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Use Claude to Implement Cursor-Based Pagination

recombobulate @recombobulate · Mar 26, 2026 · Workflows
use-claude-to-implement-cursor-based-pagination

Offset pagination (LIMIT 20 OFFSET 1000) is slow on large tables and breaks if rows are inserted or deleted between pages. Cursor-based pagination is the scalable alternative — and Claude can implement it for you.

Implement cursor-based pagination for my /api/posts endpoint.
Use the post ID as the cursor, encoded as base64.
Return a next_cursor field in the response and accept a cursor query param.

Paste in your existing controller and Claude will refactor the query, add the cursor encode/decode logic, and update the response shape. It understands the tradeoffs and can explain them as it writes.

For tie-breaking on timestamp columns, be explicit:

Add cursor pagination to PostController@index.
The cursor should encode both created_at and id to handle posts 
created at the same timestamp. Use base64 encoding.
Paginate 15 results per page.

Claude will generate the correct WHERE (created_at, id) < (?, ?) clause and handle both ascending and descending sort orders. For Laravel users, it can use the built-in cursorPaginate() method or build a raw implementation depending on your constraints.

Cursor pagination scales to millions of rows — ask Claude to implement it once and move on.

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