diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..01943c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+## 2026-09-07 - Cached expensive URL normalization in router loop
+
+**Learning:** URL normalization (`pathCandidates`) was being re-evaluated for every single route in the routing table loop (`config.routes`). This function decodes URI strings and loops up to 8 times to handle edge cases like `%2f` and dot segments. This led to O(N) evaluations, heavily degrading performance for configurations with many routes.
+
+**Action:** Caching the result of `pathCandidates` inside the routing loop prevents it from being recalculated. The cache is initialized lazily so that configurations where the host doesn't match don't incur the cost at all. I also cached the request method uppercase string to save those recalculations too.
diff --git a/packages/jouska/src/router.ts b/packages/jouska/src/router.ts
index 0d56d73..8500c41 100644
--- a/packages/jouska/src/router.ts
+++ b/packages/jouska/src/router.ts
@@ -292,6 +292,8 @@ export const matchUrl = (
   headers: Headers,
 ): Match | undefined => {
   const host = url.hostname.toLowerCase();
+  const requestMethod = method.toUpperCase();
+  let cachedPathCandidates: string[] | undefined;
 
   for (let i = 0; i < config.routes.length; i++) {
     const route = config.routes[i]!;
@@ -300,13 +302,15 @@ export const matchUrl = (
     if (hostPattern !== undefined && !hostMatches(hostPattern, host)) {
       continue;
     }
-    if (
-      pathPrefix !== undefined &&
-      !pathCandidates(url.pathname).some((c) => pathMatches(pathPrefix, c))
-    ) {
-      continue;
+    if (pathPrefix !== undefined) {
+      if (cachedPathCandidates === undefined) {
+        cachedPathCandidates = pathCandidates(url.pathname);
+      }
+      if (!cachedPathCandidates.some((c) => pathMatches(pathPrefix, c))) {
+        continue;
+      }
     }
-    if (methods !== undefined && !methods.some((m) => m.toUpperCase() === method.toUpperCase())) {
+    if (methods !== undefined && !methods.some((m) => m.toUpperCase() === requestMethod)) {
       continue;
     }
     if (!conditionsHold(route, url, headers)) {