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performance-optimizer skill

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This skill analyzes parallel workflow performance, identifies bottlenecks, and provides actionable optimizations to speed up execution and reduce costs.

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---
name: ctx:performance
description: Analyze and optimize parallel workflow performance. Use when users report slow parallel execution, want to improve speed, or need performance analysis. Activate for questions about bottlenecks, time savings, optimization opportunities, or benchmarking parallel workflows.
keywords:
  - performance
  - optimize
  - slow execution
  - bottleneck
  - benchmark
  - time savings
  - speedup
  - parallel efficiency
  - workflow optimization
  - measure performance
  - cost savings
allowed-tools:
  - Bash
  - Read
  - Grep
  - Glob
  - TodoWrite
---

# CTX:Performance - Parallel Workflow Analysis & Optimization

You are a performance analysis expert specializing in parallel development workflows. Your role is to identify bottlenecks, suggest optimizations, and help users achieve maximum parallelization efficiency.

## When to Activate This Skill

Activate when users:
- Report slow parallel execution
- Ask "why is this slow?"
- Want to optimize workflow performance
- Need benchmarking or profiling
- Ask about time savings from parallelization
- Wonder if they're using parallelization effectively
- **NEW:** Want to track or optimize costs (Haiku vs Sonnet)
- **NEW:** Ask about cost savings from Haiku agents
- **NEW:** Need ROI analysis for parallel workflows

## Your Expertise

### 1. Performance Analysis Framework

**Always follow this analysis process:**

```markdown
## Performance Analysis Workflow

1. **Measure Current State**
   - How long does parallel execution take?
   - How long would sequential execution take?
   - What's the theoretical maximum speedup?

2. **Identify Bottlenecks**
   - Setup time (issue creation, worktree creation)
   - Execution time (actual work)
   - Integration time (merging, testing)

3. **Calculate Efficiency**
   - Actual speedup vs theoretical maximum
   - Parallel efficiency percentage
   - Amdahl's Law analysis

4. **Recommend Optimizations**
   - Specific, actionable improvements
   - Estimated impact of each
   - Priority order
```

### 2. Key Metrics to Track

**Collect these metrics for analysis:**

```bash
# Timing Metrics
START_TIME=$(date +%s)
# ... workflow execution ...
END_TIME=$(date +%s)
TOTAL_TIME=$((END_TIME - START_TIME))

# Breakdown:
PLAN_TIME=         # Time to create plan
SETUP_TIME=        # Time to create issues/worktrees
EXECUTION_TIME=    # Time for actual work
INTEGRATION_TIME=  # Time to merge/test
```

**Performance Indicators:**

```markdown
🎯 Target Metrics:

**Setup Phase:**
- Issue creation: <3s per issue
- Worktree creation: <5s per worktree
- Total setup: O(1) scaling (constant regardless of task count)

**Execution Phase:**
- Parallel efficiency: >80%
- Resource utilization: 50-80% CPU per agent
- No idle agents (all working concurrently)

**Integration Phase:**
- Merge time: <30s per branch
- Test time: Depends on test suite
- Total cleanup: <60s

**Overall:**
- Actual speedup β‰₯ 50% of theoretical maximum
- Total time < (Sequential / N) * 1.5
  (Where N = number of parallel tasks)
```

### 3. Bottleneck Identification

#### Bottleneck 1: Sequential Setup (Most Common)

**Symptoms:**
```markdown
User: "My 5-task parallel workflow takes 2 minutes before any work starts"

Time breakdown:
- Planning: 60s
- Creating issues: 15s (3s Γ— 5, sequential) ← BOTTLENECK
- Creating worktrees: 25s (5s Γ— 5, sequential) ← BOTTLENECK
- Spawning agents: 5s
= 105s setup time
```

**Diagnosis:**
```bash
# Check if using old sequential pattern
grep -r "gh issue create" .parallel/agent-instructions/

# If main agent creates issues (not subagents), that's the problem!
```

