> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://glua.bluejutzu.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# GLua Language Server Performance

> GLua Language Server is designed to stay fast on large codebases, with measured benchmarks on a 932-file, 232,000-line Garry's Mod gamemode.

All numbers on this page were measured on a real-world gamemode: 932 files and 232,000 lines of Garry's Mod Lua. The server is built to stay responsive on codebases of that size and larger.

## Benchmarks

| Metric                     | Result                                |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Cold index                 | 4.8 s (about 48,000 lines per second) |
| Retained heap              | 59 MB                                 |
| Re-analyse 3,200-line file | 31 ms                                 |
| Completion (member)        | 1.2 ms                                |
| Completion (global scope)  | 4.1 ms                                |
| Diagnostics                | 3.5 ms                                |

## How it stays fast

* **Lazy indexing**: The initial scan is batched and non-blocking. The server indexes files in chunks so the editor UI stays responsive while the workspace loads.
* **Syntax tree eviction**: Syntax trees for closed files are released from memory. Only open files and their dependencies are retained, which keeps the heap bounded even in large workspaces.

## Running your own benchmark

You can benchmark the server against your own addon. Run the following from the server source directory:

```bash theme={null}
pnpm run bench -- path/to/addon
```

The output prints:

* Total index time and memory usage
* Per-feature latency (completion, diagnostics, hover)
* All diagnostics grouped by rule

## Known limits

* **Shallow type inference**: Type inference is designed to answer "what follows a dot" quickly. It stays quiet in situations where deep inference would be expensive, so you may need explicit `---@type` or `---@param` annotations for complex generics or heavily metatable-driven code.
* **Whole-file reanalysis**: When a file changes, the server re-analyses the entire file. At 31 ms for a 3,200-line file and with a 250 ms debounce, incremental reparsing is not currently worth the added complexity.
* **Wiki as source of truth**: The dataset is built from the Garry's Mod wiki. If the wiki is missing an entry or lists incorrect signatures, the server will reflect that gap.


## Related topics

- [GLua Language Server: GMod Lua IDE Support](/index.md)
- [Configure GLua Language Server](/configuration/overview.md)
- [GLua Language Server Commands](/reference/commands.md)
- [Realm Awareness in GLua Language Server](/features/realms.md)