Improve startup performance and reduce resource usage

- Defer elfeed auto-update timers until first use (was running at startup)
- Fix consult-project-function to handle nil project gracefully
- Remove duplicate delete-trailing-whitespace hook
- Remove redundant diff-hl find-file-hook (global-diff-hl-mode handles it)
- Reduce treemacs resource usage (lower git entries, disable filewatch)
- Make dired dotfiles-first sorting opt-in (C-c s to sort, C-c S to toggle)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

lisp/elfeed-config.el

@@ -51,14 +51,15 @@
                     (lambda ()
                       (message "Feed update complete!"))))
   
-  ;; Store timer references so we can cancel them
+  ;; Timer references for auto-updates (started lazily on first elfeed use)
   (defvar elfeed-update-timer-30min nil
     "Timer for 30-minute elfeed updates.")
 
-  ;; Auto-update feeds every 30 minutes in the background
-  ;; Delayed start to avoid impacting startup performance
-  (setq elfeed-update-timer-30min
-        (run-with-timer (* 5 60) (* 30 60) #'elfeed-update-async))
+  (defvar elfeed-update-timer-hourly nil
+    "Timer for hourly elfeed updates.")
+
+  (defvar elfeed-timers-initialized nil
+    "Whether elfeed auto-update timers have been started.")
 
   ;; Custom function for fuzzy relative timestamps
   (defun my-elfeed-search-format-date (date)
@@ -181,6 +182,9 @@
 
 ;; Keybindings for elfeed
 (with-eval-after-load 'elfeed
+  ;; Start auto-update timers when elfeed is first opened (lazy initialization)
+  (add-hook 'elfeed-search-mode-hook #'elfeed-maybe-start-auto-updates)
+
   ;; Disable CUA mode in elfeed buffers to allow single-key commands
   (add-hook 'elfeed-search-mode-hook
             (lambda ()
@@ -213,14 +217,6 @@
     (rmh-elfeed-org-process rmh-elfeed-org-files rmh-elfeed-org-tree-id)
     (message "Elfeed feeds reloaded from org files. %d feeds loaded." (length elfeed-feeds))))
 
-;; Store timer reference for hourly updates
-(defvar elfeed-update-timer-hourly nil
-  "Timer for hourly elfeed updates.")
-
-;; Update feeds every hour
-(setq elfeed-update-timer-hourly
-      (run-at-time 0 (* 60 60) 'elfeed-update))
-
 ;; Functions to control auto-updates
 (defun elfeed-stop-auto-updates ()
   "Stop all automatic elfeed feed updates."
@@ -231,6 +227,7 @@
   (when (timerp elfeed-update-timer-hourly)
     (cancel-timer elfeed-update-timer-hourly)
     (setq elfeed-update-timer-hourly nil))
+  (setq elfeed-timers-initialized nil)
   (message "Elfeed auto-updates stopped."))
 
 (defun elfeed-start-auto-updates ()
@@ -240,9 +237,16 @@
   (setq elfeed-update-timer-30min
         (run-with-timer (* 5 60) (* 30 60) #'elfeed-update-async))
   (setq elfeed-update-timer-hourly
-        (run-at-time 0 (* 60 60) 'elfeed-update))
+        (run-at-time (* 5 60) (* 60 60) 'elfeed-update))
+  (setq elfeed-timers-initialized t)
   (message "Elfeed auto-updates started."))
 
+(defun elfeed-maybe-start-auto-updates ()
+  "Start auto-updates if not already initialized.
+This is called when elfeed is first opened."
+  (unless elfeed-timers-initialized
+    (elfeed-start-auto-updates)))
+
 ;; Sorting functions
 (defun elfeed-sort-by-date-ascending ()
   "Sort elfeed entries by date ascending (oldest first)."

lisp/init-dired.el

@@ -28,8 +28,13 @@
   (define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "* /") 'dired-mark-directories))
 
 ;; Custom sorting: directories first (dotted first), then files (dotted first)
+;; This is opt-in to avoid performance overhead on every directory open
+(defvar dired-sort-dotfiles-first-enabled nil
+  "When non-nil, automatically sort dired buffers with dotfiles first.")
+
 (defun dired-sort-dotfiles-first ()
   "Sort dired: dirs first (dots first within), then files (dots first within)."
+  (interactive)
   (save-excursion
     (let (buffer-read-only)
       (goto-char (point-min))
@@ -84,8 +89,26 @@
             (insert line "\n")))))
     (set-buffer-modified-p nil)))
 
