# SophiaClaw Performance Requirements

**Version:** 2.0.0  
**Classification:** Public (Open Source)  
**Last Updated:** 2026-03-11

---

## 1. Executive Summary

This document defines the performance requirements for SophiaClaw, a local-first AI governance and agent orchestration platform. These requirements ensure the system delivers responsive, efficient, and scalable performance across all deployment scenarios.

### 1.1 Performance Philosophy

SophiaClaw performance is guided by these principles:

1. **Local-First Speed**: Leverage local resources for minimal latency
2. **Graceful Degradation**: Maintain functionality under load
3. **Measurable Targets**: Define and monitor clear performance metrics
4. **Resource Efficiency**: Minimize CPU, memory, and network usage

### 1.2 Performance Budget

| Metric                | Budget      | Criticality |
| --------------------- | ----------- | ----------- |
| Gateway startup       | <5 seconds  | P0          |
| Simple message (p50)  | <2 seconds  | P0          |
| Complex message (p95) | <10 seconds | P1          |
| Policy evaluation     | <100ms      | P0          |
| Gate check            | <200ms      | P0          |
| Memory baseline       | <500MB      | P1          |
| CPU idle              | <5%         | P2          |

---

## 2. Latency Requirements

### 2.1 Gateway Latency

| ID       | Requirement                        | Priority | Target                     | Measurement                  |
| -------- | ---------------------------------- | -------- | -------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| PERF-001 | Gateway startup time (cold)        | P0       | <5 seconds                 | Process start to listening   |
| PERF-002 | Gateway startup time (warm)        | P1       | <2 seconds                 | Cached dependencies          |
| PERF-003 | WebSocket connection establishment | P0       | <500ms (p50), <1s (p95)    | TCP connect to auth complete |
| PERF-004 | WebSocket message round-trip       | P0       | <100ms (p50), <300ms (p95) | Send to receive ACK          |
| PERF-005 | HTTP API response time             | P0       | <200ms (p50), <500ms (p95) | Request to response          |
| PERF-006 | Heartbeat processing               | P1       | <50ms                      | Ping to pong                 |
| PERF-007 | Graceful shutdown time             | P2       | <10 seconds                | Signal to exit               |

### 2.2 Message Processing Latency

| ID       | Requirement                      | Priority | Target                            | Notes                  |
| -------- | -------------------------------- | -------- | --------------------------------- | ---------------------- |
| PERF-011 | Simple message processing (p50)  | P0       | <2 seconds                        | Greeting, simple query |
| PERF-012 | Simple message processing (p95)  | P0       | <4 seconds                        | 95th percentile        |
| PERF-013 | Simple message processing (p99)  | P1       | <8 seconds                        | 99th percentile        |
| PERF-014 | Complex message processing (p50) | P1       | <5 seconds                        | Multi-step reasoning   |
| PERF-015 | Complex message processing (p95) | P1       | <10 seconds                       | Tool loops, research   |
| PERF-016 | Complex message processing (p99) | P2       | <20 seconds                       | Outlier handling       |
| PERF-017 | Tool execution overhead          | P0       | <100ms                            | Excluding tool runtime |
| PERF-018 | Context retrieval time           | P1       | <50ms (cached), <200ms (uncached) | Memory fetch           |

### 2.3 Governance Latency

| ID       | Requirement                    | Priority | Target       | Notes                 |
| -------- | ------------------------------ | -------- | ------------ | --------------------- |
| PERF-021 | Intent capture and structuring | P0       | <100ms       | Rule-based extraction |
| PERF-022 | Policy evaluation              | P0       | <100ms (p95) | All policies checked  |
| PERF-023 | Gate check execution           | P0       | <200ms (p95) | All gates checked     |
| PERF-024 | Conflict detection             | P1       | <50ms        | Claim matching        |
| PERF-025 | Bulletin event write           | P1       | <50ms (p95)  | SQLite insert         |
| PERF-026 | Audit log query                | P1       | <500ms       | Last 100 events       |
| PERF-027 | Intent correction UI latency   | P2       | <100ms       | User interaction      |

