Docs homepage loads 25 external badge images, compounding network latency

[audreyfeldroy]

Problem

The docs homepage (docs/index.md) loads 25 external images from 6 different domains (img.shields.io, codecov.io, static.pepy.tech, custom-icon-badges.demolab.com, raw.githubusercontent.com). Each domain requires its own DNS lookup, TCP connection, and TLS handshake.

On connections with moderate latency (common in Southeast Asia, South America, Africa), this creates a waterfall that can take 20-30 seconds to fully render. The HTML itself is only 60KB, but the browser blocks on cross-origin fetches.

These badges are inherited from the README, where they serve a purpose (GitHub renders and caches them server-side). The docs homepage doesn't need them: readers already found the docs, they don't need CI status, download counts, or platform badges to decide whether to keep reading.

External image sources

• img.shields.io (14 badges)
• static.pepy.tech (3 badges)
• custom-icon-badges.demolab.com (1 badge)
• codecov.io (1 badge)
• raw.githubusercontent.com (1 logo)

Options

1. Remove badges from docs homepage. Keep the logo, tagline, and content. The badges remain in the README where GitHub caches them.
2. Add loading="lazy" to badge images so the page renders before badges arrive.
3. Move badges below the fold so they don't block initial render.

I'm torn about what to do here. Maybe 3 to start.