Find what slows your site

Your AI app can show where the time goes: slow pages, a bloated settings table, stuck background jobs, an oversized database. It can clean up the safe parts. It cannot speed up a site on its own, because PowerWP AI is not a caching plugin.

What you need#

• Read-only diagnostics covers the measuring and the whole diagnosis (steps 1 to 5). This works on the Free plan too.
• Database writes for the clean-up (step 6). Settings & maintenance for cache_flush, cron_manage and wc_scheduled_action_manage. Plugins & themes to switch off a plugin.

Before you start#

• Measure first, so you can compare afterwards. Keep the numbers.
• Before a database clean-up, make a database backup and set a checkpoint (see Work safely on a live site).
• Test on pages that matter: the home page, a typical post or page, a category page, and on a store the shop, one product, the cart.

Steps#

1. Measure the pages as visitors get them. The first request can be cold, so ask for two.
   • Example prompt

     Measure the home page, the shop page, one product page and the cart twice. Give me the response time, the size, whether the page cache answered, and how many scripts, stylesheets and images each page loads. Change nothing.

   • Your AI app will use page_check with use_cache=true. Without a page cache it says "no page cache" and does not compare cached with uncached times.
2. Look at the server. PHP version, memory and time limits, OPcache, object cache.
   • Example prompt

     What do the server settings and the WordPress Site Health tests say about speed?

   • Your AI app will use site_overview, server_info and site_health.
3. Check the autoloaded options. WordPress loads these settings on every request, so a big total is a common cause of a slow site. Above about 1 MB is a problem.
   • Example prompt

     How big are my autoloaded options? List the biggest ones and tell me which plugin each belongs to.

   • Your AI app will use option_get with mode=autoload_report.
4. Look at the background jobs. WordPress cron, and on a store the WooCommerce queue.
   • Example prompt

     Are any scheduled jobs overdue, duplicated or running too often? Does the WooCommerce queue have failed or past-due jobs?

   • Your AI app will use cron_events (overdue, duplicates, hooks of plugins that are gone) and wc_scheduled_actions.
5. Look at the database. Which tables are big, and how much is leftover.
   • Example prompt

     Which database tables are the largest? Count the post revisions, auto-drafts, trashed posts, spam comments and expired transients.

   • Your AI app will use db_tables and db_query. Reclaimable space is only reported for tables with more than 10 MB free.
6. Clean up what is safe. Count first, then delete.
   • Example prompt

     Do a dry run of a cleanup of revisions older than 90 days, auto-drafts, spam comments and expired transients. Show me the counts. Wait for my OK.

   • Your AI app will use db_cleanup. It only counts until dry_run is turned off. Tasks include revisions, auto-drafts, trashed posts and comments, spam comments, orphaned meta, expired transients, expired WooCommerce sessions, finished scheduler history and table optimization.
7. Fix the rest, with your OK, and measure again. Examples: switch off a plugin that duplicates another, unschedule a job that belongs to a removed plugin, then clear caches.
   • Example prompt

     Apply the safe fixes we agreed, clear the caches, then measure the same pages again and show before and after.

   • Your AI app will use plugin_manage (deactivate), cron_manage (unschedule), cache_flush and page_check.

Large images are another common cause. Your AI app can list the ones above 800 KB (fs_find), but it cannot compress them. Use an image tool or plugin for that.

What PowerWP AI does not do#

• It is not a caching plugin. It does not cache pages, minify files, compress images or run a CDN. It clears the caches that other tools keep: WordPress object cache, transients, OPcache and the page caches of plugins such as WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.
• If there is no page cache, your AI app can tell you so and suggest one. Installing a caching plugin is possible with plugin_manage, but choosing and configuring it is your decision.
• It measures how fast your server answers a page, not how fast a browser draws it. For the visitor's view, use a browser tool.

Check the result#

• Run the same page_check measurements and compare: response time, size, script and stylesheet counts.
• The autoload report is smaller and the overdue job count is lower.
• The log shows no new errors from the last ten minutes.

How to undo#

• Deleted revisions, drafts, trash, spam and orphaned rows are snapshotted when fewer than 50,000 are deleted at once. Roll back the change in PowerWP AI › Changes.
• Deleted transients, expired WooCommerce sessions, scheduler history and table optimization are not snapshotted. They are cache-like data that WordPress rebuilds.
• Unscheduled cron events and deactivated plugins are recorded and can be rolled back.
• Cache flushes are not recorded. They are not meant to be undone.

Recipes that do this#

performance_review runs the diagnosis in this order and reports by expected gain. monthly_checkup includes a short speed pass. diagnose_site starts from a symptom such as "checkout is slow".