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Optimize QueryExecutionService Performance and Security#44

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performance-query-limit-8716326595783508355
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Optimize QueryExecutionService Performance and Security#44
Snider wants to merge 4 commits intodevfrom
performance-query-limit-8716326595783508355

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@Snider Snider commented Feb 4, 2026

Improved the performance and security of the QueryExecutionService by ensuring that row limits are enforced as early as possible (at the database level) and that large result sets are handled memory-efficiently using cursors. Added a hard maximum of 10,000 rows to prevent extreme cases.

Fixes #20


PR created automatically by Jules for task 8716326595783508355 started by @Snider

- Enforce row limits at the database level using SQL LIMIT clauses.
- Use cursor-based fetching (db->cursor()) for memory efficiency.
- Terminate fetching early once the limit (plus 1-row margin) is reached.
- Introduce a HARD_MAX_ROWS safety cap of 10,000.
- Update unit tests to reflect truncated row count reporting.

This addresses the issue where all results were fetched into memory before truncation, which posed a memory exhaustion risk and DoS vector.
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Summary of Changes

Hello @Snider, I'm Gemini Code Assist1! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request significantly enhances the QueryExecutionService by optimizing how database query results are handled. It focuses on improving both performance and security by enforcing row limits directly within the database query, thereby minimizing data transfer and memory usage. Additionally, it introduces a memory-efficient cursor-based approach for processing large result sets and establishes a hard maximum row limit to prevent potential system overload from excessively large queries.

Highlights

  • Hard Maximum Row Limit: Introduced a HARD_MAX_ROWS constant set to 10,000, establishing an absolute upper bound on the number of rows that can be fetched, regardless of tier-specific configurations.
  • Database-Level Row Limiting: Implemented a new applyLimit method to dynamically inject or modify LIMIT clauses directly into SQL queries. This ensures that row limits are enforced at the database level, reducing data transfer and memory consumption.
  • Memory-Efficient Result Processing: Refactored the query execution to utilize database cursors ($db->cursor()) for iterating over results. This prevents large result sets from being loaded entirely into memory, significantly improving performance and stability for queries returning many rows.
  • Tier Limit Enforcement: Modified the getLimitsForTier method to ensure that any configured max_rows for a tier cannot exceed the newly defined HARD_MAX_ROWS.
  • Unit Test Coverage: Added a new unit test to verify the correct enforcement of HARD_MAX_ROWS and updated existing tests to reflect the new behavior of row counting when database-level limits are applied with a margin for truncation detection.
Changelog
  • src/Mcp/Services/QueryExecutionService.php
    • Added HARD_MAX_ROWS constant (10,000) to set an absolute maximum for fetched rows.
    • Refactored execute method to apply row limits at the database level using a new applyLimit helper and to process results using database cursors for memory efficiency.
    • Modified getLimitsForTier to ensure that the effective max_rows does not exceed HARD_MAX_ROWS.
    • Introduced a new private method applyLimit responsible for dynamically adding or adjusting LIMIT clauses in SQL queries, including a +1 margin for truncation detection.
  • src/Mcp/Tests/Unit/QueryExecutionServiceTest.php
    • Added test_get_limits_for_tier_enforces_hard_max_rows to verify the HARD_MAX_ROWS constant is correctly applied.
    • Updated test_execute_truncates_results_when_exceeding_tier_limit to reflect the new +1 margin in row counts for truncation detection due to database-level limiting.
Activity
  • No specific activity (comments, reviews, or progress updates) has been recorded for this pull request yet.
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github-actions Bot commented Feb 4, 2026

QA Pipeline Results

Check Status Details
Tests tests, assertions
PHPStan errors
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Code Style files need formatting
Security vulnerabilities
Artifacts
  • test-results.xml - JUnit test results
  • phpstan.json - PHPStan analysis
  • psalm.json / psalm.sarif - Psalm analysis
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  • audit.json - Security audit

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Code Review

This pull request significantly improves the performance and security of the query execution service by enforcing row limits at the database level and using cursors for memory efficiency. The changes are well-aligned with the stated goals. I've identified a couple of areas for improvement. The new applyLimit method, while a great addition, has some robustness issues with handling certain SQL syntaxes like trailing comments and the LIMIT ... OFFSET ... clause, which could lead to query failures. I've also noted a minor issue with an unused variable. My detailed feedback includes suggestions to address these points.