### 2.4 Channel Latency

| ID       | Requirement                         | Priority | Target                     | Channel                |
| -------- | ----------------------------------- | -------- | -------------------------- | ---------------------- |
| PERF-031 | Telegram message delivery           | P0       | <1s (p50), <3s (p95)       | Bot API polling        |
| PERF-032 | Discord message delivery            | P0       | <500ms (p50), <1s (p95)    | WebSocket              |
| PERF-033 | Slack message delivery              | P0       | <500ms (p50), <2s (p95)    | WebSocket              |
| PERF-034 | WhatsApp message delivery           | P1       | <2s (p50), <5s (p95)       | Puppeteer-based        |
| PERF-035 | Web interface message delivery      | P0       | <200ms (p50), <500ms (p95) | WebSocket              |
| PERF-036 | Channel fan-out (multiple channels) | P1       | <1s additional             | Per additional channel |

### 2.5 Tool Execution Latency

| Tool Category           | Typical Range | Timeout | Notes                    |
| ----------------------- | ------------- | ------- | ------------------------ |
| File read (local)       | <10ms         | 5s      | SSD, <1MB                |
| File write (local)      | <20ms         | 5s      | SSD, <1MB                |
| File search             | <100ms        | 30s     | Recursive, limited depth |
| Shell command (simple)  | <500ms        | 60s     | Git, npm operations      |
| Shell command (complex) | <5s           | 60s     | Build processes          |
| Web fetch               | <1s           | 30s     | HTTP GET, small response |
| Browser automation      | <10s          | 120s    | Puppeteer page load      |
| Database query          | <50ms         | 10s     | SQLite local             |
| Vector search           | <100ms        | 5s      | In-memory embeddings     |
| LLM API call            | <2s           | 60s     | Network dependent        |

---

## 3. Memory Usage Requirements

### 3.1 Baseline Memory

| ID       | Requirement                           | Priority | Target            | Conditions              |
| -------- | ------------------------------------- | -------- | ----------------- | ----------------------- |
| PERF-101 | Gateway baseline memory (idle)        | P0       | <500MB            | No active sessions      |
| PERF-102 | Gateway baseline memory (10 sessions) | P1       | <800MB            | Active conversations    |
| PERF-103 | Gateway baseline memory (50 sessions) | P2       | <1.5GB            | High load               |
| PERF-104 | Channel handler overhead              | P1       | <50MB per channel | Telegram, Discord, etc. |
| PERF-105 | SQLite database memory                | P1       | <100MB            | With indexes            |
| PERF-106 | Cache memory usage                    | P2       | <200MB            | LRU eviction            |

### 3.2 Per-Session Memory

| Component             | Memory per Session     | Notes                     |
| --------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------- |
| Session context       | ~100KB                 | Sliding window, 4K tokens |
| Message history       | ~50KB per 100 messages | Compressed                |
| Tool state            | ~10KB                  | Active tools              |
| Governance state      | ~5KB                   | Intent, policies, claims  |
| **Total per session** | **~200KB base**        | Excluding LLM context     |

### 3.3 Memory Management

| ID       | Requirement                                   | Priority | Implementation         |
| -------- | --------------------------------------------- | -------- | ---------------------- |
| PERF-111 | Implement LRU eviction for session cache      | P0       | Prevent OOM            |
| PERF-112 | Auto-compact sessions exceeding 1000 messages | P1       | Memory efficiency      |
| PERF-113 | Clear tool execution memory after completion  | P0       | Leak prevention        |
| PERF-114 | Monitor heap usage and trigger GC when needed | P1       | Proactive              |
| PERF-115 | Support configurable memory limits            | P1       | Deployment flexibility |
| PERF-116 | Implement memory leak detection in tests      | P0       | Quality assurance      |

### 3.4 Memory Limits

| Deployment   | Min Memory | Recommended | Max Configured |
| ------------ | ---------- | ----------- | -------------- |
| Development  | 2GB        | 4GB         | 8GB            |
| Personal     | 4GB        | 8GB         | 16GB           |
| Team Gateway | 8GB        | 16GB        | 32GB           |
| Production   | 16GB       | 32GB        | 64GB+          |

---

## 4. CPU Usage Requirements

### 4.1 Baseline CPU

| ID       | Requirement               | Priority | Target | Conditions           |
| -------- | ------------------------- | -------- | ------ | -------------------- |
| PERF-201 | Gateway idle CPU usage    | P0       | <5%    | Single core, no load |
| PERF-202 | Gateway CPU (10 msg/sec)  | P1       | <25%   | Sustained load       |
| PERF-203 | Gateway CPU (50 msg/sec)  | P2       | <60%   | High load            |
| PERF-204 | Channel polling overhead  | P1       | <10%   | Telegram polling     |
| PERF-205 | Policy evaluation CPU     | P1       | <5%    | Per evaluation       |
| PERF-206 | Encryption/decryption CPU | P1       | <10%   | Credential access    |

