---
title: "Send early hints only when they help · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/performance/early-hints
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Send early hints only when they help

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Optional
- Chapter: [Performance](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/performance)
- Rule: Send 103 Early Hints (a note sent before the answer) only for critical, safe files. Check that first paint gets faster.
- How: Send `103` with `Link: rel=preload` for critical files that don't depend on screen size. Chrome acts on it only over HTTP/2 or HTTP/3. nginx passes it on only from 1.29, with `early_hints`. Measure it, because hinting fonts can delay first paint.
- Check: `curl -v` shows the 103. A lab run shows first paint earlier with the hint than without it. If it does not, remove the hint.
- Measured: On a reference site (earlier lab), Early Hints could only carry fonts, which delayed paint. A hint for a responsive image couldn't be sent, because the server API rejected the spaces in `imagesrcset`.

Example:

```http
:status: 103
link: </rest.5d2e9b.css>; rel=preload; as=style

:status: 200
content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
```

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers website playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/performance/early-hints`.

- Previous: [Hint only what speeds up the first paint](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/performance/preload-prefetch-preconnect)
- Next: [Cache files for a year and pages briefly](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/performance/cache-control)
- [Performance](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/performance)