UI elements may render out of order due to missing ORDER BY in SQL query

[atulkhairnar]

Describe the bug
Elements belonging to a thread may be rendered in the wrong order on the UI. This happens because the SQL query used to fetch elements in SQLAlchemyDataLayer.get_all_user_threads does not contain an ORDER BY clause, which may cause the database to return elements in an arbitrary order. This can cause elements to appear out of place or pages to render unexpectedly.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Create several elements attached to a Step.
2. Open the thread in the UI.
3. Expand the Step element if it is collapsed
4. Observe that elements sometimes are displayed out of sequence.
   Expected behavior
   Elements should be rendered in a deterministic, page-based and/or creation order, matching the order they were added or their intended arrangement.

Additional context
Relevant code snippet (in backend/chainlit/data/sql_alchemy.py):

        elements_query = f"""
            SELECT ...
            FROM elements e
            WHERE e."threadId" IN {thread_ids}
        """

Suggested fix:
Add something like:

ORDER BY e."page" ASC NULLS LAST, e."id" ASC

to ensure deterministic ordering.

[dosubot]

Hi @atulkhairnar! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the chainlit team.

The issue is caused by the lack of an ORDER BY clause in the SQL query that fetches elements for a thread, which means the database can return elements in any order. This leads to UI elements sometimes appearing out of sequence. Adding ORDER BY e."page" ASC NULLS LAST, e."id" ASC to the query will enforce a consistent, deterministic order—first by page (with NULLs last), then by id—which matches typical expectations for thread element arrangement and creation order. This approach aligns with the schema and usage patterns in the codebase and should resolve the rendering issue in the UI. For best results, check that all queries fetching elements for display use a similar ordering, and if you use pagination, verify that the ordering works as expected with paginated results.
Reference

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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This issue is stale because it has been open for 14 days with no activity.

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