Swiftui Performance Audit

SwiftUI Performance Audit

Purpose

Make performance work evidence-led: inspect the smallest relevant SwiftUI data-flow and view slice first, name code-level suspicion separately from runtime proof, then hand trace capture to the existing Xcode or SwiftPM testing workflow.

When To Use

• Use for slow rendering, dropped frames, broad view updates, unstable list identity, expensive body work, layout churn, image pressure, broad animation, high CPU, or memory growth in SwiftUI.
• Do not use this skill as a generic style review, a replacement for Instruments, or a reason to introduce caches, view models, stores, or coordinators.

Single-Path Workflow

1. Apply the Apple docs gate through explore-apple-swift-docs. Confirm current Observation and SwiftUI behavior before proposing a performance change.
2. Collect the target view, reproduction steps, data flow, device/simulator, build configuration, and the observed symptom.
3. Classify the symptom as invalidation, identity churn, body computation, layout, image, animation, CPU, or retained-memory pressure.
4. Read references/code-smells-and-remediation.md and identify only code-backed suspicions. Mark each finding as suspected until a capture proves it.
5. Prefer narrow ownership, stable identity, precomputation outside body, downsampled images, localized state, and reduced layout complexity. Do not use equatable() or @State as an unmeasured cache.
6. When code inspection is insufficient, hand trace capture to xcode-testing-workflow for scheme/destination work or swift-package-testing-workflow for package-first workloads.
7. Compare the same reproduction before and after the change. Report CPU, frame behavior, allocations, and view-update evidence only when captured.

Inputs

• target view/feature, smallest reproduction, and symptom
• state/observation/data-flow slice and relevant identities
• platform, device or simulator, build configuration, and any existing trace

Outputs

• findings labeled as code-level suspicion or trace-backed evidence
• smallest remediation proposal with ownership and behavior preserved
• profiling handoff or before/after validation result

Guards and Stop Conditions

• Do not claim a view is the performance root cause without code evidence or a trace.
• Do not add a ViewModel, repository, service wrapper, or arbitrary @State cache merely to quiet a symptom.
• Do not compare Debug and Release captures as if they are the same measurement.
• Stop when the reproduction is not defined well enough to distinguish a product behavior from a performance regression.

Fallbacks and Handoffs

• Recommend xcode-testing-workflow for Instruments, xctrace, schemes, destinations, and trace interpretation.
• Recommend swift-package-testing-workflow for package-first signposts and profiling workloads.
• Recommend swiftui-app-architecture-workflow or swiftui-component-audit-workflow only when the evidence shows a real component-ownership issue.

References

• references/code-smells-and-remediation.md
• Recommend references/snippets/apple-xcode-project-core.md when the app needs reusable Xcode-project policy alongside profiling work.
• Understanding and improving SwiftUI performance documents SwiftUI performance analysis in Xcode.