chore: startup investigation

[gastonfournier]

This was a short investigation into the startup performance. These are the findings:

1. Server binds in ~2.9 s, yet dev workflow shows ~20 s wall (includes build + watcher).
2. Startup profiler highlighted large async churn and heavy synchronous module initialization before the first listen.

Some suggestions (from ChatGPT that I think are relevant but I don't feel we'll gain much):

1. Migration gating: requires migration scans ~350 migration files and runs db-migrate logic every boot (FS + promise storm) before listen; no cached manifest or version fast path.
2. OpenAPI boot cost: OpenApiService constructs full schema and pulls in @wesleytodd/openapi + swagger-parser stack even if docs are never hit during early life; validators compiled at runtime each boot.
3. Validation coupling: API route validation tightly coupled to heavy OpenApiService instance; cannot partially initialize (validators vs docs UI). Lazy-load swagger UI & parser only on /docs
4. Heavy module loads: date-fns root import (~275 ms chain) and openapi/swagger, unleash-client, knex stack each ~80–130 ms; some appear twice (path + bare specifier) causing duplicate parse/compile.
5. Promise churn: ~38k PROMISE async ops (massive summed duration) dominated by trivial then/new Promise chains from library initialization (Bluebird transitive usage, swagger, date-fns aggregation).
6. Repetitive runtime computation: Simple helpers (e.g. secondsToMilliseconds) imported from full date-fns bundle; no tree-shaking in CommonJS/ESM mixed environment.
7. Precompile validators: generate AJV compiled code at build

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1 Skipped Deployment

Project	Deployment	Preview	Updated (UTC)
unleash-docs	Ignored		Sep 2, 2025 7:21am

[github-actions]

Dependency Review

✅ No vulnerabilities or license issues or OpenSSF Scorecard issues found.

Scanned Files

None

[gastonfournier]

Output of the report

[gastonfournier]

This file can be loaded in https://ui.perfetto.dev/ for a timeline but it's not really useful IMO