### 4.2 CPU Optimization

| ID       | Requirement                                      | Priority | Implementation      |
| -------- | ------------------------------------------------ | -------- | ------------------- |
| PERF-211 | Use async I/O for all blocking operations        | P0       | Non-blocking        |
| PERF-212 | Implement worker threads for CPU-intensive tasks | P1       | Parallel processing |
| PERF-213 | Batch policy evaluations when possible           | P2       | Efficiency          |
| PERF-214 | Cache LLM responses to reduce API calls          | P1       | Deduplication       |
| PERF-215 | Debounce rapid policy checks                     | P2       | Reduce redundancy   |

### 4.3 Tool Execution CPU

| Tool Category   | Typical CPU | Peak CPU | Notes                 |
| --------------- | ----------- | -------- | --------------------- |
| File operations | <5%         | <20%     | Brief spikes          |
| Shell commands  | Variable    | 100%     | External process      |
| Web scraping    | <10%        | <50%     | Puppeteer overhead    |
| LLM calls       | <5%         | <10%     | Network wait          |
| Vector search   | <20%        | <50%     | Embedding computation |

---

## 5. Storage Requirements

### 5.1 Disk Space

| ID       | Requirement                   | Priority | Target | Notes                 |
| -------- | ----------------------------- | -------- | ------ | --------------------- |
| PERF-301 | Installation size             | P0       | <500MB | Dependencies included |
| PERF-302 | Workspace minimum             | P0       | 10GB   | Configurable          |
| PERF-303 | Session storage (per day)     | P1       | ~100MB | Active user           |
| PERF-304 | Audit log storage (per month) | P1       | ~500MB | Default retention     |
| PERF-305 | Cache maximum                 | P1       | 2GB    | LRU eviction          |
| PERF-306 | Database maximum              | P2       | 5GB    | Auto-vacuum           |

### 5.2 Storage Layout

```
~/.sophiaclaw/
├── config.yaml                    # ~1KB
├── credentials/                   # ~100KB (encrypted)
├── sessions/                      # ~3GB/month
│   └── [agent-id]/
│       └── [session-id].jsonl
├── workspace/                     # 10GB default
│   ├── projects/
│   ├── temp/
│   └── cache/
├── memory/                        # ~500MB
│   ├── facts.db
│   └── knowledge/
└── logs/                          # ~1GB/month
    ├── gateway.log
    ├── security.log
    └── audit.log
```

### 5.3 I/O Performance

| ID       | Requirement             | Priority | Target       | Notes           |
| -------- | ----------------------- | -------- | ------------ | --------------- |
| PERF-311 | Session write latency   | P0       | <10ms (p95)  | Append-only     |
| PERF-312 | Session read latency    | P0       | <50ms (p95)  | Indexed lookup  |
| PERF-313 | Audit log write latency | P1       | <50ms (p95)  | Batched         |
| PERF-314 | Database query latency  | P1       | <100ms (p95) | Indexed queries |
| PERF-315 | File read throughput    | P2       | >100MB/s     | SSD             |
| PERF-316 | File write throughput   | P2       | >50MB/s      | SSD             |

### 5.4 Storage Optimization

| ID       | Requirement                        | Priority | Implementation           |
| -------- | ---------------------------------- | -------- | ------------------------ |
| PERF-321 | Compress old sessions (>7 days)    | P1       | Gzip compression         |
| PERF-322 | Auto-vacuum SQLite database weekly | P1       | Space reclamation        |
| PERF-323 | Rotate logs daily                  | P0       | Prevent unbounded growth |
| PERF-324 | Delete temporary files on exit     | P0       | Cleanup                  |
| PERF-325 | Implement storage quotas           | P1       | Configurable limits      |
| PERF-326 | Warn at 80% quota utilization      | P1       | User notification        |

---

## 6. Network Requirements

### 6.1 Bandwidth

| ID       | Requirement                 | Priority | Target         | Notes                 |
| -------- | --------------------------- | -------- | -------------- | --------------------- |
| PERF-401 | Outbound bandwidth (idle)   | P0       | <1KB/s         | Heartbeat only        |
| PERF-402 | Outbound bandwidth (active) | P1       | <100KB/s       | Normal usage          |
| PERF-403 | Outbound bandwidth (peak)   | P2       | <1MB/s         | LLM API, file uploads |
| PERF-404 | Inbound bandwidth (idle)    | P0       | <1KB/s         | Polling               |
| PERF-405 | Inbound bandwidth (active)  | P1       | ~50KB/s        | Messages, responses   |
| PERF-406 | WebSocket message size      | P1       | <100KB average | Typical payload       |