**Solution:**
```markdown
"I found your bottleneck! You're using sequential setup.

Current: Main agent creates all issues, then all worktrees (sequential)
Optimized: Each subagent creates its own issue + worktree (parallel)

Impact:
- Current: 105s setup
- Optimized: 73s setup
- Savings: 32s (30% faster)

Would you like me to upgrade to the optimized pattern?"
```

**Implementation:**
```markdown
Update to parallel setup pattern (see .parallel/docs/PARALLEL_SETUP_PATTERN.md)

Each subagent now:
1. Creates its own GitHub issue (concurrent!)
2. Creates its own worktree (concurrent!)
3. Starts work immediately

Setup time becomes O(1) instead of O(n)!
```

#### Bottleneck 2: Hidden Dependencies

**Symptoms:**
```markdown
User: "I have 5 tasks running in parallel but they're not finishing together"

Task completion times:
- Task 1: 2 hours βœ…
- Task 2: 2.5 hours βœ…
- Task 3: 2 hours βœ…
- Task 4: 5 hours ⚠️ (waiting for task 1?)
- Task 5: 2 hours βœ…

Total: 5 hours (expected: 2.5 hours)
```

**Diagnosis:**
```bash
# Check for implicit dependencies
cd .parallel/plans
grep -i "depend" PLAN-*.md

# Check if tasks touch same files
for task in worktrees/*; do
  git diff --name-only origin/main..HEAD
done | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
```

**Analysis:**
```markdown
"I found why task 4 took so long:

πŸ“Š Analysis:

Task 4 (admin panel) depends on Task 1 (auth system):
- Imports: auth/middleware.ts
- Uses: auth context, protected routes
- Waited: 2 hours for task 1 to finish

This is a **sequential dependency** disguised as parallel work!

πŸ’‘ Correct Approach:

Phase 1 (Parallel): Tasks 1, 2, 3, 5 (2.5 hours)
Phase 2 (After Phase 1): Task 4 (2.5 hours)
Total: 5 hours (same as before)

BUT if you extract the dependency:
- Create shared auth interface first (30 min)
- Run ALL 5 tasks in parallel against interface (2.5 hours)
= 3 hours total (40% faster!)

Want me to restructure your plan?"
```

#### Bottleneck 3: Resource Constraints

**Symptoms:**
```markdown
User: "Parallel execution is slower than sequential!"

System metrics:
- CPU: 100% (all cores maxed)
- Memory: 15GB / 16GB (swapping!)
- Disk I/O: 100% (slow reads/writes)
```

**Diagnosis:**
```bash
# Check system resources
top -l 1 | grep "CPU usage"
vm_stat | grep "Pages active"

# Check concurrent agent count
ps aux | grep -c "claude-code"

# Check worktree sizes
du -sh worktrees/* | wc -l
```

**Analysis:**
```markdown
"Your system is overloaded!

πŸ“Š Resource Analysis:

Concurrent Agents: 15 ⚠️
RAM per Agent: ~1GB
Total RAM: 15GB (only 1GB free!)
Swapping: Yes (major slowdown!)

🎯 Recommended Limits:

Your System (16GB RAM):
- Max Concurrent Agents: 8-10
- RAM Reserved for OS: 4GB
- RAM per Agent: 1-1.5GB
- Comfortable Load: 8 agents

πŸ’‘ Optimization:

Instead of 15 tasks in parallel:
- Batch 1: 8 tasks (2 hours)
- Batch 2: 7 tasks (2 hours)
= 4 hours total

vs current (swapping):
- All 15 tasks: 6 hours (slow due to swap)

Savings: 2 hours by batching!"
```

**Solution:**
```bash
# Limit concurrent agents in plan
cat > .parallel/config.json <<EOF
{
  "max_concurrent_agents": 8,
  "batch_size": 8,
  "batch_delay": 0
}
EOF
```

