diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..028c373f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+## 2025-02-15 - Fast text search
+**Learning:** In terminal_search, for_each_char_match_start was extracting substring arrays which makes string comparison slower.
+**Action:** Optimize string matching loops to quickly short circuit on first char difference.
diff --git a/crates/forktty-ui-gtk/src/gtk_app/terminal_search.rs b/crates/forktty-ui-gtk/src/gtk_app/terminal_search.rs
index aec7f6b1..90694aa2 100644
--- a/crates/forktty-ui-gtk/src/gtk_app/terminal_search.rs
+++ b/crates/forktty-ui-gtk/src/gtk_app/terminal_search.rs
@@ -74,11 +74,18 @@ fn for_each_char_match_start(
     if needle.is_empty() {
         return;
     }
+    let first_needle = needle[0];
     let mut index = 0;
     while index + needle.len() <= haystack.len() {
-        let matched = haystack[index..index + needle.len()]
+        // Fast-path: short-circuit the full substring check if the first character
+        // doesn't match, avoiding iterator overhead in the common case.
+        if !chars_eq_ignore_case(haystack[index], first_needle) {
+            index += 1;
+            continue;
+        }
+        let matched = haystack[index + 1..index + needle.len()]
             .iter()
-            .zip(needle)
+            .zip(&needle[1..])
             .all(|(a, b)| chars_eq_ignore_case(*a, *b));
         if matched {
             if !visit(index) {