Performance Tuning

Backend Startup Times

Backend	Cold Start	Warm Start	Best For
Zellij	~100ms	~50ms	Fastest, no isolation
Docker	2-5s	1-2s	Balanced, isolated

Docker Optimization

Volume Mode vs Bind Mounts

clauderon create --backend docker --volume-mode bind    # default
clauderon create --backend docker --volume-mode volume

Operation	Bind Mount	Docker Volume
Session create	1s	5s (+ copy time)
File read (1000 files)	2s	0.5s
File write (1000 files)	3s	0.8s
Git operations	1.5x	1x (baseline)

Recommendation: Bind mounts on Linux/small repos. Docker volumes on macOS/Windows or large repos (>1GB).

Image Pull Policy

clauderon create --backend docker --pull-policy if-not-present  # default
clauderon create --backend docker --pull-policy never           # fastest, requires cached image
clauderon create --backend docker --pull-policy always          # ensures latest

Pre-pull images to avoid delays: docker pull clauderon/agent:latest

Resource Limits

CPU

clauderon create --backend docker --cpu-limit 2

Build Type	No Limit	2 CPU	1 CPU
Rust (cargo)	60s	90s	180s
Node (npm)	30s	40s	60s
Go	15s	20s	30s

Memory

clauderon create --backend docker --memory-limit 4g

Task	Minimum	Recommended
Light editing	512MB	1GB
Node.js build	1GB	2GB
Rust build	2GB	4GB

Git Worktree Performance

Repository Size	Worktree Creation	Full Clone
10MB	100ms	2s
100MB	200ms	10s
1GB	500ms	60s
10GB	2s	600s

Caching

Clauderon automatically creates shared Docker volumes for Cargo and npm/bun caching.

Tool	Cold	Warm	Savings
Cargo	5-10m	30-60s	80-90%
npm	2-5m	10-30s	70-85%

clauderon cache clean              # clear all
clauderon cache clean --type cargo # specific type
clauderon cache size               # check usage

Target Latency (p95)

Operation	Target	Acceptable	Slow
Session list API	50ms	100ms	>200ms
Session create (Zellij)	500ms	1s	>2s
Session create (Docker)	3s	10s	>20s
Agent first token	1s	3s	>5s

Resource Usage Targets

Component	CPU	Memory	Disk
clauderon daemon	<5% idle	50-100MB	Minimal
Docker container	Varies	512MB-8GB	Repo size
Database	<1%	10-20MB	10-100MB

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Solution
Slow image pulls (30s-5m)	Pre-pull images; use --pull-policy if-not-present
Slow git operations (>5s)	Run git gc; check for large untracked files
Resource contention	Reduce concurrent sessions; set CPU/memory limits