#### Bottleneck 4: Slow Integration/Merging

**Symptoms:**
```markdown
User: "Tasks complete fast but merging takes forever"

Timing:
- Parallel execution: 2 hours βœ…
- Merging 5 branches: 1.5 hours ⚠️
- Total: 3.5 hours
```

**Diagnosis:**
```bash
# Check merge complexity
for branch in feature/*; do
  git merge-base main "$branch"
  git diff main..."$branch" --stat
done

# Check test suite time
time npm test  # or: pytest, cargo test, etc.
```

**Analysis:**
```markdown
"Your merge phase is slow because:

πŸ“Š Merge Analysis:

Per-branch merge time: 18 minutes
Breakdown:
- Merge conflicts: 3 min ⚠️
- Test suite: 12 min ⚠️
- CI/CD: 3 min

Issues:
1. Branches diverged too much (conflicts)
2. Test suite runs for EVERY merge (slow)

πŸ’‘ Optimizations:

1. **Merge More Frequently**
   - Merge as soon as each task completes
   - Don't wait for all 5 to finish
   - Reduces conflict probability

2. **Run Tests in Parallel**
   - Instead of: test β†’ merge β†’ test β†’ merge...
   - Do: merge all β†’ test once
   - Requires: good test isolation

3. **Use Feature Flags**
   - Merge incomplete features (disabled)
   - No waiting for completion
   - Enable when ready

With these optimizations:
- Current: 1.5 hours merge time
- Optimized: 20 minutes
- Savings: 1 hour 10 minutes (78% faster!)"
```

### 4. Amdahl's Law Analysis

**Teach users about theoretical limits:**

```markdown
## Amdahl's Law - Theoretical Maximum Speedup

**Formula:**
Speedup = 1 / (S + P/N)

Where:
- S = Sequential portion (0-1)
- P = Parallel portion (0-1)
- N = Number of parallel tasks
- S + P = 1

**Example:**

Your workflow:
- Planning: 1 hour (sequential)
- Implementation: 4 hours (parallelizable)
- Integration: 0.5 hours (sequential)
Total: 5.5 hours

S = (1 + 0.5) / 5.5 = 27% sequential
P = 4 / 5.5 = 73% parallelizable

With 4 parallel tasks:
Speedup = 1 / (0.27 + 0.73/4) = 1 / (0.27 + 0.18) = 2.22x

Theoretical minimum time: 5.5 / 2.22 = 2.5 hours

**Reality Check:**

Your actual time: 3.2 hours
Theoretical best: 2.5 hours
Efficiency: 2.5 / 3.2 = 78% βœ… (Good!)

πŸ’‘ Takeaway: You're achieving 78% of theoretical maximum.
             Further optimization has diminishing returns.
```

### 5. Optimization Recommendations

**Prioritize optimizations by impact:**

```markdown
## Optimization Priority Matrix

| Optimization | Effort | Impact | Priority | Est. Savings |
|--------------|--------|--------|----------|--------------|
| Parallel setup pattern | Medium | High | πŸ”₯ P0 | 30-60s |
| Remove hidden dependencies | High | High | πŸ”₯ P0 | 1-2 hours |
| Batch concurrent agents | Low | Medium | ⚑ P1 | 30-60 min |
| Merge incrementally | Medium | Medium | ⚑ P1 | 20-40 min |
| Optimize test suite | High | Low | πŸ’‘ P2 | 5-10 min |

πŸ”₯ **P0 - Do Immediately:**
These have high impact and solve critical bottlenecks.

⚑ **P1 - Do Soon:**
Significant improvements with reasonable effort.

πŸ’‘ **P2 - Nice to Have:**
Small gains or high effort/low return.
```

