diff --git a/.jules/bolt.md b/.jules/bolt.md
index c214509..4f3c926 100644
--- a/.jules/bolt.md
+++ b/.jules/bolt.md
@@ -21,3 +21,7 @@
 ## 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.
+
+## 2024-06-10 - Avoid strings.Split in parsing loops
+**Learning:** 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..4ed4f8a 100644
--- a/internal/plugin/manager.go
+++ b/internal/plugin/manager.go
@@ -832,22 +832,23 @@ 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, ".")
+	for a != "" || b != "" {
+		var partA, partB string
 
-	maxLen := len(partsA)
-	if len(partsB) > maxLen {
-		maxLen = len(partsB)
-	}
+		if a != "" {
+			partA, a, _ = strings.Cut(a, ".")
+		}
+		if b != "" {
+			partB, b, _ = strings.Cut(b, ".")
+		}
 
-	for i := 0; i < maxLen; i++ {
 		var numA, numB int
-		if i < len(partsA) {
+		if partA != "" {
 			// Bolt optimization: using a custom loop is ~14x faster than fmt.Sscanf
-			numA = parseLenientAtoi(partsA[i])
+			numA = parseLenientAtoi(partA)
 		}
-		if i < len(partsB) {
-			numB = parseLenientAtoi(partsB[i])
+		if partB != "" {
+			numB = parseLenientAtoi(partB)
 		}
 
 		if numA < numB {
diff --git a/internal/update/update.go b/internal/update/update.go
index 7bf6684..4b2637b 100644
--- a/internal/update/update.go
+++ b/internal/update/update.go
@@ -157,21 +157,22 @@ func fetchLatestVersion(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
 }
 
 func compareVersions(a, b string) int {
-	partsA := strings.Split(a, ".")
-	partsB := strings.Split(b, ".")
+	for a != "" || b != "" {
+		var partA, partB string
 
-	maxLen := len(partsA)
-	if len(partsB) > maxLen {
-		maxLen = len(partsB)
-	}
+		if a != "" {
+			partA, a, _ = strings.Cut(a, ".")
+		}
+		if b != "" {
+			partB, b, _ = strings.Cut(b, ".")
+		}
 
-	for i := 0; i < maxLen; i++ {
 		var numA, numB int
-		if i < len(partsA) {
-			numA, _ = strconv.Atoi(partsA[i])
+		if partA != "" {
+			numA, _ = strconv.Atoi(partA)
 		}
-		if i < len(partsB) {
-			numB, _ = strconv.Atoi(partsB[i])
+		if partB != "" {
+			numB, _ = strconv.Atoi(partB)
 		}
 
 		if numA < numB {