MakeWPFast Benchmark

This skill should be used when the user asks about a WordPress plugin's or theme's real performance/speed impact, wants to compare the speed of plugins or themes, asks whether a plugin is slow or heavy, or wants to audit the plugins on a WordPress site — e.g. "how fast is WooCommerce", "compare Yoast vs Rank Math speed", "is this plugin slow", "what's the TTFB cost of this plugin", "audit my site's plugins". It queries the MakeWPFast Benchmark API (real measured activation/homepage/wp-admin deltas for ~52,000 WordPress.org plugins and themes) via the bundled mwf-bench CLI.

MakeWPFast Benchmark API

Answer questions about the real, measured performance impact of WordPress plugins and themes using the bundled mwf-bench CLI. Each plugin/theme has a speed grade plus TTFB, memory, and query deltas measured in three contexts (activation, homepage, wp-admin) against a clean WordPress baseline.

The API is paid and quota-limited. The CLI protects the user's quota with a local cache, name→slug resolution, and batch guards — so always delegate to the CLI; never hand-write curl. Treat the CLI as the only way to touch the API.

Setup (once)

The CLI needs an API key (subscribe at https://makewpfast.com/api/). It is read from, in order: MWF_API_KEY env var → macOS keychain → ~/.config/makewpfast/key.

• If no key is configured, the CLI prints a subscribe link and exits. Relay that to the user.
• To store a key: scripts/mwf-bench auth (prompts, never echoes), or export MWF_API_KEY=....

Usage

Run the CLI at scripts/mwf-bench (relative to this skill). Parse its stdout. Add --format json when you need structured data to reason further; the default text output is already human-readable.

Goal	Command
One plugin	mwf-bench lookup "WooCommerce"
One theme	mwf-bench lookup astra --theme
Compare several	mwf-bench compare wordpress-seo seo-by-rank-math
Quota / tier (free)	mwf-bench me
Just the slug	mwf-bench resolve "Yoast SEO"
Audit a local site	mwf-bench audit --path /path/to/wp --top 10

Accepts plain names ("WooCommerce", "Yoast SEO") or exact slugs. The CLI resolves names to WordPress.org slugs for free before spending any paid quota.

Rules (protect the user's quota)

• Never write raw curl. Every API interaction goes through mwf-bench.
• Prefer compare over multiple lookup calls when the user names several plugins.
• Don't re-query a slug already fetched this session unless the user says the data is stale (add --refresh only then). Cached rows are free and printed as "(cached, N days old)".
• For broad / site-wide asks, run mwf-bench me first to show remaining quota, then use audit (it benchmarks only active, heaviest plugins) rather than looping over everything.
• If the CLI returns "Ambiguous" candidates (exit 3), stop and ask the user which one before spending quota — do not guess the slug from training data.
• A 404 means the slug isn't in the dataset (not in dataset); benchmarked: false means the slug is known but not yet measured. Report these honestly; don't invent numbers.
• On 401/403/429 the CLI prints the subscribe/upgrade link — relay it, don't retry.

Interpreting results

• Speed grade A–F (+ numeric 0–100) is computed from activation memory + query deltas. Higher numeric = faster/lighter.
• Deltas are vs a clean WP baseline: TTFB in ms, memory in KB, queries are raw counts. A context can be null/not measured (e.g. an admin-only plugin has no homepage row) — treat null as "not measured", not "zero impact".
• Suggesting faster alternatives is your job after seeing the numbers — the API has no search endpoint, so propose alternatives, then verify them with another compare.

See references/api.md for the full field/status reference and references/examples.md for worked prompt→command examples.