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Refocus all skills on wall-clock build time as primary metric#1

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AvdLee merged 2 commits intomainfrom
wall-time-refocus
Mar 23, 2026
Merged

Refocus all skills on wall-clock build time as primary metric#1
AvdLee merged 2 commits intomainfrom
wall-time-refocus

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@AvdLee AvdLee commented Mar 23, 2026

Summary

  • Establishes wall-clock build time (how long the developer waits) as the primary success metric across all skills, starting from AGENTS.md
  • Adds blocking-vs-parallel heuristics to the orchestrator so it stops ranking parallelized compile hotspot fixes above serial bottlenecks
  • Requires every recommendation to include a plain-language wait-time impact statement ("Expected to reduce your clean build by ~3s" or "Reduces parallel compile work but unlikely to reduce your build wait time")
  • Adds disclaimers to timing-summary tables explaining that aggregated task totals can exceed wall-clock due to Xcode parallelism
  • Updates verification/reporting in the fixer to lead with wall-clock deltas and honestly label cases where task metrics improved but wait time did not

Context

User feedback showed the skills were great at diagnosing issues (SwiftUI hotspots, build settings, SPM pinning) but over-promised impact by communicating in cumulative task time. This led to many source-level fixes that reduced compiler workload without actually reducing build wait time -- in one case adding 0.1s to the build despite large hotspot reductions.

Files changed (10)

  • AGENTS.md -- wall-clock-first principle
  • skills/xcode-build-orchestrator/SKILL.md -- prioritization rewrite, impact language, final report
  • skills/xcode-build-orchestrator/references/orchestration-report-template.md -- timing disclaimers, wait-time impact examples
  • scripts/generate_optimization_report.py -- timing-table disclaimers, wait_time_impact field rendering
  • skills/xcode-compilation-analyzer/SKILL.md -- parallel workload labeling
  • skills/xcode-project-analyzer/references/project-audit-checks.md -- wall-clock qualifier
  • skills/spm-build-analysis/references/spm-analysis-checks.md -- wall-clock qualifier
  • skills/xcode-build-fixer/SKILL.md -- wall-clock-first reporting
  • references/benchmark-artifacts.md -- wall-clock vs cumulative distinction
  • references/recommendation-format.md -- new wait_time_impact field

Test plan

  • Run the orchestrator against a real project and verify the optimization plan includes wait-time impact statements per recommendation
  • Verify timing-summary tables display the parallelism disclaimer
  • Confirm the fixer reports results as "Your build now takes X.Xs (was Y.Ys)" format
  • Check that compile hotspot recommendations are labeled as parallel workload when appropriate

AvdLee and others added 2 commits March 23, 2026 08:30
…tric

User feedback showed the skills were over-indexing on cumulative task time
(which Xcode parallelizes) and presenting it as build-time savings. This led
to many source-level fixes that reduced compiler workload without actually
reducing how long the developer waits.

Key changes:
- AGENTS.md: wall-clock first principle inherited by all skills
- Orchestrator: blocking-vs-parallel heuristics, impact language templates,
  wall-clock-first final report
- Report script/template: timing-table disclaimers, wait-time impact field,
  plain-language verification
- Compilation analyzer: parallel workload labeling when not on critical path
- Project/SPM analyzers: wall-clock qualifier on prioritization tiers
- Fixer: wall-clock delta leads reporting, honest language when task metrics
  improve but wait time does not
- Benchmark artifacts: documents wall-clock vs cumulative distinction
- Recommendation format: new wait_time_impact required field
@AvdLee AvdLee merged commit cce1615 into main Mar 23, 2026
@AvdLee AvdLee deleted the wall-time-refocus branch March 23, 2026 11:49
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