[szibis]

Summary

This adds a "Performance Rules" section to CONTRIBUTING.md, stating the performance bar contributions are held to, how the repository measures it, and how to prioritise gaps. Every statement was checked against the measurement code (bench/ab/daily.py, pr_smoke.py, selection.py, perf-ab.yaml, pr-quality-report.yaml, check_quality_gate.py, conformance/reports/performance.md, gaps.md).

The section

• The bar:

  • every measured query shape and range at least as fast as Loki, on the first answer and on a repeat, with Loki's result;
  • refresh as a goal, measured with the A/B's opt-in --refresh-s;
  • low, bounded proxy CPU and memory, never bought with VictoriaLogs' CPU or memory.

• How it is measured:

  • Daily run: the last release, main and Loki, cold and warm p50 per shape and range.
  • Pull-request A/B: the merge-base, the branch and Loki on the sets the change touches, plus the control smoke subset, or the whole control set for cmd/, go.mod and go.sum. It fails on a broken shape, a slowdown confirmed by a re-run, or a new difference from Loki.
  • Resources:
    • VictoriaLogs CPU is sampled during the A/B;
    • proxy CPU and memory come from the Go benchmarks and the load test in pr-quality-report, gated by check_quality_gate.py;
    • VictoriaLogs memory is the author's to report where a change could affect it.

• Priority:

  1. errors where Loki answers;
  2. results that differ from Loki;
  3. a slower first answer;
  4. a slower repeated answer.

  Largest gap first, using performance.md, the daily trend and gaps.md.

CHANGELOG: a Documentation entry.

Not applicable: documentation only, so e2e vs Loki, the Grafana range matrix, visual proof, A/B, benchstat and the load test do not apply. Changelog gate ok.

[github-actions]

PR Quality Report

Compared against base branch main.

Coverage and tests

Signal	Base	PR	Delta
Test count	11763	11763	0
Coverage	88.3%	88.3%	0.0% (stable)

Compatibility

Track	Base	PR	Delta
Loki API	100.0%	11/11 (100.0%)	0.0% (stable)
Logs Drilldown	100.0%	17/17 (100.0%)	0.0% (stable)
VictoriaLogs	100.0%	11/11 (100.0%)	0.0% (stable)

Performance smoke

Performance smoke was skipped for this PR because no perf-sensitive paths changed.

State

• Coverage, compatibility, and sampled performance are reported here from the same PR workflow.
• This is a delta report, not a release gate by itself. Required checks still decide merge safety.
• Performance smoke was intentionally skipped because no perf-sensitive paths changed in this PR.
• Delta states use the same noise guards as the quality gate (percent + absolute + low-baseline checks), so report labels match merge-gate behavior.