(I generated the following description based on our meeting notes. You're welcome to remove, revise, and and refine any of this information.)

Summary: Create comprehensive documentation for Quarkus AOT (Ahead-of-Time) compilation support, which leverages OpenJDK Project Leyden to improve application startup performance by pre-caching class data and optimizations captured during build/test time.

Background: AOT compilation in Quarkus takes advantage of Project Leyden's capabilities to shift runtime work to build time. Due to Leyden's requirement for a single system classloader (custom classloaders are not supported), Quarkus AOT uses the legacy JAR format rather than fast-jar packaging. This architectural change eliminates classloading costs and opens opportunities for additional performance optimizations.

Key technical considerations:

• AOT cache is captured during integration tests, leveraging dev services while excluding test-only code
• Potential default behavior for Java 25+ (pending reliability validation)
• Memory impact assessment required
• Related efforts: Semeru InstantOn (CRIU-based), CRaC

Scope:

• Conceptual overview of AOT and Project Leyden integration
• Configuration and packaging options (legacy JAR / potential "aot-jar" naming)
• Getting started guide updates
• Performance expectations and trade-offs
• Container deployment considerations

Stakeholders:

• Technical reviewer: Guillaume Smet
• Additional reviewers: TBD (solicit interest from engineering team)

References:

• Quarkus AOT PRs
• Quarkus AOT Issues

Next Steps: Coordinate with guillaume.smet to define deliverables and establish review schedule.