diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c1ef3afc..7747ea87 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,3 +9,4 @@ node_modules/
 htmlcov/
 .venv/
 dist/
+test_data/docs/
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index bc00fdf7..b321b708 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.PHONY: help lint format test clean flit-publish package cut-release
+.PHONY: help lint format test clean flit-publish package cut-release performance-report
 
 SYSTEM_PYTHON=$(shell which python3)
 PLATFORM=$(shell printf '%s_%s' "$$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" "$$(uname -m)")
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ dist/${PACKAGE_NAME}.asc: dist/snooty-${VERSION}-${PLATFORM}.zip ## Build and si
 clean: ## Remove all build artifacts
 	-rm -r snooty.tar.zip* snootycli.py .venv
 	-rm -rf dist
+	-rm -rf .docs
 
 flit-publish: test ## Deploy the package to pypi
 	SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH="$$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" flit publish
@@ -83,3 +84,9 @@ cut-release: ## Release a new version of snooty. Must provide BUMP_TO_VERSION
 	@echo
 	@echo "Creating the release may now take several minutes. Check https://github.com/mongodb/snooty-parser/actions for status."
 	@echo "Release will be created at: https://github.com/mongodb/snooty-parser/releases/tag/v${BUMP_TO_VERSION}"
+
+DOCS_COMMIT=1c6dfe71fd45fbdcdf5c7b73f050f615f4279064
+performance-report: .venv/.EXISTS ## Fetch a sample corpus, and generate a timing report for each part of the parse
+	if [ ! -d .docs ]; then git clone https://github.com/mongodb/docs.git .docs; fi
+	cd .docs; if [ `git rev-parse HEAD` != "${DOCS_COMMIT}" ]; then git fetch && git reset --hard "${DOCS_COMMIT}"; fi
+	. .venv/bin/activate && python3 -m snooty.performance_report .docs
diff --git a/snooty/parser.py b/snooty/parser.py
index e91fc82e..fb3253b5 100644
--- a/snooty/parser.py
+++ b/snooty/parser.py
@@ -835,20 +835,21 @@ def delete(self, path: PurePath) -> None:
 
         self.backend.on_delete(self.get_fileid(path), self.build_identifiers)
 
-    def build(self) -> None:
+    def build(self, max_workers: Optional[int] = None) -> None:
         all_yaml_diagnostics: Dict[PurePath, List[Diagnostic]] = {}
-        pool = multiprocessing.Pool()
-        try:
-            paths = util.get_files(self.config.source_path, RST_EXTENSIONS)
-            logger.debug("Processing rst files")
-            results = pool.imap_unordered(partial(parse_rst, self.parser), paths)
-            for page, diagnostics in results:
-                self._page_updated(page, diagnostics)
-        finally:
-            # We cannot use the multiprocessing.Pool context manager API due to the following:
-            # https://pytest-cov.readthedocs.io/en/latest/subprocess-support.html#if-you-use-multiprocessing-pool
-            pool.close()
-            pool.join()
+        pool = multiprocessing.Pool(max_workers)
+        with util.PerformanceLogger.singleton().start("parse rst"):
+            try:
+                paths = util.get_files(self.config.source_path, RST_EXTENSIONS)
+                logger.debug("Processing rst files")
+                results = pool.imap_unordered(partial(parse_rst, self.parser), paths)
+                for page, diagnostics in results:
+                    self._page_updated(page, diagnostics)
+            finally:
+                # We cannot use the multiprocessing.Pool context manager API due to the following:
+                # https://pytest-cov.readthedocs.io/en/latest/subprocess-support.html#if-you-use-multiprocessing-pool
+                pool.close()
+                pool.join()
 
         # Categorize our YAML files
         logger.debug("Categorizing YAML files")
@@ -891,7 +892,8 @@ def create_page(filename: str) -> Tuple[Page, EmbeddedRstParser]:
                         page, all_yaml_diagnostics.get(page.source_path, [])
                     )
 
-        semantic_parse, semantic_diagnostics = self.semantic_parser.run(self.pages)
+        with util.PerformanceLogger.singleton().start("postprocessing"):
+            semantic_parse, semantic_diagnostics = self.semantic_parser.run(self.pages)
 
         for fileid, page in self.semantic_parser.pages.items():
             self.backend.on_update(self.prefix, self.build_identifiers, fileid, page)
@@ -1065,10 +1067,10 @@ def delete(self, path: PurePath) -> None:
         with self._lock:
             self._project.delete(path)
 
-    def build(self) -> None:
+    def build(self, max_workers: Optional[int] = None) -> None:
         """Build the full project."""
         with self._lock:
-            self._project.build()
+            self._project.build(max_workers)
 
     def stop_monitoring(self) -> None:
         """Stop the filesystem monitoring thread associated with this project."""
diff --git a/snooty/performance_report.py b/snooty/performance_report.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f65fa4c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/snooty/performance_report.py
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+import sys
+import logging
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Dict, List
+from .parser import Project
+from .types import Diagnostic, Page, FileId, SerializableType, BuildIdentifierSet
+from .util import PerformanceLogger
+
+logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
+
+
+class Backend:
+    def on_progress(self, progress: int, total: int, message: str) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    def on_diagnostics(self, path: FileId, diagnostics: List[Diagnostic]) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    def on_update(
+        self,
+        prefix: List[str],
+        build_identifiers: BuildIdentifierSet,
+        page_id: FileId,
+        page: Page,
+    ) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    def on_update_metadata(
+        self,
+        prefix: List[str],
+        build_identifiers: BuildIdentifierSet,
+        field: Dict[str, SerializableType],
+    ) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    def on_delete(self, page_id: FileId, build_identifiers: BuildIdentifierSet) -> None:
+        pass
+
+
+def main() -> None:
+    backend = Backend()
+    root_path = Path(sys.argv[1])
+    project = Project(root_path, backend, {})
+
+    n_runs = 3
+    for i in range(n_runs):
+        print(f"run {i+1}/{n_runs}")
+        project.build(1)
+
+    for name, time in PerformanceLogger.singleton().times().items():
+        print(f"{name}:{time:10.4}")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
diff --git a/snooty/util.py b/snooty/util.py
index 00bc2ef3..154b47bb 100644
--- a/snooty/util.py
+++ b/snooty/util.py
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 import logging
 import os
+import time
 import docutils.nodes
 import docutils.parsers.rst.directives
 import watchdog.events
 import watchdog.observers
 import watchdog.observers.api
+from contextlib import contextmanager
 from dataclasses import dataclass
+from collections import defaultdict
 from pathlib import Path, PurePath
 from typing import (
     cast,
@@ -13,6 +16,7 @@
     Callable,
     Container,
     Counter,
+    List,
     Dict,
     Optional,
     Tuple,
@@ -233,3 +237,29 @@ def split_domain(name: str) -> Tuple[str, str]:
         return "", parts[0]
 
     return parts[0], parts[1]
+
+
+class PerformanceLogger:
+    _singleton: Optional["PerformanceLogger"] = None
+
+    def __init__(self) -> None:
+        self._times: Dict[str, List[float]] = defaultdict(list)
+
+    @contextmanager
+    def start(self, name: str) -> Iterator[None]:
+        start_time = time.perf_counter()
+        try:
+            yield None
+        finally:
+            self._times[name].append(time.perf_counter() - start_time)
+
+    def times(self) -> Dict[str, float]:
+        return {k: min(v) for k, v in self._times.items()}
+
+    @classmethod
+    def singleton(cls) -> "PerformanceLogger":
+        assert cls._singleton is not None
+        return cls._singleton
+
+
+PerformanceLogger._singleton = PerformanceLogger()