maui performance-hotpaths.instructions.md

Performance-Critical Path Rules

Scope rationale: globs target the actual hot paths — layout measure/arrange, platform scroll/touch callbacks, CollectionView/CarouselView (Items + Items2) recycling, and ScrollView. The full handler tree is intentionally NOT included; most handlers (Button, DatePicker, CheckBox, …) are not hot paths and don't need these constraints. If you're working on a handler that IS allocation-sensitive (image decoding, animation tick, etc.), apply these rules anyway.

Hot Paths in MAUI

Measure/arrange cycles, scrolling callbacks, binding propagation, and property change notifications are called at high frequency. All rules below apply to code on these paths.

Allocation Avoidance

• No LINQ methods (.Where, .Select, .FirstOrDefault, .ToList) — use indexed for loops
• No closures or lambdas that capture variables — these allocate a compiler-generated class per invocation
• No string concatenation or interpolation — use StringBuilder or pre-allocated strings if logging is required
• Prefer Count + indexer over IEnumerable iteration to avoid enumerator allocation

Caching and Invalidation

• Cache results of expensive computations called multiple times per layout pass
• Invalidate caches when inputs change — stale caches cause incorrect layout
• Skip redundant work: if a property's new value equals the old value, do not trigger layout invalidation or re-render

Collection Iteration

• When the source implements IList or IReadOnlyList, use for (int i = 0; i < list.Count; i++) instead of foreach
• ObservableCollection change handlers should process only the affected range, not re-enumerate the entire collection