3 files changed, 50 insertions, 24 deletions

diff --git a/src/html.js b/src/html.js
index 097ecfee..685b72ca 100644
--- a/src/html.js
+++ b/src/html.js
@@ -53,10 +53,16 @@ export const attributeSpec = {
   },
 };
 
-// Validation keeps running even after we validate
-// all of data, this let us turn it off and let build run free
-let VALIDATION_DISABLED = false;
-export function finishValidation() { VALIDATION_DISABLED = true; }
+let disabledSlotValidation = false;
+let disabledTagTracing = false;
+
+export function disableSlotValidation() {
+  disabledSlotValidation = true;
+}
+
+export function disableTagTracing() {
+  disabledTagTracing = true;
+}
 
 // Pass to tag() as an attributes key to make tag() return a 8lank tag if the
 // provided content is empty. Useful for when you'll only 8e showing an element
@@ -357,12 +363,13 @@ export class Tag {
   #traceError = null;
 
   constructor(tagName, attributes, content) {
-  this.tagName = tagName;
-  this.attributes = attributes;
-  this.content = content;
-  if (process.env.DEBUG) { 
-    this.#traceError = new Error();
-  }
+    this.tagName = tagName;
+    this.attributes = attributes;
+    this.content = content;
+
+    if (!disabledTagTracing) {
+      this.#traceError = new Error();
+    }
 }
 
   clone() {
@@ -716,17 +723,19 @@ export class Tag {
             `of ${inspect(this, {compact: true})}`,
             {cause: caughtError});
 
-        error[Symbol.for(`hsmusic.aggregate.alwaysTrace`)] = true;
-        error[Symbol.for(`hsmusic.aggregate.traceFrom`)] = this.#traceError;
+        if (this.#traceError && !disabledTagTracing) {
+          error[Symbol.for(`hsmusic.aggregate.alwaysTrace`)] = true;
+          error[Symbol.for(`hsmusic.aggregate.traceFrom`)] = this.#traceError;
 
-        error[Symbol.for(`hsmusic.aggregate.unhelpfulTraceLines`)] = [
-          /content-function\.js/,
-          /util\/html\.js/,
-        ];
+          error[Symbol.for(`hsmusic.aggregate.unhelpfulTraceLines`)] = [
+            /content-function\.js/,
+            /util\/html\.js/,
+          ];
 
-        error[Symbol.for(`hsmusic.aggregate.helpfulTraceLines`)] = [
-          /content\/dependencies\/(.*\.js:.*(?=\)))/,
-        ];
+          error[Symbol.for(`hsmusic.aggregate.helpfulTraceLines`)] = [
+            /content\/dependencies\/(.*\.js:.*(?=\)))/,
+          ];
+        }
 
         throw error;
       }
@@ -1778,7 +1787,7 @@ export class Template {
   }
 
   static validateSlotValueAgainstDescription(value, description) {
-    if (VALIDATION_DISABLED) {
+    if (disabledSlotValidation) {
       return true;
     }
 
diff --git a/src/upd8.js b/src/upd8.js
index 28c08238..ae072d5a 100755
--- a/src/upd8.js
+++ b/src/upd8.js
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ import {mapAggregate, openAggregate, showAggregate} from '#aggregate';
 import CacheableObject from '#cacheable-object';
 import {formatDuration, stringifyCache} from '#cli';
 import {displayCompositeCacheAnalysis} from '#composite';
+import * as html from '#html';
 import find, {bindFind, getAllFindSpecs} from '#find';
 import {processLanguageFile, watchLanguageFile, internalDefaultStringsFile}
   from '#language';
@@ -518,6 +519,11 @@ async function main() {
       type: 'flag',
     },
 
+    'skip-self-diagnosis': {
+      help: `Disable some runtime validation for the wiki's own code, which speeds up long builds, but may allow unpredicted corner cases to fail strangely and silently`,
+      type: 'flag',
+    },
+
     'queue-size': {
       help: `Process more or fewer disk files at once to optimize performance or avoid I/O errors, unlimited if set to 0 (between 500 and 700 is usually a safe range for building HSMusic on Windows machines)\nDefaults to ${defaultQueueSize}`,
       type: 'value',
@@ -656,7 +662,8 @@ async function main() {
   const thumbsOnly = cliOptions['thumbs-only'] ?? false;
   const noInput = cliOptions['no-input'] ?? false;
 
-  const showAggregateTraces = cliOptions['show-traces'] ?? false;
+  const skipSelfDiagnosis = cliOptions['skip-self-diagnosis'] ?? false;
+  const showTraces = cliOptions['show-traces'] ?? false;
 
   const precacheMode = cliOptions['precache-mode'] ?? 'common';
 
@@ -1156,6 +1163,18 @@ async function main() {
     return false;
   }
 
+  if (skipSelfDiagnosis) {
+    logWarn`${'Skipping code self-diagnosis.'} (--skip-self-diagnosis provided)`;
+    logWarn`This build should run substantially faster, but corner cases`;
+    logWarn`not previously predicted may fail strangely and silently.`;
+
+    html.disableSlotValidation();
+  }
+
+  if (!showTraces) {
+    html.disableTagTracing();
+  }
+
   Object.assign(stepStatusSummary.determineMediaCachePath, {
     status: STATUS_STARTED_NOT_DONE,
     timeStart: Date.now(),
@@ -1334,7 +1353,7 @@ async function main() {
 
   const niceShowAggregate = (error, ...opts) => {
     showAggregate(error, {
-      showTraces: showAggregateTraces,
+      showTraces,
       pathToFileURL: (f) => path.relative(__dirname, fileURLToPath(f)),
       ...opts,
     });
diff --git a/src/write/build-modes/static-build.js b/src/write/build-modes/static-build.js
index 1683c729..b5ded04c 100644
--- a/src/write/build-modes/static-build.js
+++ b/src/write/build-modes/static-build.js
@@ -233,8 +233,6 @@ export async function go({
     return false;
   }
 
-  html.finishValidation();
-
   /*
   await progressPromiseAll(`Writing data files shared across languages.`, queue(
     dataWrites.map(({path, data}) => () => {