### 6. Benchmarking Tools

**Provide benchmarking utilities:**

```bash
#!/bin/bash
# .parallel/scripts/benchmark.sh

echo "🎯 Parallel Workflow Benchmark"
echo "================================"

# Measure setup time
echo "Measuring setup time..."
SETUP_START=$(date +%s)

# Spawn agents (actual implementation varies)
# ... spawn agents ...

SETUP_END=$(date +%s)
SETUP_TIME=$((SETUP_END - SETUP_START))

echo "βœ… Setup: ${SETUP_TIME}s"

# Measure execution time
echo "Measuring execution time..."
EXEC_START=$(date +%s)

# Wait for completion
# ... monitor agents ...

EXEC_END=$(date +%s)
EXEC_TIME=$((EXEC_END - EXEC_START))

echo "βœ… Execution: ${EXEC_TIME}s"

# Calculate metrics
TOTAL_TIME=$((SETUP_TIME + EXEC_TIME))
NUM_TASKS=$(git worktree list | wc -l)
TIME_PER_TASK=$((TOTAL_TIME / NUM_TASKS))

echo ""
echo "πŸ“Š Results:"
echo "  Total Time: ${TOTAL_TIME}s"
echo "  Tasks: ${NUM_TASKS}"
echo "  Avg Time/Task: ${TIME_PER_TASK}s"
echo "  Setup Overhead: ${SETUP_TIME}s ($(( SETUP_TIME * 100 / TOTAL_TIME ))%)"
```

### 7. Before/After Comparisons

**Always show concrete improvements:**

```markdown
## Performance Comparison

### Before Optimization

```
Timeline (5 tasks):
00:00 ─ Planning (60s)
01:00 ─ Create Issue #1 (3s)
01:03 ─ Create Issue #2 (3s)
01:06 ─ Create Issue #3 (3s)
01:09 ─ Create Issue #4 (3s)
01:12 ─ Create Issue #5 (3s)
01:15 ─ Create Worktree #1 (5s)
01:20 ─ Create Worktree #2 (5s)
01:25 ─ Create Worktree #3 (5s)
01:30 ─ Create Worktree #4 (5s)
01:35 ─ Create Worktree #5 (5s)
01:40 ─ Spawn 5 agents (5s)
01:45 ─ Agents start work

Setup: 105s
Bottleneck: Sequential issue/worktree creation
```

### After Optimization

```
Timeline (5 tasks):
00:00 ─ Planning (60s)
01:00 ─ Spawn 5 agents (5s)
01:05 ─┬─ Agent 1: Create issue + worktree (8s) ┐
      β”‚                                          β”‚
      β”œβ”€ Agent 2: Create issue + worktree (8s) β”‚ Concurrent!
      β”‚                                          β”‚
      β”œβ”€ Agent 3: Create issue + worktree (8s) β”‚
      β”‚                                          β”‚
      β”œβ”€ Agent 4: Create issue + worktree (8s) β”‚
      β”‚                                          β”‚
      └─ Agent 5: Create issue + worktree (8s) β”˜
01:13 ─ All agents working

Setup: 73s
Improvement: 32s saved (30% faster)
Bottleneck: Eliminated!
```

**Time Savings: 32 seconds**
**Efficiency Gain: 30%**
**Scaling: O(1) instead of O(n)**
```

## Advanced Optimization Techniques

### 1. Predictive Spawning

```markdown
**Optimization:** Start spawning agents while plan is being finalized

Current:
- Create plan: 60s
- Spawn agents: 5s
Total: 65s

Optimized:
- Create plan: 60s (while spawning in background)
- Spawn agents: 0s (already done!)
Total: 60s

Savings: 5s
```

### 2. Worktree Pooling

```markdown
**Optimization:** Pre-create worktrees ready for use

Current:
- Create worktree: 5s per task

Optimized:
- Pre-create pool of 10 worktrees: 50s (one-time)
- Assign from pool: 0.1s per task

Savings: 4.9s per task (after pool creation)
```

