Editor/UI Flickers constantly with large Query being loaded

💬 Workflows
1

Hi Retool team,

I’m facing an issue in Retool Workflows. I have a large SQL query (around 1700 lines, Select .. from ...) inside a SQL query block. Whenever I open or interact with this block in the Workflow editor, the UI starts blinking / flickering and becomes difficult to work with.

  • Environment: Retool Workflows
  • Query size: ~1700 lines
  • Issue: Editor/UI flickers constantly when the query is loaded

Is this a known limitation or bug in handling very large SQL queries in the Workflow editor? Any workaround would be appreciated.?

2

Hi there, welcome to the community

That does sound like an extremely large query! I imagine it would be challenging to work with for the user.
Can I ask if there's any opportunity to reduce the size of it, or maybe you can expand a little on how the query is produced and what the use case is?

3

Is this still something you're noticing, @mohil? I've tried reproducing the same behavior, but haven't had any luck just yet. It sounds like there might be a bottleneck in your client's compute resources, though.

4

@Darren ,Checked again, seems like the issue is not there anymore. Was there any fix to this ?
Anyways, We can close this thread.

Thanks for the help. :+1:

1 Like
5

@mohil ,

I’ve experienced similar flickering with larger queries. While it’s a bit distracting, it doesn’t seem to affect the actual results. I usually take it as a sign that the query might be too large and could benefit from being broken down into smaller blocks.

Splitting it up makes it much easier to understand later (for yourself or others), lets you see results from each block, and makes debugging more straightforward.

If the query was generated or assisted by AI, you can even prompt it to help you refactor it into logical sections — or share it here and we can help break it down together.