### 6.2 Connection Management

| ID       | Requirement                                | Priority | Implementation      |
| -------- | ------------------------------------------ | -------- | ------------------- |
| PERF-411 | Implement connection pooling for HTTP      | P1       | Reuse connections   |
| PERF-412 | Support HTTP/2 for multiplexing            | P2       | Efficiency          |
| PERF-413 | Implement exponential backoff on reconnect | P0       | Resilience          |
| PERF-414 | Limit concurrent connections to 100        | P1       | Resource protection |
| PERF-415 | Close idle connections after 5 minutes     | P1       | Cleanup             |
| PERF-416 | Support connection keepalive               | P0       | Prevent timeout     |

### 6.3 Network Resilience

| Metric                          | Target        | Notes               |
| ------------------------------- | ------------- | ------------------- |
| Reconnection time (fast)        | <1s           | Transient failure   |
| Reconnection time (slow)        | <30s          | Network down        |
| Message queue during disconnect | 1000 messages | Buffer              |
| Message loss tolerance          | 0%            | Guaranteed delivery |

---

## 7. Scalability Requirements

### 7.1 Vertical Scaling

| Resource  | Minimum | Baseline | Maximum Tested |
| --------- | ------- | -------- | -------------- |
| CPU cores | 2       | 4        | 32             |
| Memory    | 4GB     | 8GB      | 64GB           |
| Network   | 10Mbps  | 100Mbps  | 1Gbps          |
| Disk IOPS | 1000    | 5000     | 50000          |

### 7.2 Horizontal Scaling Targets

| Metric                 | Single Instance | Future (Federation) |
| ---------------------- | --------------- | ------------------- |
| Concurrent connections | 1000            | 10,000+             |
| Active sessions        | 50              | 500+                |
| Messages/second        | 100             | 1000+               |
| Channels connected     | 10              | 50+                 |

### 7.3 Concurrency

| ID       | Requirement                      | Priority | Target |
| -------- | -------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| PERF-501 | Concurrent WebSocket connections | P1       | 1000+  |
| PERF-502 | Concurrent active sessions       | P1       | 50+    |
| PERF-503 | Concurrent tool executions       | P1       | 20+    |
| PERF-504 | Concurrent policy evaluations    | P1       | 100+   |
| PERF-505 | Concurrent database writes       | P1       | 50+    |

### 7.4 Load Characteristics

| Load Type | Description                      | Expected Load           |
| --------- | -------------------------------- | ----------------------- |
| Idle      | No active sessions, polling only | ~5% CPU, <500MB memory  |
| Light     | 1-5 messages/minute              | ~10% CPU, ~600MB memory |
| Moderate  | 10-20 messages/minute            | ~25% CPU, ~800MB memory |
| Heavy     | 50+ messages/minute              | ~60% CPU, ~1.5GB memory |
| Peak      | 100+ messages/minute             | ~80% CPU, ~2GB memory   |

---

## 8. Performance Testing

### 8.1 Benchmark Requirements

| ID       | Requirement                                  | Priority | Notes                   |
| -------- | -------------------------------------------- | -------- | ----------------------- |
| PERF-601 | Implement microbenchmarks for core functions | P0       | Policy eval, gate check |
| PERF-602 | Implement load tests for gateway             | P0       | WebSocket server        |
| PERF-603 | Implement stress tests for memory            | P0       | Leak detection          |
| PERF-604 | Implement endurance tests (24h+)             | P1       | Long-running stability  |
| PERF-605 | Implement scale tests (max load)             | P1       | Breaking point          |

### 8.2 Performance Test Scenarios

| Scenario           | Description                    | Target            |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------ | ----------------- |
| Startup benchmark  | Cold and warm startup          | <5s cold          |
| Message throughput | Messages processed per second  | 100+ msg/s        |
| Policy evaluation  | Policies evaluated per second  | 1000+ eval/s      |
| Session endurance  | Continuous operation           | 24h+ stable       |
| Memory stress      | Memory under sustained load    | No leaks          |
| Connection storm   | Rapid connection/disconnection | Graceful handling |