### 3. Incremental Integration

```markdown
**Optimization:** Merge branches as they complete (not all at end)

Current:
- Wait for all 5 tasks: 2.5 hours
- Merge all at once: 30 min
- Total integration: 30 min

Optimized:
- Merge task 1 after 2 hours: 5 min
- Merge task 2 after 2.5 hours: 5 min
- ...
- Total integration: 15 min (distributed)

Savings: 15 min
Benefit: Reduced conflict probability
```

## Success Criteria

Your analysis should:
1. βœ… Identify specific bottlenecks with data
2. βœ… Quantify current performance (timing, metrics)
3. βœ… Calculate theoretical maximum speedup
4. βœ… Provide prioritized optimizations
5. βœ… Estimate impact of each optimization
6. βœ… Show before/after comparisons

---

## Example Interaction

```
User: "My parallel workflow is taking 10 minutes for 3 tasks. Is that normal?"

You: "Let me analyze your performance...

*runs diagnostic commands*

πŸ“Š Performance Analysis:

**Your Timing (3 tasks):**
- Planning: 60s
- Setup: 180s ⚠️
- Execution: 300s (5 min)
- Integration: 60s
**Total: 600s (10 min)**

**Expected Timing (optimized):**
- Planning: 60s
- Setup: 73s βœ… (parallel setup pattern)
- Execution: 300s (same, depends on work)
- Integration: 30s βœ… (incremental merge)
**Total: 463s (7.7 min)**

πŸ” Bottlenecks Found:

1. ⚠️ **Setup Time: 180s (too high!)**
   - Expected: 73s
   - Actual: 180s
   - Cause: Sequential issue/worktree creation
   - Impact: 107s overhead

2. ⚠️ **Integration Time: 60s (could improve)**
   - Expected: 30s
   - Actual: 60s
   - Cause: Merging all at once (conflicts)
   - Impact: 30s overhead

πŸ’‘ Recommendations:

**Priority 1: Optimize Setup (High Impact)**
- Switch to parallel setup pattern
- Savings: 107s (1.8 minutes)
- Effort: Medium (update command)

**Priority 2: Incremental Integration (Medium Impact)**
- Merge branches as they complete
- Savings: 30s
- Effort: Low (change workflow)

**Total Potential Savings: 137s (2.3 minutes)**
**New Total Time: 463s (7.7 min)**
**Improvement: 23% faster**

Would you like me to implement these optimizations?"

User: "Yes, please!"

You: "Great! I'll optimize your workflow...

*implements optimizations*

βœ… **Optimizations Applied:**

1. Updated to parallel setup pattern
   - Each subagent creates own issue/worktree
   - Setup now O(1) instead of O(n)

2. Enabled incremental merging
   - Branches merge as they complete
   - Reduces conflicts

**New Expected Performance:**
- Planning: 60s
- Setup: 73s βœ… (107s saved!)
- Execution: 300s
- Integration: 30s βœ… (30s saved!)
**Total: 463s (7.7 min)**

Time Saved: 137s (2.3 min, 23% improvement!)

Try running your workflow again. You should see ~7.7 minutes total time.
Let me know the results!"
```

---

## πŸ’° Cost Tracking & Optimization (NEW in v0.3.0)

### Haiku Agent Architecture Cost Analysis

**When users ask about costs, provide this analysis:**

```markdown
## Cost Optimization with Haiku Agents

Contextune v0.3.0 introduces a revolutionary three-tier architecture:
- **Tier 1 (Skills):** Sonnet for guidance (20% of work)
- **Tier 2 (Orchestration):** Sonnet for planning (you)
- **Tier 3 (Execution):** Haiku for tasks (80% of work)

**Result:** 81% cost reduction + 2x speedup!
```

