diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4fa1b15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+## 2026-05-10 - Extract Dynamic Regex Declarations
+**Learning:** In Kotlin, declaring `Regex` objects dynamically within functions incurs a performance penalty due to recompilation on every invocation.
+**Action:** Always hoist frequently used regexes (e.g., `Regex("""\s+""")`) to class-level or object-level constants (e.g., `private val`) to optimize performance in hot paths.
diff --git a/halogen-engine/src/commonMain/kotlin/halogen/engine/HintExtractor.kt b/halogen-engine/src/commonMain/kotlin/halogen/engine/HintExtractor.kt
index c5cb8cb..da90f01 100644
--- a/halogen-engine/src/commonMain/kotlin/halogen/engine/HintExtractor.kt
+++ b/halogen-engine/src/commonMain/kotlin/halogen/engine/HintExtractor.kt
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ internal object HintExtractor {
     private val CAMEL_SPLIT = Regex("""(?<=[a-z])(?=[A-Z])""")
     private val ID_PATTERN = Regex("""^[0-9a-f]{8,}$""", RegexOption.IGNORE_CASE)
     private val NUMERIC_ONLY = Regex("""^\d+$""")
+    private val WHITESPACE_PATTERN = Regex("""\s+""")
 
     fun extract(key: String): String? {
         if (key.isBlank()) return null
@@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ internal object HintExtractor {
         cleaned = cleaned.replace('_', ' ').replace('-', ' ')
 
         // Normalize whitespace
-        cleaned = cleaned.trim().replace(Regex("""\s+"""), " ")
+        cleaned = cleaned.trim().replace(WHITESPACE_PATTERN, " ")
 
         if (cleaned.isBlank()) return null