nextjs-turbo-redis-cache

The ultimate Redis caching solution for Next.js 15 and the app router. Built for production-ready, large-scale projects, it delivers unparalleled performance and efficiency with features tailored for high-traffic applications. This package has been created after extensibly testing the @neshca package and finding several major issues with it.

Key Features:

• Batch Tag Invalidation: Groups and optimizes delete operations for minimal Redis stress.
• Request Deduplication: Prevents redundant Redis get calls, ensuring faster response times.
• In-Memory Caching: Includes local caching for Redis get operations to reduce latency further. Don't request redis for the same key multiple times.
• Efficient Tag Management: in-memory tags map for lightning-fast revalidate operations with minimal Redis overhead.
• Intelligent Key-Space Notifications: Automatic update of in-memory tags map for expired or evicted keys.

This library offers you an easy and high performant caching solution for docker, Kubernetes or Google Cloud Run deployments of Next.js.

Compatibility

This package is compatible with Next.js 15.0.3 and above while using App Router. It is not compatible with Next.js 14.x. or 15-canary or if you are using Pages Router. Redis Server need to have Redis Server Version 2.8.0 or higher and have to be configured with notify-keyspace-events to be able to use the key-space notifications feature.

Tested versions are:

• Nextjs 15.0.3 + redis client 4.7.0
• Nextjs 15.2.4 + redis client 4.7.0
• Nextjs 15.3.2 + redis client 4.7.0

Currently PPR, 'use cache', cacheLife and cacheTag are not tested. Use these operations with caution and your own risk.

Getting started

Enable redis key-space notifications for Expire and Evict events

redis-cli -h localhost config set notify-keyspace-events Exe

Install package

pnpm install @trieb.work/nextjs-turbo-redis-cache

Setup environment variables in your project/deployment

REDISHOST and REDISPORT environment variables are required. VERCEL_URL, VERCEL_ENV are optional. VERCEL_URL is used to create a key prefix for the redis keys. VERCEL_ENV is used to determine the database to use. Only VERCEL_ENV=production will show up in DB 0 (redis default db). All other values of VERCEL_ENV will use DB 1, use redis-cli -n 1 to connect to different DB 1. This is another protection feature to avoid that different environments (e.g. staging and production) will overwrite each other. Furthermore there exists the DEBUG_CACHE_HANDLER environment variable to enable debug logging of the caching handler once it is set to true.

There exists also the SKIP_KEYSPACE_CONFIG_CHECK environment variable to skip the check for the keyspace configuration. This is useful if you are using redis in a cloud environment that forbids access to config commands. If you set SKIP_KEYSPACE_CONFIG_CHECK=true the check will be skipped and the keyspace configuration will be assumed to be correct (e.g. notify-keyspace-events Exe).

KILL_CONTAINER_ON_ERROR_THRESHOLD: Optional environment variable that defines how many Redis client errors should occur before the process exits with code 1. This is useful in container environments like Kubernetes where you want the container to restart if Redis connectivity issues persist. Set to 0 (default) to disable this feature. For example, setting KILL_CONTAINER_ON_ERROR_THRESHOLD=10 will exit the process after 10 Redis client errors, allowing the container orchestrator to restart the container.

REDIS_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MS: Optional environment variable that sets the timeout in milliseconds for Redis get command. If not set, defaults to 500ms. The value is parsed as an integer, and if parsing fails, falls back to the 500ms default.

Option A: minimum implementation with default options

extend next.config.js with:

const nextConfig = {
  ...
  cacheHandler: require.resolve("@trieb.work/nextjs-turbo-redis-cache")
  ...
}

Make sure to set either REDIS_URL or REDISHOST and REDISPORT environment variables.

Option B: create a wrapper file to change options

create new file customized-cache-handler.js in your project root and add the following code:

const { RedisStringsHandler } = require('@trieb.work/nextjs-turbo-redis-cache');

let cachedHandler;

module.exports = class CustomizedCacheHandler {
  constructor() {
    if (!cachedHandler) {
      cachedHandler = new RedisStringsHandler({
        database: 0,
        keyPrefix: 'test',
        timeoutMs: 2_000,
        revalidateTagQuerySize: 500,
        sharedTagsKey: '__sharedTags__',
        avgResyncIntervalMs: 10_000 * 60,
        redisGetDeduplication: false,
        inMemoryCachingTime: 0,
        defaultStaleAge: 1209600,
        estimateExpireAge: (staleAge) => staleAge * 2,
      });
    }
  }
  get(...args) {
    return cachedHandler.get(...args);
  }
  set(...args) {
    return cachedHandler.set(...args);
  }
  revalidateTag(...args) {
    return cachedHandler.revalidateTag(...args);
  }
  resetRequestCache(...args) {
    return cachedHandler.resetRequestCache(...args);
  }
}

extend next.config.js with:

const nextConfig = {
  ...
  cacheHandler: require.resolve("./customized-cache-handler")
  ...
}

A working example of above can be found in the test/integration/next-app-customized folder.

