# Performance Optimization Initiative
**Purpose**: Reduce API p95 latency below 400ms before holiday traffic surge.
## Work Streams
1. **Caching Layer Improvements**
- Investigate edge caching feasibility (idea captured on `frontpage.md`)
- Benchmark Redis cluster with larger node sizes
2. **Query Optimization**
- Audit slow queries using Datadog APM traces
- Prioritize endpoints with > 5% error budget consumption
3. **Infrastructure**
- Evaluate autoscaling thresholds; consider predictive scaling
- Coordinate with SRE on blue/green deployment test
## Metrics Dashboard
- Datadog monitor: `api-latency-critical`
- Grafana board: `API Platform / Latency Overview`
## Next Checkpoint
- Present findings at Nov 4 engineering leads sync
- Provide recommendation doc with cost trade-offs