Problem
When two or more components are automatically joined into a variadic list input (introduced in #10949), the order of items in the resulting list is not based on the order the components were connected but on the alphabetical order of the sender component names. This is unintuitive in my opinion.
Cause
In Pipeline.run(), components are scheduled in alphabetical order by name.
Example
@component
class StringProducer:
def __init__(self, value: str = "Hello"):
self.value = value
@component.output_types(text=str)
def run(self) -> dict[str, str]:
return {"text": self.value}
@component
class ListStrProducer:
def __init__(self, values: list[str] | None = None):
self.values = values or ["Hello", "Hi"]
@component.output_types(texts=list[str])
def run(self) -> dict[str, list[str]]:
return {"texts": self.values}
p = Pipeline()
p.add_component("str_producer", StringProducer("hello"))
p.add_component("list_producer", ListStrProducer(["world", "!"]))
p.add_component("receiver", ListStrAcceptor())
p.connect("str_producer.text", "receiver.texts")
p.connect("list_producer.texts", "receiver.texts")
result = p.run({})
assert result["receiver"]["result"] == ["world", "!", "hello"]Options
A) Document the current behavior
Add a clear note to the connect() docstring and relevant user guide pages like Smart Pipeline Connections
B) Preserve connection order
Modify the pipeline connection logic to track the order in which connect() is called for a specific variadic socket. When gathering inputs during run(), sort the senders list by this chronological connection order rather than relying on the alphabetical execution order, aligning with standard user intuition.
Problem
When two or more components are automatically joined into a variadic list input (introduced in #10949), the order of items in the resulting list is not based on the order the components were connected but on the alphabetical order of the sender component names. This is unintuitive in my opinion.
Cause
In
Pipeline.run(), components are scheduled in alphabetical order by name.Example
Options
A) Document the current behavior
Add a clear note to the
connect()docstring and relevant user guide pages like Smart Pipeline ConnectionsB) Preserve connection order
Modify the pipeline connection logic to track the order in which
connect()is called for a specific variadic socket. When gathering inputs duringrun(), sort the senders list by this chronological connection order rather than relying on the alphabetical execution order, aligning with standard user intuition.