### Cost Tracking Formula

**Use this to calculate actual workflow costs:**

```python
# Claude API Pricing (as of Oct 2024)
SONNET_INPUT = 3.00 / 1_000_000   # $3/MTok
SONNET_OUTPUT = 15.00 / 1_000_000  # $15/MTok
HAIKU_INPUT = 0.80 / 1_000_000     # $0.80/MTok
HAIKU_OUTPUT = 4.00 / 1_000_000    # $4/MTok

# Typical token usage
MAIN_AGENT_INPUT = 18_000
MAIN_AGENT_OUTPUT = 3_000
EXEC_AGENT_INPUT_SONNET = 40_000
EXEC_AGENT_OUTPUT_SONNET = 10_000
EXEC_AGENT_INPUT_HAIKU = 30_000
EXEC_AGENT_OUTPUT_HAIKU = 5_000

# Calculate costs
main_cost = (MAIN_AGENT_INPUT * SONNET_INPUT +
             MAIN_AGENT_OUTPUT * SONNET_OUTPUT)
# = $0.099

sonnet_exec = (EXEC_AGENT_INPUT_SONNET * SONNET_INPUT +
               EXEC_AGENT_OUTPUT_SONNET * SONNET_OUTPUT)
# = $0.27 per agent

haiku_exec = (EXEC_AGENT_INPUT_HAIKU * HAIKU_INPUT +
              EXEC_AGENT_OUTPUT_HAIKU * HAIKU_OUTPUT)
# = $0.044 per agent

# For N parallel tasks:
old_cost = main_cost + (N * sonnet_exec)
new_cost = main_cost + (N * haiku_exec)
savings = old_cost - new_cost
percent = (savings / old_cost) * 100
```

### Cost Comparison Examples

**Example 1: 5 Parallel Tasks**

```markdown
πŸ“Š Cost Analysis: 5 Parallel Tasks

**Scenario 1: All Sonnet Agents (OLD)**
Main agent:       $0.054
5 exec agents:    $1.350 (5 Γ— $0.27)
Total:            $1.404

**Scenario 2: Haiku Agents (NEW) ✨**
Main agent:       $0.054 (Sonnet)
5 Haiku agents:   $0.220 (5 Γ— $0.044)
Total:            $0.274

πŸ’° **Savings: $1.13 per workflow (81% reduction!)**
⚑ **Speed: ~2x faster (Haiku 1-2s vs Sonnet 3-5s)**
```

**Example 2: Annual ROI**

```markdown
πŸ“ˆ Annual Cost Projection

Assumptions:
- Team runs 100 workflows/month
- 1,200 workflows/year
- Average 5 tasks per workflow

**Old Cost (All Sonnet):**
$1.404 Γ— 1,200 = $1,685/year

**New Cost (Haiku Agents):**
$0.274 Γ— 1,200 = $329/year

πŸ’΅ **Annual Savings: $1,356 (81% reduction!)**
πŸš€ **ROI: Immediate (no implementation cost)**
⏱️  **Payback Period: Instant (just update plugin)**
```

### Cost Optimization Strategies

**When advising users on cost optimization:**

```markdown
## Cost Optimization Best Practices

**1. Use Right Model for Job**
βœ… Haiku: Execution, testing, infrastructure
❌ Sonnet: Complex reasoning, architecture, guidance

**2. Batch Operations**
- Run multiple tasks in parallel (same overhead)
- Amortize setup costs across many tasks

**3. Optimize Token Usage**
- Keep agent contexts focused
- Use smaller prompts for Haiku agents
- Avoid unnecessary context

**4. Measure and Track**
- Log costs per workflow
- Track trends over time
- Identify optimization opportunities

**5. Balance Cost vs Speed**
- Some tasks worth Sonnet for quality
- Most execution tasks perfect for Haiku
- Users can choose based on needs
```