### 8.3 Performance Monitoring

| ID       | Requirement                          | Priority | Implementation        |
| -------- | ------------------------------------ | -------- | --------------------- |
| PERF-611 | Expose metrics endpoint              | P1       | Prometheus-compatible |
| PERF-612 | Log performance metrics periodically | P1       | Every 5 minutes       |
| PERF-613 | Alert on performance degradation     | P2       | Threshold-based       |
| PERF-614 | Provide performance dashboard        | P2       | Web UI                |
| PERF-615 | Support distributed tracing          | P3       | OpenTelemetry         |

### 8.4 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

| KPI                    | Target   | Measurement      |
| ---------------------- | -------- | ---------------- |
| Message latency (p50)  | <2s      | Simple messages  |
| Message latency (p95)  | <10s     | Complex messages |
| Policy evaluation time | <100ms   | p95              |
| Gateway uptime         | >99.5%   | Monthly          |
| Memory growth rate     | <1%/hour | Idle             |
| Error rate             | <0.1%    | All operations   |

---

## 9. Performance Optimization Guidelines

### 9.1 Code-Level Optimizations

| Technique           | 适用场景                        | Impact                |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------- | --------------------- |
| Async/await for I/O | All file, network, DB ops       | Prevent blocking      |
| LRU caching         | Session context, policy results | Reduce redundant work |
| Batch operations    | Database writes, log appends    | Reduce I/O            |
| Lazy loading        | Large resources, tools          | Faster startup        |
| Memoization         | Pure functions, computations    | CPU reduction         |
| Streaming           | Large file transfers            | Memory efficiency     |

### 9.2 Configuration Tuning

| Parameter                             | Default | Tuning Guidance                   |
| ------------------------------------- | ------- | --------------------------------- |
| `NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size"` | 4096    | Increase for heavy load           |
| `UV_THREADPOOL_SIZE`                  | 4       | Increase for I/O-bound workloads  |
| WebSocket heartbeat interval          | 30s     | Decrease for faster detection     |
| Session cache size                    | 100     | Increase for more active sessions |
| Policy cache size                     | 1000    | Increase for complex policies     |

### 9.3 Resource Limits

| Resource            | Soft Limit | Hard Limit | Action on Exceed |
| ------------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------------- |
| Memory              | 4GB        | 8GB        | Warning, then GC |
| CPU                 | 80%        | 100%       | Throttle         |
| File descriptors    | 1024       | 4096       | Error            |
| Concurrent sessions | 100        | 200        | Reject new       |
| Disk usage          | 80% quota  | 100% quota | Warn, then block |

---

## 10. Performance Regression Prevention

### 10.1 CI/CD Integration

| ID       | Requirement                        | Priority | Implementation     |
| -------- | ---------------------------------- | -------- | ------------------ |
| PERF-701 | Run benchmarks on every PR         | P0       | GitHub Actions     |
| PERF-702 | Fail PR on >10% regression         | P0       | Quality gate       |
| PERF-703 | Track performance trends over time | P1       | Historical data    |
| PERF-704 | Compare against baseline release   | P1       | Version comparison |

### 10.2 Performance Budget Enforcement

| Metric           | Budget | CI Check         |
| ---------------- | ------ | ---------------- |
| Bundle size      | <50MB  | Fail if exceeded |
| Startup time     | <5s    | Warn if >4s      |
| Memory baseline  | <500MB | Warn if >450MB   |
| Lighthouse score | >90    | Fail if <85      |

---

## 11. Related Documents

- [System Requirements](./SYSTEM_REQUIREMENTS.md)
- [Governance Requirements](./GOVERNANCE_REQUIREMENTS.md)
- [Security Requirements](./SECURITY_REQUIREMENTS.md)
- [System Architecture](../architecture.md)
- [Testing Guide](../testing.md)

---

## 12. Performance Acceptance Criteria

### 12.1 Pre-Release Checklist

- [ ] All P0 performance requirements met
- [ ] No memory leaks detected in 24h endurance test
- [ ] Benchmarks documented and baseline established
- [ ] Performance tests in CI/CD pipeline
- [ ] Monitoring endpoints functional

### 12.2 Performance Sign-Off

| Role             | Responsibility           | Sign-off    |
| ---------------- | ------------------------ | ----------- |
| Engineering Lead | Review all metrics       | Required    |
| QA Lead          | Verify test coverage     | Required    |
| DevOps Lead      | Validate monitoring      | Required    |
| Security Lead    | Review security overhead | Recommended |

---

<p align="center">
  <em>SophiaClaw Performance — Fast, Efficient, Scalable</em><br>
  <sub>Measured. Optimized. Verified.</sub>
</p>
