| name | need-for-speed |
| description | Run a frontend performance audit on a WordPress site and get actionable optimization recommendations. |
| user-invokable | true |
Performance Audit
Run a performance audit on a WordPress site to measure Core Web Vitals and page composition, then provide actionable recommendations.
How to Run
- Determine which site to audit. If the user hasn't specified, ask them or use the site from the current context.
- Ensure the site is running (use
site_start if needed).
- Call
need_for_speed with the site name and path (defaults to /).
- Analyze the results using the interpretation guide below.
- Present a clear summary with specific, actionable recommendations.
Interpreting Results
Core Web Vitals Thresholds
| Metric | Good | Needs Improvement | Poor |
|---|
| TTFB | < 800 ms | 800–1800 ms | > 1800 ms |
| FCP | < 1800 ms | 1800–3000 ms | > 3000 ms |
| LCP | < 2500 ms | 2500–4000 ms | > 4000 ms |
| CLS | < 0.1 | 0.1–0.25 | > 0.25 |
Page Composition Benchmarks
- DOM elements: Concern if > 1500
- Total page weight: Concern if > 3 MB
- Total requests: Concern if > 80
- Scripts: Concern if > 20 scripts or > 500 KB total
- Stylesheets: Concern if > 10 stylesheets or > 200 KB total
Common WordPress Recommendations
Based on the metrics, suggest specific actions:
- High TTFB: Enable page caching (e.g.,
wp_cli: plugin install wp-super-cache --activate), check for slow database queries, consider object caching.
- High LCP / FCP: Check for render-blocking CSS/JS, add lazy loading for below-the-fold images, defer non-critical scripts.
- Large JS payload: Identify heavy plugins from the scripts URL list, suggest deactivating unused plugins, check for jQuery dependency chains.
- Large CSS payload: Look for unused theme stylesheets, check for multiple Google Fonts loads.
- Many HTTP requests: Suggest reducing plugin count, enabling asset concatenation.
- High CLS: Check for images without explicit width/height dimensions, ads or dynamic content injection, web fonts causing layout shifts.
- Large DOM: Check theme template complexity, excessive nesting in block content, too many wrapper elements.
Important Notes
- These are synthetic measurements on a local dev server. TTFB will be artificially low compared to production. Focus on relative comparisons (before/after changes) rather than absolute values.
- CLS is measured during page load only, not during user interaction.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint) is not measured — it requires real user interaction patterns.
- Page weight may undercount if some resources report 0 transfer size (e.g., service worker cached resources).
