Unbounded Query

Unbounded query — AEM as a Cloud Service

This pattern is executed by the code-assessment runbook — follow ../references/runbook.md for the full flow (preflight → plan → apply → verify, run log). This skill supplies the detection + recipe the runbook applies.

Overview

A query asked to return everything — a QueryBuilder predicate p.limit=-1, or a JCR Query.setLimit(-1) — loads the entire result set into heap. When that result grows and the rows are traversed in a loop, the heap fills and the instance OOMs: this is the top co-occurring cause of out-of-memory outages in the CSO dataset.

-1 means the caller wants every row, so capping is not behaviour-neutral. Lowering it to a fixed bound silently drops rows whenever the real result exceeds the cap — trading a loud OOM for a silent data/count/UI bug. So this pattern does not blanket-cap: it triages each site by how the result is consumed (Resolution contract below), bounds only where that is provably safe, and escalates the rest for human pagination rather than editing them. The skill never commits — every applied edit is reviewed in the diff.

Classification — confirm this pattern applies

• A QueryBuilder predicate map sets p.limit to -1 (…put("p.limit", "-1")), or a JCR/javax.jcr.query.Query (or QueryManager-built query) calls setLimit(-1).
• The user asks to "bound a query", mentions an "unbounded query", or a query implicated in an OOM / heap incident; or a scan flagged unbounded-query.
• Not this pattern: a query that already sets a positive bound (p.limit=100, setLimit(100)); a -1 on a different predicate key (only p.limit is the marker); pagination tuning of an already-bounded query.

Discovery

Detection is performed by the analyzer (../scripts/analyze.sh), run by the runbook:

bash ../scripts/analyze.sh <workspace-root> --pattern unbounded-query

Match criteria (what the detector flags): the two explicit unbounded markers, matched on source literals (parse-level, no type resolution):

• …put("p.limit", "-1") — a QueryBuilder predicate-map entry whose key is exactly p.limit and value is "-1", written inline or referenced through a same-file final constant (e.g. UNLIMITED_RESULT = "-1").
• …setLimit(-1) — a setLimit call whose single argument is -1, inline or via a same-file final constant.

Emitted at the call's line, with the call as the snippet. The match is on the marker value (literal or a same-file constant resolving to it), so a bounded query ("100", setLimit(100)) or a -1 on any other key is not flagged — precise by construction, no scope analysis needed.

Resolution contract

guided — triage each flagged site by how the result is consumed; the safe automatic edit is narrow, and the default for "iterate-all on the request path" is to flag for human pagination, not edit. Cardinal rule: never silently cap a result the caller reads in full.

Bounding is the exception (provably safe sites); escalation is the default when safety cannot be proven. The recipe gives the per-branch edits and the exact reason strings.

Review checklist

• The fix matches how the result is consumed (single-hit → 1; bounded list → N; iterate-all → paginate or escalate)
• No request-path query that consumes all rows was silently capped — those are skipped: needs-pagination
• Where a bound was applied, the caller cannot legitimately exceed it (or paging was added)
• No getTotalMatches() / count dependency broken by the new limit
• Paging (where added) has a stable sort and survives any post-query filter
• Surgical edit — no reformatting

Recipe

Read recipe.md [blocked] in full before editing: input contract, the triage decision table, per-branch edits (QueryBuilder predicate, JCR setLimit, offset paging), the escalation reason strings, skip policy, before/after, editing strategy.

Handoff

The skill never commits. See ../references/git-workflow.md for git vs in-place handoff and the suggested commit message.