perf: trim observer work and defer Prism during streaming

- Drop characterData from scroll-follow and file-link MutationObservers;
  ResizeObserver already catches content growth.
- extractMermaidBlocks: bail out when markdown has no 'mermaid' at all.
- MarkdownCodeBlock: skip Prism highlighting while code is actively
  changing, render plain pre until settled for 300ms.

packages/ui/src/components/chat/MarkdownRenderer.tsx

@@ -484,6 +484,7 @@ type MermaidControlOptions = {
 };
 
 const extractMermaidBlocks = (markdown: string): string[] => {
+  if (!markdown.includes('mermaid')) return [];
   const blocks: string[] = [];
   const regex = /(?:^|\r?\n)(`{3,}|~{3,})mermaid[^\n\r]*\r?\n([\s\S]*?)\r?\n\1(?=\r?\n|$)/gi;
   let match: RegExpExecArray | null = regex.exec(markdown);
@@ -679,12 +680,45 @@ const normalizeCodeBlockText = (code: string, language: string): string => {
   return decodeHtmlEntities(code);
 };
 
+const CODE_HIGHLIGHT_SETTLE_MS = 300;
+const CODE_SHARED_STYLE: React.CSSProperties = {
+  margin: 0,
+  background: 'transparent',
+  padding: 0,
+  fontSize: 'var(--text-code)',
+  lineHeight: 'var(--markdown-code-block-line-height)',
+};
+
 const MarkdownCodeBlock: React.FC<{
   code: string;
   language: string;
   syntaxTheme: { [key: string]: React.CSSProperties };
 }> = ({ code, language, syntaxTheme }) => {
   const [copied, setCopied] = React.useState(false);
+  const [highlight, setHighlight] = React.useState(true);
+  const prevCodeRef = React.useRef<string>(code);
+  const timerRef = React.useRef<ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | null>(null);
+
+  // Defer Prism highlighting while code is actively streaming.
+  // Initial mount renders highlighted immediately (plays nice with finalized blocks).
+  React.useEffect(() => {
+    if (prevCodeRef.current === code) return;
+    prevCodeRef.current = code;
+
+    if (timerRef.current) clearTimeout(timerRef.current);
+    setHighlight(false);
+    timerRef.current = setTimeout(() => {
+      setHighlight(true);
+      timerRef.current = null;
+    }, CODE_HIGHLIGHT_SETTLE_MS);
+
+    return () => {
+      if (timerRef.current) {
+        clearTimeout(timerRef.current);
+        timerRef.current = null;
+      }
+    };
+  }, [code]);
 
   const handleCopy = React.useCallback(async () => {
     const result = await copyTextToClipboard(code);
@@ -709,15 +743,21 @@ const MarkdownCodeBlock: React.FC<{
         </div>
       </div>
       <div className="px-3 py-2.5">
-        <SyntaxHighlighter
+        {highlight ? (
-          language={language}
+          <SyntaxHighlighter
-          style={syntaxTheme}
+            language={language}
-          customStyle={{ margin: 0, background: 'transparent', padding: 0, fontSize: 'var(--text-code)', lineHeight: 'var(--markdown-code-block-line-height)' }}
+            style={syntaxTheme}
-          codeTagProps={{ style: { fontSize: 'var(--text-code)', lineHeight: 'var(--markdown-code-block-line-height)' } }}
+            customStyle={CODE_SHARED_STYLE}
-          PreTag="pre"
+            codeTagProps={{ style: CODE_SHARED_STYLE }}
-        >
+            PreTag="pre"
-          {code}
+          >
-        </SyntaxHighlighter>
+            {code}
+          </SyntaxHighlighter>
+        ) : (
+          <pre style={CODE_SHARED_STYLE}>
+            <code style={CODE_SHARED_STYLE}>{code}</code>
+          </pre>
+        )}
       </div>
     </div>
   );
@@ -1256,7 +1296,6 @@ const useFileReferenceInteractions = ({
     observer.observe(container, {
       childList: true,
       subtree: true,
-      characterData: true,
     });
 
     container.addEventListener('click', handleClick);

packages/ui/src/hooks/useScrollEngine.ts

@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ export const useScrollEngine = ({
         resize.observe(container);
 
         const mutation = new MutationObserver(onChange);
-        mutation.observe(container, { childList: true, subtree: true, characterData: true });
+        mutation.observe(container, { childList: true, subtree: true });
 
         followObserversRef.current = { resize, mutation };
     }, [containerRef, runFollowBurst]);