Stage Category: SORT (Reorders documents)Transformation: N documents → N documents (reordered by field value)
When to Use
| Use Case | Description |
|---|---|
| Price sorting | Order products by price |
| Recency sorting | Most recent first |
| Rating sorting | Highest rated first |
| Alphabetical | Sort by name or title |
| Custom ranking | Sort by any numeric field |
When NOT to Use
| Scenario | Recommended Alternative |
|---|---|
| Relevance ranking | rerank (neural re-scoring) |
| Complex scoring logic | api_call to custom service |
| Already sorted by search | Skip this stage |
Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
field | string | metadata.created_at | Field path to sort by |
direction | string | desc | Sort direction: asc or desc |
null_handling | string | last | Where to place nulls: first, last |
Configuration Examples
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.price",
"direction": "asc"
}
}
}
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.created_at",
"direction": "desc"
}
}
}
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.rating",
"direction": "desc",
"null_handling": "last"
}
}
}
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.title",
"direction": "asc"
}
}
}
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.reviews.average_rating",
"direction": "desc"
}
}
}
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "score",
"direction": "desc"
}
}
}
Field Types
The stage handles various field types:| Type | Sort Behavior |
|---|---|
| Number | Numeric comparison |
| String | Lexicographic (alphabetical) |
| Date/ISO8601 | Chronological |
| Boolean | false < true |
Null Handling
| Setting | Behavior |
|---|---|
first | Null/missing values appear first |
last | Null/missing values appear last (default) |
{
"field": "metadata.optional_field",
"direction": "desc",
"null_handling": "last"
}
Performance
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Latency | < 5ms |
| Complexity | O(n log n) |
| Memory | In-place sort |
| Index support | Uses indexes when available |
Sorting is very fast. Unlike
rerank, it doesn’t require model inference, making it ideal for simple ordering by attributes.Common Pipeline Patterns
Search + Filter + Sort
[
{
"stage_name": "feature_search",
"stage_type": "filter",
"config": {
"stage_id": "feature_search",
"parameters": {
"searches": [
{
"feature_uri": "mixpeek://multimodal_extractor@v1/vertex_multimodal_embedding",
"query": "{{INPUT.query}}",
"top_k": 50
}
],
"final_top_k": 50
}
}
},
{
"stage_name": "attribute_filter",
"stage_type": "filter",
"config": {
"stage_id": "attribute_filter",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.in_stock",
"operator": "eq",
"value": true
}
}
},
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.price",
"direction": "asc"
}
}
},
{
"stage_name": "sample",
"stage_type": "reduce",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sample",
"parameters": {
"count": 10
}
}
}
]
Rerank + Sort (Tie-Breaking)
[
{
"stage_name": "feature_search",
"stage_type": "filter",
"config": {
"stage_id": "feature_search",
"parameters": {
"searches": [
{
"feature_uri": "mixpeek://multimodal_extractor@v1/vertex_multimodal_embedding",
"query": "{{INPUT.query}}",
"top_k": 100
}
],
"final_top_k": 100
}
}
},
{
"stage_name": "rerank",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "rerank",
"parameters": {
"inference_name": "BAAI__bge_reranker_v2_m3",
"top_k": 20
}
}
},
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.created_at",
"direction": "desc"
}
}
}
]
Dynamic Sort Direction
[
{
"stage_name": "feature_search",
"stage_type": "filter",
"config": {
"stage_id": "feature_search",
"parameters": {
"searches": [
{
"feature_uri": "mixpeek://multimodal_extractor@v1/vertex_multimodal_embedding",
"query": "{{INPUT.query}}",
"top_k": 100
}
],
"final_top_k": 100
}
}
},
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "{{INPUT.sort_by}}",
"direction": "{{INPUT.sort_order}}"
}
}
}
]
Comparison: sort_attribute vs rerank
| Feature | sort_attribute | rerank |
|---|---|---|
| Based on | Field values | Query relevance |
| Speed | < 5ms | 50-100ms |
| Model required | No | Yes |
| Use case | Attribute ordering | Relevance scoring |
| Cost | Free | API calls |
Multiple Sort Criteria
For multi-field sorting, chain multiple sort stages (last sort is primary):[
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.created_at",
"direction": "desc"
}
}
},
{
"stage_name": "sort_attribute",
"stage_type": "sort",
"config": {
"stage_id": "sort_attribute",
"parameters": {
"field": "metadata.featured",
"direction": "desc"
}
}
}
]
featured first, then by created_at for ties.
Error Handling
| Error | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Field not found | Treated as null |
| Type mismatch | String comparison fallback |
| Invalid order | Defaults to desc |
Related
- Rerank - Neural relevance ranking
- Sample - Reduce result count
- Attribute Filter - Filter before sorting