In general, this disclosure relates to techniques for allowing multiple clients to concurrently configure a network device. More specifically, a management module creates a working copy of an initial data source that stores configuration data for a network device and modifies the working copy to reorder one or more configuration objects in a list in response to configuration commands from a client. Upon receiving a show|compare command or a commit command, the management module generates a configuration patch that is a textual representation of any differences between the working copy and the initial data source. The configuration patch includes modification control indicators that identify configuration objects in the list that are reordered. The patch is applied to the initial data source to reorder the list of configuration objects within the initial data source without processing portions of the configuration data associated with the reordered configuration.