diff --git a/frontend/shadow-cljs.edn b/frontend/shadow-cljs.edn
index 9956823eeb..9239816316 100644
--- a/frontend/shadow-cljs.edn
+++ b/frontend/shadow-cljs.edn
@@ -160,6 +160,17 @@
    {:test {:init-fn frontend-tests.runner/init
            :prepend-js ";if (typeof globalThis.navigator?.userAgent === 'undefined') { globalThis.navigator = {userAgent: ''}; };"}}}
 
+  :ab-bench
+  {:target :node-script
+   :output-to "target/ab-bench.js"
+   :output-dir "target/ab-bench/"
+   :main bench.core/-main
+
+   :compiler-options
+   {:optimizations :simple
+    :output-wrapper false
+    :warnings {:fn-deprecated false}}}
+
   :bench
   {:target :node-script
    :output-to "target/bench.js"
diff --git a/frontend/src/bench/core.cljs b/frontend/src/bench/core.cljs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..83f53909a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/src/bench/core.cljs
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+(ns bench.core
+  "Engine-parameterized V8 bench: same body as the browser probes, node runtime.
+   The engine ns is aliased at compile time via a reader switch on the classpath:
+   exactly one of datascript/datahike is present per compilation."
+  (:require [bench.engine :as e]))
+
+(def n-shapes 20000)
+
+(def rules
+  '[[(child-of ?c ?p) [?c :shape/parent ?p]]
+    [(descendant-of-walk ?d ?a) (child-of ?d ?a)]
+    [(descendant-of-walk ?d ?a) (child-of ?d ?x) (descendant-of-walk ?x ?a)]])
+
+(defn- median [xs] (nth (vec (sort xs)) (quot (count xs) 2)))
+(defn- timed [f] (let [t0 (js/performance.now) r (f)] [(- (js/performance.now) t0) r]))
+(defn- medians [n f] (median (mapv (fn [_] (first (timed f))) (range n))))
+
+(defn run []
+  (let [component-id (random-uuid)
+        file-id      (random-uuid)
+        shape-ids    (into [] (map (fn [_] (random-uuid))) (range n-shapes))
+        tx           (into [{:db/id -1 :shape/id (random-uuid) :shape/type :frame
+                             :shape/name "root"}]
+                           (map-indexed
+                            (fn [i sid]
+                              (cond-> {:db/id (- -2 i)
+                                       :shape/id sid
+                                       :shape/type :rect
+                                       :shape/name (str "rect-" i)
+                                       :shape/parent -1}
+                                (zero? (mod i 25))
+                                (assoc :shape/component-id component-id
+                                       :shape/component-file file-id))))
+                           shape-ids)
+        schema       {:shape/id {:db/index true}
+                      :shape/name {:db/index true}
+                      :shape/component-id {:db/index true}
+                      :shape/parent {:db/valueType :db.type/ref}}
+        _            (e/build schema tx) ;; warm-up build
+        build-ms     (medians 3 #(do (e/build schema tx) nil))
+        db           (e/build schema tx)
+        reverse-ms   (medians 40 #(e/q '[:find [?id ...]
+                                         :in $ ?cid ?fid
+                                         :where
+                                         [?e :shape/component-id ?cid]
+                                         [?e :shape/component-file ?fid]
+                                         [?e :shape/id ?id]]
+                                       db component-id file-id))
+        name-ms      (medians 40 #(e/q '[:find ?id .
+                                         :in $ ?n
+                                         :where [?e :shape/name ?n] [?e :shape/id ?id]]
+                                       db "rect-19999"))
+        desc-ms      (medians 5 (fn []
+                                  (e/q '[:find [?id ...]
+                                         :in $ % ?rn
+                                         :where
+                                         [?root :shape/name ?rn]
+                                         (descendant-of-walk ?d ?root)
+                                         [?d :shape/id ?id]]
+                                       db rules "root")))
+        rev-rows     (count (e/q '[:find [?id ...] :in $ ?cid ?fid
+                                    :where [?e :shape/component-id ?cid]
+                                           [?e :shape/component-file ?fid]
+                                           [?e :shape/id ?id]]
+                                  db component-id file-id))
+        desc-rows    (count (e/q '[:find [?id ...] :in $ % ?rn
+                                    :where [?root :shape/name ?rn]
+                                           (descendant-of-walk ?d ?root)
+                                           [?d :shape/id ?id]]
+                                  db rules "root"))
+        fmt          #(.toFixed % 2)]
+    (println (pr-str {:engine e/engine
+                      :build-ms (fmt build-ms)
+                      :reverse-ms (fmt reverse-ms)
+                      :name-ms (fmt name-ms)
+                      :desc-ms (fmt desc-ms)
+                      :rev-rows rev-rows :desc-rows desc-rows
+                      :heap-mb (fmt (/ (.-heapUsed (js/process.memoryUsage)) 1e6))}))))
+
+(defn -main [& _] (run))
diff --git a/frontend/src/bench/debug.cljs b/frontend/src/bench/debug.cljs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2780771022
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/src/bench/debug.cljs
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+(ns bench.debug
+  (:require [datascript.core :as d]))
+(defn -main [& _]
+  (let [db (d/db-with (d/empty-db {:x/id {:db/index true}})
+                      [{:db/id -1 :x/id 7 :x/name "a"}])]
+    (println :scan-q    (pr-str (d/q '[:find ?e ?v :where [?e :x/name ?v]] db)))
+    (println :bound-q   (pr-str (d/q '[:find ?e :in $ ?n :where [?e :x/name ?n]] db "a")))
+    (println :avet-part (pr-str (vec (d/datoms db :avet :x/name "a"))))
+    (println :eavt-part (pr-str (vec (d/datoms db :eavt 1 :x/name))))
+    (println :seek      (pr-str (first (d/seek-datoms db :avet :x/name))))))
diff --git a/frontend/src/bench/engine.cljs b/frontend/src/bench/engine.cljs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..352315df66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/src/bench/engine.cljs
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+(ns bench.engine (:require [datascript.core :as d]))
+(def engine :datascript)
+(defn build [schema tx] (d/db-with (d/empty-db schema) tx))
+(def q d/q)