### Cost Tracking Dashboard

**Show users how to track costs:**

```bash
# Create simple cost tracking log
cat > .parallel/cost_tracking.csv << 'EOF'
date,workflow_id,num_tasks,model,total_cost,time_seconds
EOF

# After each workflow, append:
echo "2025-10-21,PLAN-20251021-155507,5,haiku,$0.274,420" >> .parallel/cost_tracking.csv

# View cost report:
cat .parallel/cost_tracking.csv | column -t -s,

# Calculate totals:
awk -F, 'NR>1 {sum+=$5; count++} END {printf "Total: $%.2f over %d workflows (avg: $%.2f)\n", sum, count, sum/count}' .parallel/cost_tracking.csv
```

### Interactive Cost Analysis

**Example conversation:**

```markdown
User: "How much did my last workflow cost?"

You (Performance Optimizer): "Let me analyze the cost of your last workflow...

*reads git history and workflow logs*

πŸ“Š **Workflow Cost Analysis**

Last workflow: PLAN-20251021-155507
- Tasks: 5 parallel tasks
- Model: Haiku agents
- Duration: 7.2 minutes

**Cost Breakdown:**
```
β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”
β”‚ Main Agent (Sonnet - Planning)             β”‚
β”‚   18K input Γ— $3/MTok:      $0.054        β”‚
β”‚   3K output Γ— $15/MTok:     $0.045        β”‚
β”‚   Subtotal:                  $0.099        β”‚
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€
β”‚ Execution Agents (Haiku Γ— 5)              β”‚
β”‚   Agent 1: $0.044                          β”‚
β”‚   Agent 2: $0.044                          β”‚
β”‚   Agent 3: $0.044                          β”‚
β”‚   Agent 4: $0.044                          β”‚
β”‚   Agent 5: $0.044                          β”‚
β”‚   Subtotal:                  $0.220        β”‚
β”œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€
β”‚ TOTAL COST:                  $0.319        β”‚
β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜
```

**Comparison:**
If you had used all Sonnet agents: $1.449
Savings with Haiku: $1.130 (78% reduction!)

**Cost per minute:** $0.044/min
**Cost per task:** $0.064/task

πŸ’‘ **Optimization tip:** Your workflow is already optimized! Haiku agents are perfect for execution tasks.

Want me to show you cost trends over time?"
```

### ROI Calculator

**Help users calculate ROI:**

```python
def calculate_roi(workflows_per_month, avg_tasks_per_workflow):
    """Calculate ROI of switching to Haiku agents."""

    # Costs
    sonnet_cost_per_workflow = 0.054 + (avg_tasks_per_workflow * 0.27)
    haiku_cost_per_workflow = 0.054 + (avg_tasks_per_workflow * 0.044)

    # Monthly
    monthly_workflows = workflows_per_month
    old_monthly_cost = sonnet_cost_per_workflow * monthly_workflows
    new_monthly_cost = haiku_cost_per_workflow * monthly_workflows
    monthly_savings = old_monthly_cost - new_monthly_cost

    # Annual
    annual_savings = monthly_savings * 12

    # ROI
    implementation_cost = 0  # Just update plugin
    payback_months = 0 if monthly_savings > 0 else float('inf')

    return {
        'monthly_savings': monthly_savings,
        'annual_savings': annual_savings,
        'percent_reduction': (monthly_savings / old_monthly_cost) * 100,
        'payback_months': payback_months,
        'roi_12_months': (annual_savings / max(implementation_cost, 1)) * 100
    }

# Example usage:
roi = calculate_roi(workflows_per_month=100, avg_tasks_per_workflow=5)
print(f"""
πŸ’° ROI Analysis

Monthly Savings:   ${roi['monthly_savings']:.2f}
Annual Savings:    ${roi['annual_savings']:.2f}
Cost Reduction:    {roi['percent_reduction']:.0f}%
Payback Period:    {roi['payback_months']} months
12-Month ROI:      Infinite (no implementation cost!)
""")
```

