## Problem Record table views that show a to-many relation column (e.g. Workflows with a "Runs" column) get slow and janky to scroll when some records have many related records. Two root causes, found by profiling the page live: 1. **Backend over-fetch + unfairness.** Nested one-to-many relations were loaded with a single flat limit of `QUERY_MAX_RECORDS_FROM_RELATION * parentCount` shared across *all* parents in the page (`WHERE parentColumn IN (ids) LIMIT 60*N`, no per-parent cap). A single hot parent can consume the entire budget — returning thousands of rows for one cell, and potentially starving sibling parents of records they actually have. The `limit * parentCount` shape shows the original intent *was* a per-parent budget; it was just implemented as a global limit. 2. **Frontend DOM explosion.** `ExpandableList` mounts the *entire* child array inline (clipped with `overflow: hidden`) when unfocused, and mounts all children for measurement when focused. A cell with 2,000+ relation chips mounts ~14k DOM nodes — one observed page reached ~55k nodes for 43 rows, producing 100–300 ms main-thread long tasks on every scroll. ## Fix - **Backend:** load one-to-many relations with a true **per-parent** cap via a `LATERAL` join — each parent runs its own indexed, `LIMIT`-ed scan that stops after the per-parent budget. This is `O(perParentLimit × parentCount)` and never reads or sorts a parent's full relation set. The per-parent query is built through the workspace query builder (so it stays schema-qualified and keeps the soft-delete predicate) and wrapped as a `FROM` subquery; read/row-level permissions are enforced when records are hydrated by id, as elsewhere in the relation loader. Many-to-one is unchanged. - **Frontend:** add an opt-in `maxInlineCount` to `ExpandableList` so to-many relation cells mount only a small inline preview; the expand dropdown still renders the full fetched set. Fully backward compatible (no cap → identical behavior). ## Why LATERAL over a window function A windowed `ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY parent) <= limit` is correct and fair too, but a window function **cannot stop early within a partition** — it must read every matching row (and sort it). Measured on skewed data (one parent with ~4k children, on the existing single-column join index, PG16): | Approach | Time | Buffers | Rows read from the hot partition | |---|---|---|---| | Pre-PR (`LIMIT 60×N`) | 1.6 ms | 91 | ~180 total, early-stops, but **unfair** (starves siblings) | | Window (`ROW_NUMBER`) | 3.7 ms | 128 | **all ~4k + sort** | | **LATERAL (`per-parent LIMIT`)** | **0.5 ms** | **57** | **~60, index early-stop** | LATERAL matches the pre-PR read cost while being fair, needs no new index, and scales independently of how large any single relation is. ## Verification - Backend integration test (`nested-relation-per-parent-limit`): a parent with 65 children is capped at 60 while a sibling with 3 keeps all 3 — passes. - `EXPLAIN ANALYZE` on the generated SQL: Index Scan with the `LIMIT` pushed into the per-parent lateral (early-stop). - Frontend unit test for the `ExpandableList` cap. - Manual check on a table cell with 40 related records: exactly 10 chips mount inline (down from 40), no console errors, chips still clickable and the overflow count reflects the true total.
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Why Twenty
Twenty gives technical teams the building blocks for a custom CRM that meets complex business needs and quickly adapts as the business evolves. Twenty is the CRM you build, ship, and version like the rest of your stack.
Learn more about why we built Twenty
Installation
Cloud
The fastest way to get started. Sign up at twenty.com and spin up a workspace in under a minute, with no infrastructure to manage and always up to date.
Build an app
Scaffold a new app with the Twenty CLI:
npx create-twenty-app my-app
Define objects, fields, and views as code:
import { defineObject, FieldType } from 'twenty-sdk/define';
export default defineObject({
nameSingular: 'deal',
namePlural: 'deals',
labelSingular: 'Deal',
labelPlural: 'Deals',
fields: [
{ name: 'name', label: 'Name', type: FieldType.TEXT },
{ name: 'amount', label: 'Amount', type: FieldType.CURRENCY },
{ name: 'closeDate', label: 'Close Date', type: FieldType.DATE_TIME },
],
});
Then ship it to your workspace:
npx twenty app:publish --private
See the app development guide for objects, views, agents, and logic functions.
Self-hosting
Run Twenty on your own infrastructure with Docker Compose, or contribute locally via the local setup guide.
Everything you need
Twenty gives you the building blocks of a modern CRM (objects, views, workflows, and agents) and lets you extend them as code. Here's a tour of what's in the box.
Want to go deeper? Read the User Guide for product walkthroughs, or the
Documentation for developer reference.
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Stack
TypeScript
Nx
NestJS, with BullMQ,
PostgreSQL,
Redis
React, with Jotai, Linaria and Lingui
Thanks
Thanks to these amazing services that we use and recommend for code review (Greptile), catching bugs (Sentry) and translating (Crowdin).
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