Improve performance by optimizing and memoizing hot paths - #36

Node.js 20 is deprecated. The following actions target Node.js 20 but are being forced to run on Node.js 24: actions/cache@0400d5f644dc74513175e3cd8d07132dd4860809, actions/checkout@v4. For more information see: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-09-19-deprecation-of-node-20-on-github-actions-runners/