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World Congress 2026 Europe - Virtual Stage • Jul 2, 2026 • Session details

De-bloating the Web: The "Ecosystem Performance" Initiative (e18e)

Ulrich-Matthias Schäfer

Is your node_modules folder a bloated black hole? Discover how the e18e initiative systematically purges redundant JavaScript packages to slash bundle sizes and accelerate pipelines.

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#1 about 1 min

Introduction to the Ecosystem Performance Initiative

The E18E community works cross-project to modernize the JavaScript ecosystem and improve open-source libraries.

#2 about 2 min

Addressing technical debt in modern JavaScript development

The exponential growth of nested dependencies leads to redundant functionality, excessive bloat, and unmaintained security risks.

#3 about 2 min

Three strategic pillars for improving ecosystem performance

The initiative relies on cleaning up dependencies, speeding up existing tools, and leveling up by creating modern utility replacements.

#4 about 3 min

The cleanup pillar for removing redundant polyfills

Reducing total dependency counts involves systematically removing unnecessary one-liners and generating tracking tables for replacement efforts.

#5 about 1 min

Building metadata tools for dependency tracking analysis

Copying npm registry data with custom indexes enables web applications that recursively trace package dependents across projects.

#6 about 2 min

Case studies on dependency reduction and optimization

Collaborative initiatives successfully drastically reduce edge function sizes for hosting providers and streamline build processes for large UI frameworks.

#7 about 2 min

Optimizing execution times for core ecosystem tools

Benchmarking and targeted contributions yield massive execution time improvements for essential formatting and compilation frameworks.

#8 about 2 min

Creating modern replacements for older bloated packages

Newly developed runtime-agnostic utilities eliminate edge-case bloat while standardizing common logic across the ecosystem.

#9 about 3 min

Automating analysis with the dependency migration CLI

A newly developed tool scans entire codebases to suggest modern dependency alternatives and utilizes codemods to apply replacements.

#10 about 1 min

Monitoring PR dependency changes via GitHub Actions

Automated repository checks track growth in output install size and flag shifts in trust levels to mitigate supply chain threats.

#11 about 1 min

Searching for alternatives with the replacements web portal

A dedicated searchable portal helps developers easily access guided migration paths and code exact diffs from the centralized JSON manifest.

#12 about 1 min

Evaluating dependencies with the npmx alternative frontend

Community-driven frontends for package registries improve visual analytics and natively highlight packages that are redundant.

#13 about 1 min

Tracking framework performance metrics across version iterations

An upcoming dashboard will measure and compare dependency stats, install speed, and startup times across multiple modern tooling environments.

#14 about 1 min

Collaborating with companies to improve the ecosystem

Partnerships with key tech providers and framework authors are central to implementing system-wide footprint optimizations.

#15 about 3 min

The community origins of the ecosystem performance initiative

Organic Twitter conversations about full-time performance engineers sparked a dedicated Discord channel that quickly scaled amid registry drama.

#16 about 2 min

Expanding tools, data visibility, and corporate partnerships

Future plans focus on making analytical data openly accessible to other maintainers while seeking corporate sponsorships to sustain the effort.

#17 about 1 min

Joining the ecosystem performance community efforts

Engineers are encouraged to join the project community to help track cleanup issues, create pull requests, and advocate for optimizations.

Matching moments

2:32 min

Embracing web framework competition as positive pressure

Jessica Janiuk · JS Congress

2:20 min

Examining the ecosystem and roadmap of core native libraries

Aleksandra Desmurs-Linczewska · LIVE

5:57 min

Avoiding bloated dependencies in third-party JavaScript libraries

Aaron T. Grogg · Coffee With Developers

3:12 min

Motivation for adopting frameworkless web components

Tobias Münch Tobias Münch · JS Congress

3:48 min

Adopting progressive enhancement workflows to prevent frontend bloat

Chris Heilmann Chris Heilmann +2 · LIVE

48 sec

Exploring alternative build tools and experimental web components

Sasha Shynkevich · LIVE

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