# Performance & Stability Baseline (Phase 1)

Last updated: 2026-05-13

## Baseline observations

### Performance

- Loader-heavy pages (myportal/representation/new appeal) perform multiple external calls per SSR request.
- Form XML is read/normalized repeatedly from disk in SSR path.
- Some large components still combine orchestration + rendering, increasing rerender work.

### Stability

- Several SSR/data paths assume nested API response shapes without guard rails.
- Representation resume/new loader had crash/redirect fragility around missing contact/representation objects.
- Logging noise can mask actionable failure signals.

## Changes started in this phase

1. Added in-memory XML cache in `lib/forms/readFormXml.js` (safe, process-local).
2. Added null/redirect guards in `lib/representation/pageLoaders.js` for missing user/contact and missing representation entry.
3. Began auth-path de-duplication and redirect hardening (see auth reliability doc).

## Next baseline improvements

1. Add guarded defaults in remaining loader paths (`loadNewAppealPage`, myportal page loaders).
2. Introduce structured non-sensitive SSR failure telemetry for dependency failures.
3. Expand bounded concurrency/parallelism where safe and contract-preserving.