Response and database improvements

[schustmi]

Describe changes

This PR improves the performance of the ZenML server by optimizing responses and DB queries.

Breaking changes

• Model.get_pipeline_run(...) as well as ModelVersionResponse.get_pipeline_run(...) have been removed. Use Client().list_pipeline_runs(name=...) instead.
• All response changes below are breaking on the API level and also mean client/server will be incompatible with previous ZenML versions.

Response changes

• The pipeline run response does not include steps anymore. For large pipelines, this unpaginated list was the main cause of the huge run response.
• The pipeline run response does not include the substitutions for all its steps anymore. This was included to avoid hydration calls of the steps themselves. Instead, each step now includes its own substitutions on the body.
• The model version response does not include a list of all artifact IDs and run IDs anymore.
• Many attributes moved from body to resources, which means they will not be included anymore if this model is included in a different response.

Detailed list of response changes:

• For all user-scoped responses, body.user was moved to resources.user and a new attribute body.user_id was added.
• For all project-scoped responses, metadata.project was removed. A new body.project_id attribute has been added as replacement.
• Artifact response:
  • body.tags got moved to resources.tags
  • body.latest_version_name got moved to resources.latest_version_name
  • body.latest_version_id got moved to resources.latest_version_id
• ArtifactVersion response:
  • body.tags got moved to resources.tags
  • body.producer_pipeline_run_id got moved to resources.producer_pipeline_run_id
  • metadata.producer_step_run_id got moved to resources.producer_step_run_id
• Model response:
  • body.tags got moved to resources.tags
  • body.latest_version_name got moved to resources.latest_version_name
  • body.latest_version_id got moved to resources.latest_version_id
• ModelVersion response:
  • body.model_artifact_ids, body.data_artifact_ids, body.deployment_artifact_ids and body.pipeline_run_ids got removed
  • body.tags got moved to resources.tags
• Pipeline response:
  • body.latest_run_id got moved to resources.latest_run_id
  • body.latest_run_status got moved to resources.latest_run_status
• PipelineDeployment response:
  • resources.triggers got removed
• PipelineRun response:
  • metadata.steps and metadata.step_substitutions got removed
• RunTemplate response:
  • body.latest_run_id got moved to resources.latest_run_id
  • body.latest_run_status got moved to resources.latest_run_status
• StepRun response:
  • body.inputs moved to resources.inputs and changed type to allow multiple inputs for one name
  • body.outputs moved to resources.outputs
  • New attribute body.substitutions
• Tag response:
  • body.tagged_count moved to metadata.tagged_count

Database changes:

• In some places where we know that we need to fetch additional related objects from the database, we now use joined loads to avoid unnecessary DB calls.
• The query to fetch the producer run of an artifact version has been improved to only fetch that run instead of looping over all runs associated with the artifact.
• The query to fetch the amount resources that a tag is applied to has been optimized.

Misc other changes:

• When fetching pipeline runs, there is now an option that controls whether the metadata of all its steps should be included. By default this is set to False, which reduces the amount of DB entries that need to be fetched especially for pipelines with many steps.
• A new endpoint GET /runs/<ID>/dag has been added. This allows the frontend to fetch only relevant information for the DAG visualizer screen without fetching details about all steps in the pipeline run.
• Step run responses now correctly include all their inputs even if multiple for a name exist. Previously only one for each name was returned. Additionally, the input type is now correctly inferred for cached steps with multiple inputs for the same name.

Pre-requisites

Please ensure you have done the following:

• I have read the CONTRIBUTING.md document.
• I have added tests to cover my changes.
• I have based my new branch on develop and the open PR is targeting develop. If your branch wasn't based on develop read Contribution guide on rebasing branch to develop.
• IMPORTANT: I made sure that my changes are reflected properly in the following resources:
  • ZenML Docs
  • Dashboard: Needs to be communicated to the frontend team.
  • Templates: Might need adjustments (that are not reflected in the template tests) in case of non-breaking changes and deprecations.
  • Projects: Depending on the version dependencies, different projects might get affected.

Types of changes

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
• Other (add details above)

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[github-actions]

ZenML CLI Performance Comparison (Threshold: 1.0s, Timeout: 60s, Slow: 5s)

❌ Failed Commands on Current Branch (feature/response-sizes)

• zenml stack list: Command failed on run 1 (exit code: 1)
• zenml pipeline list: Command failed on run 1 (exit code: 1)
• zenml model list: Command failed on run 1 (exit code: 1)

🚨 New Failures Introduced

The following commands fail on your branch but worked on the target branch:

• zenml stack list
• zenml pipeline list
• zenml model list

Performance Comparison

Command	develop Time (s)	feature/response-sizes Time (s)	Difference	Status
zenml --help	1.557516 ± 0.014933	1.510112 ± 0.010724	-0.047s	✓ No significant change
zenml model list	Not tested	Failed	N/A	❌ Broken in current branch
zenml pipeline list	Not tested	Failed	N/A	❌ Broken in current branch
zenml stack --help	1.539052 ± 0.005099	1.498210 ± 0.016703	-0.041s	✓ No significant change
zenml stack list	Not tested	Failed	N/A	❌ Broken in current branch

Summary

• Total commands analyzed: 5
• Commands compared for timing: 2
• Commands improved: 0 (0.0% of compared)
• Commands degraded: 0 (0.0% of compared)
• Commands unchanged: 2 (100.0% of compared)
• Failed commands: 3 (NEW FAILURES INTRODUCED)
• Timed out commands: 0
• Slow commands: 0

Environment Info

• Target branch: Linux 6.11.0-1014-azure
• Current branch: Linux 6.11.0-1014-azure
• Test timestamp: 2025-05-22T09:27:38Z
• Timeout: 60 seconds
• Slow threshold: 5 seconds

[stefannica]

I didn't do a thorough review, as many of these changes need deep model and DB schema knowledge. Looks alright otherwise.

[stefannica]

Saving this in the object might help reduce the number of API/DB calls.

[schustmi]

This is used just once in our code, which is why I decided to not cache this. Do you still think it's necessary?