Large CP entry edit payload with nested Replicator + Link fields

[davidwittenbrink]

Bug description

After upgrading a project from Statamic 5 to 6, some entry edit pages containing a specific fieldset in the CP became very slow and often end in a blank page/timeout.

The affected entries use a nested Replicator structure (page builder -> table block -> rows -> cells). Each cell has two link field instances (link and documents_link) behind conditionals.

For one failing entry, I analyzed the CP page source and measured the payload:

• Reconstructed CP source length: ~19mb
• data-page attribute length: ~19mb (99% of CP source)
• Decoded data-page JSON length: ~11mb
• page.props.meta.replicator_blocks size: 11mb (97% of decoded data-page JSON)
• page.props.values.replicator_blocks size: 121kb

So the payload is dominated by field metadata, not the entry values.

The largest concrete duplication I could verify is repeated nested entry.meta under these paths:

• page.props.meta.replicator_blocks.existing.<table_block_id>.table.existing.<row_id>.table_cells.existing.<cell_id>.link.entry.meta
• page.props.meta.replicator_blocks.existing.<table_block_id>.table.existing.<row_id>.table_cells.existing.<cell_id>.documents_link.entry.meta

Counts in this entry:

• Table blocks: 20
• Table rows: 126
• Table cells: 504
• link.entry.meta occurrences: 504
• documents_link.entry.meta occurrences: 504
• Total nested copies: 1,008

All 1,008 entry.meta payloads are identical in this case.

I know there was recent Replicator work in #13427 (improving page-load performance), but this case still reproduces on my setup.
I've also brought this up on Discord here.

Here is a meta.json field showing the duplicated metadata object inside page-json
meta.json

How to reproduce

1. Use Statamic 6.18.1 (or current 6.x).
2. Create a blueprint with nested Replicators or add the ones I attached:
   • top-level block Replicator
   • table block containing row Replicator
3. In each cell, define two type: link fields (link, documents_link) with conditional visibility.
4. Create an entry with many table cells (example failing entry: 20 table blocks, 126 rows, 504 cells, many links populated).
5. Open the entry edit page in the CP.
6. Inspect page source: data-page payload is very large and mostly props.meta.replicator_blocks.

blocks.yaml
table.yaml

Logs

Environment

Environment
Laravel Version: 13.4.0
PHP Version: 8.5.5
Composer Version: 2.9.5
Environment: local
Debug Mode: ENABLED
Maintenance Mode: OFF
Timezone: Europe/Vienna
Locale: en

Cache
Config: NOT CACHED
Events: NOT CACHED
Routes: NOT CACHED
Views: NOT CACHED

Drivers
Broadcasting: log
Cache: file
Database: mysql
Logs: stack / single
Mail: microsoft-graph
Queue: sync
Session: file

Storage
public/storage: NOT LINKED

Statamic
Addons: 2
License Key: Not set
Sites: 7 (German, Romanian, Czech, and 4 more)
Stache Watcher: Enabled
Static Caching: Disabled
Version: 6.18.1 PRO

Statamic Addons
mia/statamic-image-renderer: 2.0.0
withcandour/aardvark-seo: 6.0.2

Installation

Other (please explain)

Additional details

No response