Performance Budget
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
A performance budget is like a calorie limit for your website. You decide 'no more than 200KB of JavaScript' and then everyone has to justify adding that fancy animation library like it's a cheat day. Discipline, people!
Real Talk
A performance budget sets quantitative limits on metrics like bundle size, number of requests, or load time thresholds. Teams enforce these in CI pipelines so that new features don't silently degrade user experience. Exceeding the budget requires justification or optimization elsewhere.
When You'll Hear This
"We set a 170KB JS budget and now devs think twice before adding dependencies" / "The performance budget caught that 500KB import before it shipped"
Related Terms
Bundle Analyzer
A bundle analyzer is like an X-ray for your JavaScript suitcase.
Lighthouse
Lighthouse is Google's report card for your website. It grades you on speed, accessibility, SEO, and best practices.
Time to Interactive
Time to Interactive is when your page stops being a beautiful painting you can't touch and actually starts responding to clicks.