Yesterday in snapshot 23w41a, Mojang gave Decorated Pots the ability to hold a single stack's worth of items and for hoppers to give/take items from pots. I attempted to use the new mechanic to make an item sorter. Theoretically, it would mean that you can use less items in the sorting modules. (Hoppers require 45; pots could require only 4) However, pots lack one crucial feature that would make item sorters easier to build; they can't pull items from hoppers.

I posted on reddit asking for help and got over 1,700 upvotes and over 100 comments with different people trying to help figure out how to make an item sorter with the new pot functionality. I then received a comment by user u/SpartAlfresco who created a theoretical version of a pot-driven item sorter. It wasn't a perfect system, but it proved that the idea was in fact possible. I took the system SpartAlfresco created and modified it to create a better-working system with overflow protection and a recycling water stream that redistributes any items that get left behind in the system.

This is an incredibly beefy system that is not practical in any way, shape, or form, but it serves as enough of a proof-of-concept that might inspire Mojang to give the necessary functionality to the Decorated Pots (being able to pull items from hoppers) that might make item sorters easier, simpler, and more lag-friendly than what was ever possible beforehand.

If anyone wants to modify my design to see if they can make it better, be my guest. Also be sure to check out SpartAlfresco's original design that proved this idea was possible; the credit truly belongs to them. My design is simply a modified (and more beefy) version of theirs.