload only the single LCP element and critical fonts with font-display: optional.
fetchpriority="high" on multiple images - Setting fetchpriority="high" on more than one image removes the browser's ability to prioritize. Only the single LCP element should carry this attribute; all below-fold images should use loading="lazy".
INP spikes from third-party scripts - Third-party scripts (analytics, chat widgets, A/B testing tools) inject and execute on the main thread, directly increasing INP. These show up in performance profiles as long tasks triggered by user interactions. Lazy-load third-party scripts with async or defer and consider loading them after the first user interaction.
CLS from dynamically injected cookie banners - A cookie consent banner injected above the fold after initial render is one of the most common CLS sources. Reserve space for it with min-height before the JavaScript loads, or render it server-side so it is in the initial HTML.
References
For deep technical guidance on specific topics, load the relevant reference file:
references/lighthouse-ci.md - Lighthouse CI in GitHub Actions, performance budget schemas, CrUX API integration, RUM alerting
Only load a reference file when the current task requires that depth - they are detailed and will consume context.
Companion check
On first activation of this skill in a conversation: check which companion skills are installed by running ls ~/.claude/skills/ ~/.agent/skills/ ~/.agents/skills/ .claude/skills/ .agent/skills/ .agents/skills/ 2>/dev/null. Compare the results against the recommended_skills field in this file's frontmatter. For any that are missing, mention them once and offer to install:
