diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index 2c102fc..d734ca1 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -9,8 +9,13 @@
 	<link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.webmanifest" />
 	<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no">
 	<meta http-equiv="Permissions-Policy" content="midi=*, microphone=*, camera=*, autoplay=*">
+	<!-- Preconnect to critical origins for faster loading -->
 	<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com" />
 	<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin />
+	<link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://jeffemmett-canvas.jeffemmett.workers.dev" />
+	<link rel="dns-prefetch" href="https://jeffemmett-canvas-dev.jeffemmett.workers.dev" />
+	<link rel="preconnect" href="https://jeffemmett-canvas.jeffemmett.workers.dev" crossorigin />
+	<link rel="preconnect" href="https://jeffemmett-canvas-dev.jeffemmett.workers.dev" crossorigin />
 	<link
 		href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Recursive:slnt,wght,CASL,CRSV,MONO@-15..0,300..1000,0..1,0..1,0..1&display=swap"
 		rel="stylesheet">
diff --git a/nginx.conf b/nginx.conf
index 6577200..8b35a69 100644
--- a/nginx.conf
+++ b/nginx.conf
@@ -4,12 +4,25 @@ server {
     root /usr/share/nginx/html;
     index index.html;
 
-    # Gzip compression
+    # Gzip compression (fallback for clients that don't support Brotli)
     gzip on;
     gzip_vary on;
-    gzip_min_length 1024;
-    gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private auth;
-    gzip_types text/plain text/css text/xml text/javascript application/x-javascript application/xml application/javascript application/json;
+    gzip_comp_level 6;
+    gzip_min_length 256;
+    gzip_proxied any;
+    gzip_types
+        text/plain
+        text/css
+        text/xml
+        text/javascript
+        application/javascript
+        application/x-javascript
+        application/json
+        application/xml
+        application/wasm
+        application/octet-stream
+        image/svg+xml
+        font/woff2;
     gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6]\.";
 
     # Security headers
diff --git a/vite.config.ts b/vite.config.ts
index dc42f59..71c4a46 100644
--- a/vite.config.ts
+++ b/vite.config.ts
@@ -128,30 +128,71 @@ export default defineConfig(({ mode }) => {
       rollupOptions: {
         output: {
           // Manual chunk splitting for large libraries to improve load times
-          manualChunks: {
-            // Core React libraries
-            'react-vendor': ['react', 'react-dom', 'react-router-dom'],
+          manualChunks(id) {
+            // Core React libraries - load first
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/react') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/react-dom') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/react-router')) {
+              return 'react-vendor';
+            }
 
-            // tldraw - large drawing library (split into separate chunk)
-            'tldraw': ['tldraw', '@tldraw/tldraw', '@tldraw/tlschema'],
+            // tldraw core - split from shapes
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/tldraw') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/@tldraw')) {
+              return 'tldraw';
+            }
 
             // Automerge - CRDT sync library
-            'automerge': [
-              '@automerge/automerge',
-              '@automerge/automerge-repo',
-              '@automerge/automerge-repo-react-hooks'
-            ],
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/@automerge')) {
+              return 'automerge';
+            }
 
             // AI SDKs (lazy load)
-            'ai-sdks': ['@anthropic-ai/sdk', 'openai', 'ai'],
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/@anthropic-ai') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/openai') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/ai/')) {
+              return 'ai-sdks';
+            }
 
             // ML/transformers (VERY large, lazy loaded)
-            'ml-libs': ['@xenova/transformers'],
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/@xenova')) {
+              return 'ml-libs';
+            }
 
             // Markdown editors
-            'markdown': ['@uiw/react-md-editor', 'cherry-markdown', 'marked', 'react-markdown'],
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/@uiw/react-md-editor') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/cherry-markdown') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/marked') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/react-markdown')) {
+              return 'markdown';
+            }
 
-            // Note: gun, webnative, holosphere removed - stubbed for future Nostr integration
+            // CodeMirror (used by markdown editors)
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/@codemirror') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/codemirror')) {
+              return 'codemirror';
+            }
+
+            // Daily video chat
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/@daily-co')) {
+              return 'daily-video';
+            }
+
+            // html2canvas (screenshots)
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/html2canvas')) {
+              return 'html2canvas';
+            }
+
+            // ONNX runtime (ML inference)
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/onnxruntime')) {
+              return 'onnx';
+            }
+
+            // DOMPurify and sanitizers
+            if (id.includes('node_modules/dompurify') ||
+                id.includes('node_modules/isomorphic-dompurify')) {
+              return 'sanitizers';
+            }
           },
         },
       },