ottyl/tickets/045-timeline-order-by-other-params.md

045 — Timeline/log ordering by params other than ottyl_ts, with drop/fallback toggle

Summary

Log lines are currently rendered in whatever order the backend returns them, which is ingest order (sequence, monotonically increasing per src/ingest.rs) surfaced via webapp/src/components/LogPreview.tsx:258-261 (log.sequence/log.timestamp_ms). webapp/src/components/LogTimeline.tsx only draws pre-bucketed histogram bars from fetchTimeline (webapp/src/lib/api.ts:257 → GET /api/timeline, src/api.rs:249 get_timeline) and has no per-line sort control at all. There is no way to order by a declared param, and no defined behavior for lines missing whatever param is chosen for ordering.

Scope

• Default ordering stays by ottyl_ts (see ticket 044 for the rename).
• Add the ability to choose a different declared param as the sort key for the timeline/log list (backend: extend the timeline/log query path in src/api.rs/src/engine.rs to accept a sort-by param; frontend: expose the choice near the timeline/log controls, likely in LogTimeline.tsx/LogPreview.tsx or their shared settings).
• Add an explicit toggle controlling how lines lacking the chosen sort param are handled: (a) fall back to ordering those lines by ottyl_seq, or (b) drop them from view entirely. Persist this toggle alongside other view settings.
• Ensure the toggle and sort-by selection are scoped sensibly (e.g. per timeline/session) rather than silently global if that would surprise users switching between dashboards.

Acceptance criteria

• User can pick any declared param as the ordering key for the timeline/log view, in addition to the ottyl_ts default.
• With the fallback toggle on, lines missing the sort param appear ordered by ottyl_seq relative to each other; with it off, those lines are excluded from the view — both verified with a seeded fixture mixing lines with and without the param.
• Existing default (ottyl_ts-ordered) behavior is unchanged when no alternate sort param is selected.

Depends on

044 (reserved param naming — this ticket's default sort key and fallback key should use the renamed ottyl_ts/ottyl_seq).