From 35763a352c43fae605130a4ad13453329bc77d1c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Classic298 <27028174+Classic298@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2026 22:50:03 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Optimize shared chats list to use column projection (#163)
 (#21614)

The GET /chats/shared endpoint was loading full Chat rows including
the entire conversation history JSON blob, only to discard it and
return SharedChatResponse (id, title, share_id, timestamps). Now
uses with_entities() to select only the 5 needed columns, avoiding
deserialization of potentially large chat JSON for every shared chat.
---
 backend/open_webui/models/chats.py  | 20 ++++++++++++++++++--
 backend/open_webui/routers/chats.py | 19 +++++++------------
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/backend/open_webui/models/chats.py b/backend/open_webui/models/chats.py
index 1418abd62..89148f08b 100644
--- a/backend/open_webui/models/chats.py
+++ b/backend/open_webui/models/chats.py
@@ -754,7 +754,7 @@ class ChatTable:
         skip: int = 0,
         limit: int = 50,
         db: Optional[Session] = None,
-    ) -> list[ChatModel]:
+    ) -> list[SharedChatResponse]:
 
         with get_db_context(db) as db:
             query = (
@@ -784,13 +784,29 @@ class ChatTable:
             else:
                 query = query.order_by(Chat.updated_at.desc())
 
+            # Select only the columns needed for SharedChatResponse
+            # to avoid loading the heavy chat JSON blob
+            query = query.with_entities(
+                Chat.id, Chat.title, Chat.share_id,
+                Chat.updated_at, Chat.created_at,
+            )
+
             if skip:
                 query = query.offset(skip)
             if limit:
                 query = query.limit(limit)
 
             all_chats = query.all()
-            return [ChatModel.model_validate(chat) for chat in all_chats]
+            return [
+                SharedChatResponse(
+                    id=chat[0],
+                    title=chat[1],
+                    share_id=chat[2],
+                    updated_at=chat[3],
+                    created_at=chat[4],
+                )
+                for chat in all_chats
+            ]
 
     def get_chat_list_by_user_id(
         self,
diff --git a/backend/open_webui/routers/chats.py b/backend/open_webui/routers/chats.py
index 69e47123f..e04c23496 100644
--- a/backend/open_webui/routers/chats.py
+++ b/backend/open_webui/routers/chats.py
@@ -887,18 +887,13 @@ async def get_shared_session_user_chat_list(
     if direction:
         filter["direction"] = direction
 
-    chat_list = [
-        SharedChatResponse(**chat.model_dump())
-        for chat in Chats.get_shared_chat_list_by_user_id(
-            user.id,
-            filter=filter,
-            skip=skip,
-            limit=limit,
-            db=db,
-        )
-    ]
-
-    return chat_list
+    return Chats.get_shared_chat_list_by_user_id(
+        user.id,
+        filter=filter,
+        skip=skip,
+        limit=limit,
+        db=db,
+    )
 
 
 ############################