Skills · SkillBackend & APIsDevOps & CloudReviewed

latency-critical-systems

Optimize and verify latency-sensitive systems — realtime dashboards, market data feeds, streaming agents, execution gateways, queues, and caches — by tracking p50/p95/p99 latency, freshness age, and queue depth, mapping hot paths, and running live readbacks. Use when p95 latency, throughput, or data freshness matters.

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Kind: Skill
Works with: Claude Code, Codex
Source: affaan-m/ECC @ d3b8a3e90890
Path: skills/latency-critical-systems/SKILL.md
License: MIT
Jobs: Guardrails

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# Latency Critical Systems

Use this skill when the user cares about realtime behavior, hot paths, streaming
freshness, or execution speed. This includes HFT-like infrastructure, but the
skill is engineering-focused. It does not authorize live trading or financial
advice.

## Split The Metrics

Do not collapse everything into "fast." Track:

- p50, p95, and p99 latency;
- throughput;
- freshness age;
- queue depth;
- cache hit rate;
- provider/API response time;
- browser render time;
- correctness under load;
- failure and retry behavior.

## Map The Hot Path

Write the path from user/event to final visible state:

```text
source event -> provider API -> ingest worker -> queue -> cache -> edge route
-> client stream -> browser render -> user-visible state
```

Then measure each segment separately.

## Optimization Order

1. Remove unnecessary round trips.
2. Cache stable reads with freshness metadata.
3. Batch small calls and writes.
4. Move compute closer to the data or the user.
5. Split hot and cold paths.
6. Apply backpressure before queues grow unbounded.
7. Use streaming only when it improves freshness or user experience.
…