Available Options

Option	Description	Default Value
redisUrl	Redis connection url	process.env.REDIS_URL? process.env.REDIS_URL : process.env.REDISHOST ? redis://${process.env.REDISHOST}:${process.env.REDISPORT} : 'redis://localhost:6379'
database	Redis database number to use. Uses DB 0 for production, DB 1 otherwise	process.env.VERCEL_ENV === 'production' ? 0 : 1
keyPrefix	Prefix added to all Redis keys	process.env.VERCEL_URL || 'UNDEFINED_URL_'
sharedTagsKey	Key used to store shared tags hash map in Redis	'__sharedTags__'
getTimeoutMs	Timeout in milliseconds for time critical Redis operations. If Redis get is not fulfilled within this time, returns null to avoid blocking site rendering.	process.env.REDIS_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MS ? (Number.parseInt(process.env.REDIS_COMMAND_TIMEOUT_MS) ?? 500) : 500
revalidateTagQuerySize	Number of entries to query in one batch during full sync of shared tags hash map	250
avgResyncIntervalMs	Average interval in milliseconds between tag map full re-syncs	3600000 (1 hour)
redisGetDeduplication	Enable deduplication of Redis get requests via internal in-memory cache.	true
inMemoryCachingTime	Time in milliseconds to cache Redis get results in memory. Set this to 0 to disable in-memory caching completely.	10000
defaultStaleAge	Default stale age in seconds for cached items	1209600 (14 days)
estimateExpireAge	Function to calculate expire age (redis TTL value) from stale age	Production: staleAge * 2 Other: staleAge * 1.2
socketOptions	Redis client socket options for TLS/SSL configuration (e.g., { tls: true, rejectUnauthorized: false })	{ connectTimeout: timeoutMs }
clientOptions	Additional Redis client options (e.g., username, password)	undefined
killContainerOnErrorThreshold	Number of consecutive errors before the container is killed. Set to 0 to disable.	Number.parseInt(process.env.KILL_CONTAINER_ON_ERROR_THRESHOLD) ?? 0 : 0

TLS Configuration

To connect to Redis using TLS/SSL (e.g., when using Redis over rediss:// URLs), you can configure the socket options. Here's an example:

const { RedisStringsHandler } = require('@trieb.work/nextjs-turbo-redis-cache');

let cachedHandler;

module.exports = class CustomizedCacheHandler {
  constructor() {
    if (!cachedHandler) {
      cachedHandler = new RedisStringsHandler({
        redisUrl: 'rediss://your-redis-host:6380', // Note the rediss:// protocol
        socketOptions: {
          tls: true,
          rejectUnauthorized: false, // Only use this if you want to skip certificate validation
        },
      });
    }
  }
  // ... rest of the handler implementation
};

Consistency of Redis and this caching implementation

To understand consistency levels of this caching implementation we first have to understand the consistency of redis itself: Redis executes commands in a single-threaded manner. This ensures that all operations are processed sequentially, so clients always see a consistent view of the data. But depending on the setup of redis this can change:

• Strong consistency: only for single node setup
• Eventual consistency: In a master-replica setup (strong consistency only while there is no failover)
• Eventual consistency: In Redis Cluster mode

Consistency levels of Caching Handler: If Redis is used in a single node setup and Request Deduplication is turned off, only then the caching handler will have strong consistency.

If using Request Deduplication, the strong consistency is not guaranteed anymore. The following sequence can happen with request deduplication: Instance 1: call set A 1 Instance 1: served set A 1 Instance 2: call get A Instance 1: call delete A Instance 2: call get A Instance 2: served get A -> 1 Instance 2: served get A -> 1 (served 1 but should already be deleted) Instance 1: served delete A

The time window for this eventual consistency to occur is typically around the length of a single redis command. Depending on your load ranging from 5ms to max 100ms. If using local in-memory caching (Enabled by RedisStringsHandler option inMemoryCachingTime), the window for this eventual consistency to occur can be even higher because additionally also synchronization messages have to get delivered. Depending on your load typically ranging around 50ms to max of 120ms.

Since all caching calls in one api/page/server action request is always served by the same instance this problem will not occur inside a single request but rather in a combination of multiple parallel requests. The probability that this will occur for a single user during a request sequence is very low, since typically a single user will not make the follow up request during this small time window of typically 50ms. To further mitigate the Problem and increase performance (increase local in-memory cache hit ratio) make sure that your load balancer will always serve one user to the same instance (sticky sessions).

By accepting and tolerating this eventual consistency, the performance of the caching handler is significantly increased.

Development

1. Run pnpm install to install the dependencies
2. Run pnpm build to build the project
3. Run pnpm lint to lint the project
4. Run pnpm format to format the project
5. Run pnpm run-dev-server to test and develop the caching handler using the nextjs integration test project
6. If you make changes to the cache handler, you need to stop pnpm run-dev-server and run it again.

Testing

To run all tests you can use the following command:

pnpm build && pnpm test

Unit tests

To run unit tests you can use the following command:

pnpm build && pnpm test:unit

Integration tests

To run integration tests you can use the following command:

pnpm build && pnpm test:integration

The integration tests will start a Next.js server and test the caching handler. You can modify testing behavior by setting the following environment variables:

• SKIP_BUILD: If set to true, the integration tests will not build the Next.js app. Therefore the nextjs app needs to be built before running the tests. Or you execute the test once without skip build and the re-execute pnpm test:integration with skip build set to true.
• SKIP_OPTIONAL_LONG_RUNNER_TESTS: If set to true, the integration tests will not run the optional long runner tests.
• DEBUG_INTEGRATION: If set to true, the integration tests will print debug information of the test itself to the console.

Integration tests may have dependencies between test cases, so individual test failures should be evaluated in the context of the full test suite rather than in isolation.

Some words on nextjs caching internals

Nextjs will use different caching objects for different pages and api routes. Currently supported are kind: APP_ROUTE and APP_PAGE.

app//route.ts files will request using the APP_ROUTE kind. app//page.tsx files will request using the APP_PAGE kind. /favicon.ico file will request using the APP_ROUTE kind.

Fetch requests (inside app route or page) will request using the FETCH kind.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Sponsor

This project is created and maintained by the Next.js & Payload CMS agency trieb.work