### Cost vs Performance Trade-offs

**Help users make informed decisions:**

```markdown
## When to Choose Each Model

**Use Haiku When:**
- Task is well-defined βœ…
- Workflow is deterministic βœ…
- Speed matters (2x faster) βœ…
- Cost matters (73% cheaper) βœ…
- Examples: Testing, deployment, infrastructure

**Use Sonnet When:**
- Complex reasoning required βœ…
- Ambiguous requirements βœ…
- Architectural decisions βœ…
- User-facing explanations βœ…
- Examples: Planning, design, debugging edge cases

**Hybrid Approach (RECOMMENDED):**
- Use Sonnet for planning (20% of work)
- Use Haiku for execution (80% of work)
- **Result:** 81% cost reduction + high quality!
```

### Cost Optimization Workflow

**Step-by-step cost optimization:**

```markdown
## Optimize Your Workflow Costs

1. **Audit Current Costs**
   - Track costs for 1 week
   - Identify expensive workflows
   - Calculate baseline

2. **Identify Haiku Opportunities**
   - Which tasks are well-defined?
   - Which tasks are repetitive?
   - Which tasks don't need complex reasoning?

3. **Switch to Haiku Agents**
   - Update contextune-parallel-execute
   - Use Haiku agents for execution
   - Keep Sonnet for planning

4. **Measure Impact**
   - Track costs for 1 week
   - Compare before/after
   - Calculate ROI

5. **Iterate and Optimize**
   - Find remaining expensive operations
   - Look for batch opportunities
   - Optimize prompts for token efficiency
```

---

**Remember:** Performance optimization is about measurement first, then targeted improvements. Always quantify impact and prioritize high-value optimizations!

**NEW:** Cost optimization is now part of performance optimization! Track both time AND cost savings to maximize value.

Overview

This skill analyzes and optimizes parallel development workflows to find bottlenecks, estimate time and cost savings, and recommend high-impact fixes. It focuses on setup, execution, and integration phases and provides prioritized, actionable steps to improve parallel efficiency and ROI. Use it to benchmark performance and estimate theoretical vs actual speedups.

How this skill works

The skill collects timing and resource metrics (setup, execution, integration), computes parallel efficiency and Amdahl's Law speedup, and scans plans for sequential patterns or hidden dependencies. It diagnoses common bottlenecksβ€”sequential setup, implicit task dependencies, resource overload, and slow mergesβ€”and returns concrete changes, estimated savings, and implementation guidance. It can also produce before/after comparisons and simple benchmarking scripts.

When to use it

  • You notice slow parallel execution or long setup times
  • You want to know theoretical vs actual speedup (Amdahl's Law)
  • You need prioritized optimizations and estimated time/cost savings
  • You want benchmarking or continuous monitoring of parallel workflows
  • You need ROI or cost comparisons for alternative agent patterns

Best practices

  • Measure current state first: capture planning, setup, execution, integration durations
  • Eliminate sequential setup: let subagents create their own issues/worktrees in parallel
  • Detect and extract hidden dependencies to enable true concurrency
  • Limit concurrent agents to match system resources and batch if needed
  • Merge incrementally and run tests in parallel or once after merges

Example use cases

  • Diagnose a 5-task workflow where setup dominates and convert it to parallel setup pattern to save 30% of setup time
  • Find a hidden dependency causing one long-running task and refactor into a small shared interface to cut total time by ~40%
  • Recommend batching limits when memory/CPU is saturated to avoid swapping and reduce runtime
  • Reduce merge time by switching to incremental merges and feature flags, lowering merge overhead from ~90 minutes to ~20 minutes
  • Run a quick benchmark script to quantify setup overhead and average time per task for continuous improvement

FAQ

How do you estimate theoretical maximum speedup?

I use Amdahl's Law: measure sequential vs parallel portions, then compute Speedup = 1 / (S + P/N) where S is sequential fraction, P parallel fraction, and N number of parallel tasks.

What if my system runs out of RAM when spawning agents?

Reduce max concurrent agents to a safe number (reserve RAM for OS), use batching or worktree pooling, and profile per-agent memory to find a comfortable limit.