9 min read
Edge Functions vs Serverless for Solo Projects A Practical Comparison
Edge wins for cookie gating, redirects, AB tests at sub-20ms cold starts
The Lab · Written in the open · Tagged performance
Lab.
Working notes from the studio. The tools I build, the workflows I keep, the mistakes I paid for.
12 entries · latest 2026-08-31
Latest entry
The Performance Budget Every RAXXO Tool Has to Meet Before It Ships
A tool that felt instant on my desk crawled on mobile in a parking lot. The performance budget every RAXXO tool now has to clear.
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Latest entry · Development
All entries · performance
9 min read
Six Months of Shopify Web Vitals Data What Actually Moved INP
INP dropped from 380ms to 140ms over six months on raxxo.shop
9 min read
Loading Skeletons That Don't Lie: 5 Patterns for Honest Perceived Performance
Content-shaped skeletons cut layout shift to zero versus 0.18 CLS for spinners
10 min read
The 1M Context Window vs Prompt Caching: When to Use Which
1M context costs full price on every query, caching cuts repeated tokens to 1/10
10 min read
Why I Standardized on Phosphor Icons Across 15 Repos (And Cut 60% of Icon Bundle Size)
Five icon systems across 15 repos created visual drift and 84KB bundles in the worst Next.js app.
8 min read
Replacing Lodash with Native ES2026: groupBy, fromAsync, toReversed, and 5 More
Lodash adds about 70KB minified, ES2026 covers most utility uses with zero dependencies
8 min read
Shopify Section Rendering API: 6 Patterns That Cut Storefront TTFB by 60%
Cart drawer refresh swaps one section in 180ms instead of reloading the full PDP at 1.2s.
8 min read
Astro 5 vs Next.js for Marketing Sites: I Migrated 3 Projects
Next.js dev server cold start hit 14 seconds on a static portfolio, that was the breaking point.
8 min read
Shopify Theme Performance: From 62 to 98 Lighthouse in One Weekend
I took raxxo.shop from a 62 Lighthouse mobile score to 98 without leaving the Liquid theme, and this…
10 min read
The 7 Postgres Indexes That Took My API From 400ms to 40ms
I took one of my APIs from 400ms p95 to 40ms p95 by fixing 7 missing or wrong…
2 min read
Pure CSS Animations That Replace JavaScript Libraries
Radar sweeps, HUD effects, floating labels. All pure CSS, zero dependencies, 60fps.