CWV Improvement Planner

Goal

Turn performance findings into a prioritized, measurable rollout plan that improves field Core Web Vitals without platform-specific assumptions.

Use This Skill When

• The user asks for a CWV plan, optimization roadmap, or performance triage.
• The context includes LCP, INP, CLS, TTFB, render-blocking resources, hydration, or preload strategy.
• The stack mentions Next.js, React, CDN/edge caching (including CloudFront), or page-speed regressions.

Cross-Platform Rules

• Use forward-slash paths only.
• Avoid OS-specific command syntax unless the repository already standardizes it.
• Keep recommendations tool-agnostic first, then add stack-specific examples when context confirms the stack.

Workflow

1. Establish baseline
   • Capture field metrics (RUM/CrUX) and lab traces (Lighthouse/WebPageTest/DevTools).
   • Identify highest-impact templates and user journeys (for example, list -> detail -> checkout).
2. Prioritize fundamentals first
   • Compression and caching correctness at the edge.
   • TTFB contributors and redirect chains.
   • LCP resource discovery, eager loading, and prioritization.
   • Render-blocking CSS/JS and hydration pressure.
3. Convert findings into implementation slices
   • For each issue: why it matters, what to inspect, recommended change, risk, estimated impact.
   • Add acceptance criteria and rollback notes.
4. Gate advanced experiments
   • Treat 103 Early Hints and Speculation Rules as measured experiments with explicit guardrails.
5. Define verification
   • Add before/after checks in CI and post-release monitoring thresholds.

Output Template

Use this structure when generating a plan:

# Core Web Vitals Improvement Plan

## Baseline
- Field baseline: LCP, INP, CLS, TTFB by device/network/route.
- Lab baseline: trace links and key waterfall observations.

## Prioritized Work
1. [High] <topic>
   - Why
   - Inspect
   - Change
   - Risks
   - Expected impact

2. [Medium] <topic>
...

## Experiments
- Hypothesis
- Scope
- Success metric
- Stop conditions

## Validation
- CI assertions
- Release checks
- RUM watch window and thresholds

Detailed Guidance

See playbook.md for the topic-by-topic checklist and prioritization model.