-;; Apply custom sorting after dired reads directory
-(add-hook 'dired-after-readin-hook 'dired-sort-dotfiles-first)
+(defun dired-maybe-sort-dotfiles-first ()
+  "Sort dired buffer if `dired-sort-dotfiles-first-enabled' is non-nil."
+  (when dired-sort-dotfiles-first-enabled
+    (dired-sort-dotfiles-first)))
+
+(defun dired-toggle-dotfiles-first-sorting ()
+  "Toggle automatic dotfiles-first sorting in dired."
+  (interactive)
+  (setq dired-sort-dotfiles-first-enabled (not dired-sort-dotfiles-first-enabled))
+  (if dired-sort-dotfiles-first-enabled
+      (progn
+        (add-hook 'dired-after-readin-hook 'dired-maybe-sort-dotfiles-first)
+        (message "Dired dotfiles-first sorting enabled"))
+    (remove-hook 'dired-after-readin-hook 'dired-maybe-sort-dotfiles-first)
+    (message "Dired dotfiles-first sorting disabled")))
+
+;; Keybinding to manually sort current buffer or toggle auto-sorting
+(with-eval-after-load 'dired
+  (define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "C-c s") 'dired-sort-dotfiles-first)
+  (define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "C-c S") 'dired-toggle-dotfiles-first-sorting))
 
 (provide 'init-dired)
 ;;; init-dired.el ends here

lisp/init-project.el

@@ -98,7 +98,10 @@
 
 ;; Integration with consult if available
 (with-eval-after-load 'consult
-  (setq consult-project-function #'project-root))
+  (setq consult-project-function
+        (lambda (_may-prompt)
+          (when-let ((proj (project-current)))
+            (project-root proj)))))
 
 ;; Keybindings - Main project map on C-x p (built-in)
 ;; Additional compatibility bindings for muscle memory

lisp/init-treemacs.el

@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
         treemacs-directory-name-transformer      #'identity
         treemacs-display-in-side-window          t
         treemacs-eldoc-display                   'simple
-        treemacs-file-event-delay                2000
+        treemacs-file-event-delay                5000  ; Increased from 2000 for less CPU usage
         treemacs-file-follow-delay                0.2
         treemacs-follow-after-init                t
         treemacs-expand-after-init               t
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
         treemacs-indentation                     2
         treemacs-indentation-string              " "
         treemacs-is-never-other-window           nil
-        treemacs-max-git-entries                  5000
+        treemacs-max-git-entries                  500   ; Reduced from 5000 for faster git status
         treemacs-missing-project-action          'ask
         treemacs-move-forward-on-expand          nil
         treemacs-no-delete-other-windows         t
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
         treemacs-workspace-switch-cleanup        nil)
 
   (treemacs-follow-mode t)
-  (treemacs-filewatch-mode t)
+  (treemacs-filewatch-mode nil)  ; Disabled by default - use M-x treemacs-filewatch-mode to enable
   (treemacs-fringe-indicator-mode 'always)
   (when treemacs-python-executable
     (treemacs-git-commit-diff-mode t))

lisp/init-ui.el

@@ -156,9 +156,8 @@
     (princ "  M-x ensure-cua-bindings\n")
     (princ "  M-x cua-mode (toggle off and on)\n")))
 
-;; Trailing whitespace
+;; Trailing whitespace visualization (deletion handled in init-editor.el)
 (setq show-trailing-whitespace t)
-(add-hook 'before-save-hook 'delete-trailing-whitespace)
 
 ;; Fill column indicator
 (setq-default display-fill-column-indicator-column 80)

lisp/init-vcs.el

@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@
   (setq diff-hl-flydiff-delay 0.3)
 
   ;; Make sure diff-hl updates on various events
+  ;; Note: find-file-hook not needed as global-diff-hl-mode handles it
   (add-hook 'after-save-hook 'diff-hl-update)
   (add-hook 'after-revert-hook 'diff-hl-update)
-  (add-hook 'find-file-hook 'diff-hl-update)
   (add-hook 'vc-checkin-hook 'diff-hl-update)
 
   ;; Enable globally with a slight delay to speed up initial startup