Comment on lines +305 to +331
private function applyLimit(string $query, int $maxRows): string
{
$limitWithMargin = $maxRows + 1;
$workQuery = rtrim(trim($query), '; ');

// Check if LIMIT is already present at the end of the query
if (preg_match('/\bLIMIT\s+(\d+)(?:\s*,\s*(\d+))?\s*$/i', $workQuery, $matches)) {
// matches[1] is offset if matches[2] exists, otherwise it's the limit
$hasOffset = isset($matches[2]);
$existingLimit = $hasOffset ? (int) $matches[2] : (int) $matches[1];

if ($existingLimit > $limitWithMargin) {
if ($hasOffset) {
$offset = $matches[1];

return preg_replace('/\bLIMIT\s+\d+\s*,\s*\d+\s*$/i', "LIMIT $offset, $limitWithMargin", $workQuery);
} else {
return preg_replace('/\bLIMIT\s+\d+\s*$/i', "LIMIT $limitWithMargin", $workQuery);
}
}

return $workQuery;
}

// No LIMIT found, append it
return $workQuery.' LIMIT '.$limitWithMargin;
}
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high

The applyLimit method is a great addition for performance and security. However, the current implementation has a couple of robustness issues that can lead to invalid SQL queries being generated in common cases:

  1. Trailing Comments: It doesn't handle SQL queries with trailing comments (e.g., ... LIMIT 100 -- my comment). The regex won't match, and a second LIMIT clause will be appended, breaking the query.
  2. OFFSET Keyword Syntax: The regex only handles LIMIT <count> and LIMIT <offset>, <count>. It doesn't support the standard LIMIT <count> OFFSET <offset> syntax, which will also lead to an invalid query.

Here is a suggested replacement that addresses both issues by stripping trailing comments and handling both common LIMIT clause syntaxes.

    private function applyLimit(string $query, int $maxRows): string
    {
        $limitWithMargin = $maxRows + 1;
        // Strip trailing comments and trim whitespace/semicolon to robustly find the LIMIT clause.
        $workQuery = preg_replace('/\s*(--[^\r\n]*|\/\*.*\*\/)\s*$/s', '', $query);
        $workQuery = rtrim(trim($workQuery), '; ');

        // Check for `LIMIT count OFFSET offset`
        if (preg_match('/\bLIMIT\s+(\d+)\s+OFFSET\s+(\d+)\s*$/i', $workQuery, $matches)) {
            $existingLimit = (int) $matches[1];
            if ($existingLimit > $limitWithMargin) {
                $offset = $matches[2];

                return preg_replace('/\bLIMIT\s+\d+\s+OFFSET\s+\d+\s*$/i', "LIMIT {$limitWithMargin} OFFSET {$offset}", $workQuery);
            }

            return $workQuery;
        }

        // Check for `LIMIT [offset,] count`
        if (preg_match('/\bLIMIT\s+(\d+)(?:\s*,\s*(\d+))?\s*$/i', $workQuery, $matches)) {
            // matches[1] is offset if matches[2] exists, otherwise it's the limit
            $hasOffset = isset($matches[2]);
            $existingLimit = $hasOffset ? (int) $matches[2] : (int) $matches[1];

            if ($existingLimit > $limitWithMargin) {
                if ($hasOffset) {
                    $offset = $matches[1];

                    return preg_replace('/\bLIMIT\s+\d+\s*,\s*\d+\s*$/i', "LIMIT {$offset}, {$limitWithMargin}", $workQuery);
                } else {
                    return preg_replace('/\bLIMIT\s+\d+\s*$/i', "LIMIT {$limitWithMargin}", $workQuery);
                }
            }

            return $workQuery;
        }

        // No LIMIT found, append it
        return $workQuery . ' LIMIT ' . $limitWithMargin;
    }

// Execute the query using a cursor for memory efficiency
$results = [];
$totalRows = 0;
$fetchLimit = $maxRows + 1;
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medium

The $fetchLimit variable is declared but never used. It can be removed to improve code clarity.

- Enforce row limits at the database level using SQL LIMIT clauses.
- Use cursor-based fetching (db->cursor()) for memory efficiency.
- Introduce a HARD_MAX_ROWS safety cap of 10,000.
- Update unit tests to reflect truncated row count reporting.
- Add host-uk/core repository to composer.json to fix CI dependency resolution.

This addresses the memory exhaustion risk and ensures CI can install required dependencies.
- Enforce row limits at the database level using SQL LIMIT clauses.
- Use cursor-based fetching for memory efficiency.
- Introduce a HARD_MAX_ROWS safety cap of 10,000.
- Update unit tests to reflect truncated row count reporting.
- Add host-uk/core-php as a VCS repository in composer.json with no-api: true to fix dependency resolution in CI.
- Set minimum-stability to dev to allow installing dev dependencies.

This addresses the performance issues and ensures CI can install required private dependencies using provided tokens.
- Enforce row limits at the database level using SQL LIMIT clauses.
- Use cursor-based fetching for memory efficiency.
- Introduce a HARD_MAX_ROWS safety cap of 10,000.
- Update unit tests to reflect truncated row count reporting.
- Add missing dev dependencies (Pest, PHPStan, Psalm, Pint) to composer.json.
- Fix private dependency resolution by adding VCS repository with HTTPS.
- Update QA pipeline to use Pest and handle missing tool configurations.
- Fix incorrect action versions in CI workflow.

This addresses the performance bottleneck and resolves multiple CI failure points.
@Snider Snider marked this pull request as ready for review February 5, 2026 03:24
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Performance: QueryDatabase tool fetches all results before truncation

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