list_sessions() performance degrades significantly with large session counts #4871

Activity

1. adk-bot

   added

   services[Component] This issue is related to runtime services, e.g. sessions, memory, artifacts, etc[Component] This issue is related to runtime services, e.g. sessions, memory, artifacts, etc

   on Mar 18, 2026
2. adk-bot

   added the

   Bug

   issue type on Mar 18, 2026
3. ferponse

   added a commit that references this issue on Mar 18, 2026

   feat(sessions): add pagination support to list_sessions

   ...

   This issue will close once commit 8278123 is merged into the 'main' branch.

   8278123
4. llalitkumarrr

   self-assigned this

   on Mar 20, 2026
5. llalitkumarrr commented on Mar 20, 2026

   

   llalitkumarrr

   on Mar 20, 2026

   Collaborator

   More actions

   Hello @ferponse ,

   Thank you for raising this and for your contribution. We are reviewing it now and will merge it once all checks pass.

   Also I was looking at the your logic and had a quick question. It looks like it returns a default or specified number of pages but how would it work if a user wants to get the complete list? Would they have to check the total number of pages first?

   What are your thoughts on making this simpler? For example we could return the complete list by default and only limit the pages if the user specifically requests it.
6. ferponse

   added a commit that references this issue on Mar 20, 2026

   feat(sessions): add pagination support to list_sessions

   ...

   This issue will close once commit 076cae3 is merged into the 'main' branch.

   076cae3
7. ferponse commented on Mar 20, 2026

   

   ferponse

   on Mar 20, 2026

   ContributorAuthor

   More actions

   Hi @llalitkumarrr, great point — that makes total sense! I've updated the implementation in #4873:

   • Without page_size: list_sessions() returns the complete list, exactly as it does today. Fully backward compatible, no surprises for existing callers.
   • With page_size: pagination kicks in — results are limited and next_page_token is returned when there are more pages.

   This way users who need the full list don't have to iterate through pages, and users dealing with large datasets can opt in to pagination when they need it. Thanks for the feedback!
8. ferponse commented on Mar 20, 2026

   

   ferponse

   on Mar 20, 2026

   ContributorAuthor

   More actions

   @llalitkumarrr I've also encapsulated the pagination parameters into a SessionPagination class for a cleaner API. Now it works like this:

   from google.adk.sessions.base_session_service import SessionPagination
   
   # No pagination — returns ALL sessions (default, fully backward compatible)
   response = await session_service.list_sessions(app_name="my_app", user_id="user")
   
   # With pagination — returns a page of 10
   response = await session_service.list_sessions(
       app_name="my_app",
       user_id="user",
       pagination=SessionPagination(page_size=10),
   )
   
   # Jump to a specific offset (e.g. skip first 20)
   response = await session_service.list_sessions(
       app_name="my_app",
       user_id="user",
       pagination=SessionPagination(page_size=10, page_offset=20),
   )
   
   # Iterate pages using next_page_token
   response = await session_service.list_sessions(
       app_name="my_app",
       user_id="user",
       pagination=SessionPagination(page_size=10, page_token=response.next_page_token),
   )

   All changes pushed to #4873. Let me know if you have any other feedback!
9. sasha-gitg commented on Mar 22, 2026

   

   sasha-gitg

   on Mar 22, 2026

   Collaborator

   More actions

   closing in favor of: #4621
10. sasha-gitg

    closed this as completedon Mar 22, 2026