diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
index c214509..b38cf5d 100644
--- a/.jules/bolt.md
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -21,3 +21,6 @@
 ## 2025-05-10 - fmt.Sscanf is lenient, strconv.Atoi is strict
 **Learning:** In Go, `fmt.Sscanf("%d")` parses digits until it encounters a non-digit character (e.g., `"2beta"` parses as `2`), while `strconv.Atoi` fails and returns `0` for the entire string. If you need the lenient parsing behavior of `fmt.Sscanf` for performance optimization, implement a custom byte-traversal loop to extract leading digits rather than relying on `strconv.Atoi` or regex, as it is over 10x faster and maintains exact functional parity.
 **Action:** When replacing `fmt.Sscanf` for performance, always evaluate whether the leniency of the parser is being implicitly relied upon by the surrounding code.
+## 2025-05-11 - Use strings.Cut instead of strings.Split in parsing loops
+**Learning:** In Go, using `strings.Split` in tight parsing loops (like version string comparisons) causes unnecessary slice allocations and degrades performance.
+**Action:** To avoid this overhead and improve speed, use a `for` loop with `strings.Cut` to incrementally consume and parse the delimited string without allocating intermediate slices.
diff --git a/internal/plugin/manager.go b/internal/plugin/manager.go
index 7aad027..fe192e1 100644
--- a/internal/plugin/manager.go
+++ b/internal/plugin/manager.go
@@ -832,24 +832,22 @@ func parseLenientAtoi(s string) int {
 // CompareVersions compares two semver strings
 // Returns -1 if a < b, 0 if a == b, 1 if a > b
 func CompareVersions(a, b string) int {
-	partsA := strings.Split(a, ".")
-	partsB := strings.Split(b, ".")
+	// Bolt optimization: using a for loop with strings.Cut avoids intermediate
+	// slice allocations entirely compared to strings.Split, improving performance.
+	for len(a) > 0 || len(b) > 0 {
+		var partA, partB string
 
-	maxLen := len(partsA)
-	if len(partsB) > maxLen {
-		maxLen = len(partsB)
-	}
-
-	for i := 0; i < maxLen; i++ {
-		var numA, numB int
-		if i < len(partsA) {
-			// Bolt optimization: using a custom loop is ~14x faster than fmt.Sscanf
-			numA = parseLenientAtoi(partsA[i])
+		if len(a) > 0 {
+			partA, a, _ = strings.Cut(a, ".")
 		}
-		if i < len(partsB) {
-			numB = parseLenientAtoi(partsB[i])
+		if len(b) > 0 {
+			partB, b, _ = strings.Cut(b, ".")
 		}
 
+		// Bolt optimization: using a custom loop is ~14x faster than fmt.Sscanf
+		numA := parseLenientAtoi(partA)
+		numB := parseLenientAtoi(partB)
+
 		if numA < numB {
 			return -1
 		}
diff --git a/internal/plugins/update.go b/internal/plugins/update.go
index cab62bd..8b904db 100644
--- a/internal/plugins/update.go
+++ b/internal/plugins/update.go
@@ -189,23 +189,21 @@ func saveUpdateCache(c updateCache) {
 // compareVersions compares two semver strings
 // Returns -1 if a < b, 0 if a == b, 1 if a > b
 func compareVersions(a, b string) int {
-	partsA := strings.Split(a, ".")
-	partsB := strings.Split(b, ".")
+	// Bolt optimization: using a for loop with strings.Cut avoids intermediate
+	// slice allocations entirely compared to strings.Split, improving performance.
+	for len(a) > 0 || len(b) > 0 {
+		var partA, partB string
 
-	maxLen := len(partsA)
-	if len(partsB) > maxLen {
-		maxLen = len(partsB)
-	}
-
-	for i := 0; i < maxLen; i++ {
-		var numA, numB int
-		if i < len(partsA) {
-			numA, _ = strconv.Atoi(partsA[i])
+		if len(a) > 0 {
+			partA, a, _ = strings.Cut(a, ".")
 		}
-		if i < len(partsB) {
-			numB, _ = strconv.Atoi(partsB[i])
+		if len(b) > 0 {
+			partB, b, _ = strings.Cut(b, ".")
 		}
 
+		numA, _ := strconv.Atoi(partA)
+		numB, _ := strconv.Atoi(partB)
+
 		if numA < numB {
 			return -1
 		}
diff --git a/internal/update/update.go b/internal/update/update.go
index 7bf6684..e3f2fda 100644
--- a/internal/update/update.go
+++ b/internal/update/update.go
@@ -157,23 +157,21 @@ func fetchLatestVersion(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
 }
 
 func compareVersions(a, b string) int {
-	partsA := strings.Split(a, ".")
-	partsB := strings.Split(b, ".")
+	// Bolt optimization: using a for loop with strings.Cut avoids intermediate
+	// slice allocations entirely compared to strings.Split, improving performance.
+	for len(a) > 0 || len(b) > 0 {
+		var partA, partB string
 
-	maxLen := len(partsA)
-	if len(partsB) > maxLen {
-		maxLen = len(partsB)
-	}
-
-	for i := 0; i < maxLen; i++ {
-		var numA, numB int
-		if i < len(partsA) {
-			numA, _ = strconv.Atoi(partsA[i])
+		if len(a) > 0 {
+			partA, a, _ = strings.Cut(a, ".")
 		}
-		if i < len(partsB) {
-			numB, _ = strconv.Atoi(partsB[i])
+		if len(b) > 0 {
+			partB, b, _ = strings.Cut(b, ".")
 		}
 
+		numA, _ := strconv.Atoi(partA)
+		numB, _ := strconv.Atoi(partB)
+
 		if numA < numB {
 			return -1
 		}