From ea66d19c5e7e13258bd21cf4bea517604c84efc6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "n8n-cat-bot[bot]" <283985454+n8n-cat-bot[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2026 11:51:21 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] chore: Centralize conversation-history message ordering
 (#39599)

Co-authored-by: n8n-cat-bot[bot] <n8n-cat-bot[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 ...ion-history.repository.integration.test.ts | 34 +++++++++++++++++++
 ...ance-ai-conversation-history.repository.ts | 18 ++++------
 2 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/packages/cli/src/modules/instance-ai/repositories/__tests__/instance-ai-conversation-history.repository.integration.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/modules/instance-ai/repositories/__tests__/instance-ai-conversation-history.repository.integration.test.ts
index 13c36153519..1574700b7de 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/modules/instance-ai/repositories/__tests__/instance-ai-conversation-history.repository.integration.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/modules/instance-ai/repositories/__tests__/instance-ai-conversation-history.repository.integration.test.ts
@@ -427,6 +427,40 @@ describe('InstanceAiConversationHistoryRepository', () => {
 		});
 	});
 
+	it('uses the same id tie-break for search, opening messages, and windows', async () => {
+		const threadId = await createThread({ withOpeningMessage: false });
+		const createdAt = at(9000);
+		for (const id of ['msg-bbb', 'msg-ccc', 'msg-aaa']) {
+			await createMessage({
+				threadId,
+				id,
+				role: 'user',
+				content: userContent('deploy'),
+				createdAt,
+			});
+		}
+
+		const matches = await repository.findSearchMatchRows([threadId], 'deploy', 2);
+		const first = await repository.findFirstUserMessages([threadId]);
+		const tail = await repository.getConversationWindow({
+			threadId,
+			before: 2,
+			after: 0,
+			project: (row) => row,
+		});
+		const head = await repository.getConversationWindow({
+			threadId,
+			before: 0,
+			after: 2,
+			project: (row) => row,
+		});
+
+		expect(matches.get(threadId)?.map((row) => row.id)).toEqual(['msg-ccc', 'msg-bbb']);
+		expect(first.get(threadId)?.id).toBe('msg-aaa');
+		expect(tail.rows.map((row) => row.id)).toEqual(['msg-bbb', 'msg-ccc']);
+		expect(head.rows.map((row) => row.id)).toEqual(['msg-aaa', 'msg-bbb']);
+	});
+
 	describe('findMessageInThread', () => {
 		it('finds a conversation row and ignores rows of other threads', async () => {
 			const threadId = await createThread({ title: 'Anchors' });
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/modules/instance-ai/repositories/instance-ai-conversation-history.repository.ts b/packages/cli/src/modules/instance-ai/repositories/instance-ai-conversation-history.repository.ts
index e0090acd3aa..9834f8ca9b2 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/modules/instance-ai/repositories/instance-ai-conversation-history.repository.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/modules/instance-ai/repositories/instance-ai-conversation-history.repository.ts
@@ -123,14 +123,12 @@ export class InstanceAiConversationHistoryRepository {
 		if (maxRowsPerThread <= 0) return byThread;
 
 		for (const threadId of threadIds) {
-			const rows = await this.messages()
+			const rows = await this.orderMessages(this.messages(), 'DESC')
 				.where('m.threadId = :threadId', { threadId })
 				.andWhere(buildMessageMatchCondition('m'), {
 					pattern: buildSearchLikePattern(query),
 					askUserMarker: ASK_USER_CONTENT_MARKER,
 				})
-				.orderBy('m.createdAt', 'DESC')
-				.addOrderBy('m.id', 'DESC')
 				.take(maxRowsPerThread)
 				.getMany();
 			byThread.set(threadId, rows);
@@ -146,11 +144,9 @@ export class InstanceAiConversationHistoryRepository {
 	async findFirstUserMessages(threadIds: string[]): Promise<Map<string, InstanceAiMessage>> {
 		const byThread = new Map<string, InstanceAiMessage>();
 		for (const threadId of threadIds) {
-			const row = await this.messages()
+			const row = await this.orderMessages(this.messages(), 'ASC')
 				.where('m.threadId = :threadId', { threadId })
 				.andWhere("m.role = 'user'")
-				.orderBy('m.createdAt', 'ASC')
-				.addOrderBy('m.id', 'ASC')
 				.take(1)
 				.getOne();
 			if (row) byThread.set(threadId, row);
@@ -309,11 +305,7 @@ export class InstanceAiConversationHistoryRepository {
 
 		const sqlOrder = direction === 'older' ? 'DESC' : 'ASC';
 		const fetchLimit = limit * WINDOW_OVERFETCH_FACTOR + 1;
-		const fetched = await qb
-			.orderBy('m.createdAt', sqlOrder)
-			.addOrderBy('m.id', sqlOrder)
-			.take(fetchLimit)
-			.getMany();
+		const fetched = await this.orderMessages(qb, sqlOrder).take(fetchLimit).getMany();
 
 		const rows: T[] = [];
 		let moreVisibleFetched = false;
@@ -341,6 +333,10 @@ export class InstanceAiConversationHistoryRepository {
 			.andWhere(buildVisibleRowCondition('m'), VISIBLE_ROW_MARKERS);
 	}
 
+	private orderMessages(qb: SelectQueryBuilder<InstanceAiMessage>, order: 'ASC' | 'DESC') {
+		return qb.orderBy('m.createdAt', order).addOrderBy('m.id', order);
+	}
+
 	private threads(): SelectQueryBuilder<InstanceAiThread> {
 		return this.dataSource.createQueryBuilder(InstanceAiThread, 't');
 	}