Ready to supercharge your AI agents?

Install any skill in seconds. Free to start, no credit card required.

Get Started Free →

Caching · zebbern | DecimalAI

codingby zebbern

Caching

zebbern/caching

Source zebbern/claude-code-guide ↗License MIT

Caching strategies — invalidation, TTL guidelines, cache keys, cache layers, and when not to cache.

SkillScore100Maintained

Automatic

Coding pack

Last verified 8/10/2026

What it changes

Passed 23 of 23 test cases with the skill, and 22 of 23 without it.

Without skill96%

With skill100%

Checks it passed that the model alone missed

Recommend setting a TTL on the order of minutes.

1 fixed22 passed either way0 still failing0 broke

Pass-rate lift: +4 pp
Tokens: +66%
Agent turns: 0%
Response time: -21%

Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/10/2026v123 of 23 cases passed with skill

Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.

Use this skill

Save it into your project's skills folder. Claude Code picks it up in its next session.

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/zebbern-caching/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/zebbern-caching/SKILL.md

Want it pinned and updatable? pip install "decimalai>=0.15", then decimalai skills add zebbern-caching, and start Claude Code with claude --plugin-dir "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.agents"

1 · One-time — install the CLI (docs ↗)

pip install "decimalai>=0.15"

2 · Get the skill — writes .agents/skills/zebbern-caching/ and pins it in .decimal/skills.lock

decimalai skills add zebbern-caching

No CLI? Get the same file — curl · raw file

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/zebbern-caching/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/zebbern-caching/SKILL.md

Raw file: /s/zebbern-caching/SKILL.md ↗ · machine-readable summary at /s/zebbern-caching.json ↗

Safety checks: 3 of 3 passed

Code scan CleanIntent PassedContent Clean

See it in action

A test case the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.

Prompt

Design a caching architecture for a Node.js REST endpoint serving `/api/users/:id/profile` backed by MongoDB. The developer proposes setting a flat 24-hour TTL in Redis without any invalidation on updates to minimize database read traffic. Evaluate this proposal and detail the recommended TTL duration and cache invalidation approach.

What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked	Without skill	With skill
Recommend invalidating the cache when user profile data is updated.	Passed	Passed
Recommend setting a TTL on the order of minutes.	Missed	Passed

case-01 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/10/2026 · answers are capped and redacted

What's inside

The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.

SKILL.md158 linessingle file

WHEN_TO_USE

When implementing a cache layer (in-memory, Redis, CDN) for an API or service.
When choosing TTL values or invalidation strategies for cached data.
When designing cache key schemas to avoid collisions or stale-data bugs.
When reviewing code that reads from or writes to any cache.
When debugging stale data, cache stampedes, or inconsistent responses.
When configuring TanStack Query staleTime/gcTime for client-side caching.

INVALIDATION

[P0-MUST] Define an invalidation strategy for every cache. Stale data is worse than no cache.
[P0-MUST] Invalidate caches when the underlying data changes — do not rely solely on TTL expiry.
[P1-SHOULD] Prefer event-driven invalidation (on write/update/delete) over time-based expiry alone.
[P1-SHOULD] Use cache versioning (include a version key) when data schemas change.

TTL_GUIDELINES

[P1-SHOULD] Set TTLs based on data volatility: static config (hours/days), user profiles (minutes), real-time data (seconds or no cache).
[P1-SHOULD] Use stale-while-revalidate: serve stale data immediately while refreshing in the background.
[P2-MAY] Use shorter TTLs in development and longer TTLs in production.

CACHE_KEYS

[P0-MUST] Include all query parameters that affect the result in the cache key.
[P1-SHOULD] Use a consistent key format: <entity>:<id>:<variant> (e.g., user:123:profile, products:list:page=2).
[P1-SHOULD] Namespace keys by service or module to prevent collisions.
[P2-MAY] Hash long or complex keys to keep storage efficient.

CACHE_LAYERS

[P1-SHOULD] Use the appropriate cache layer for the use case:

Layer	Best For	TTL Range
In-memory (Map, LRU)	Hot data, single-instance apps	Seconds to minutes
Redis / Memcached	Shared cache across instances, sessions	Minutes to hours
CDN / Edge	Static assets, public API responses	Hours to days
HTTP cache headers	Browser caching, API responses	Varies by resource

Track record

Benchmark

23 / 23

test cases passed, vs 22 / 23 without

Adoption

Users: 0
Times used: 0

Safety and source details

SkillSafety

✓ 3 of 3 passed

Code scan15 of 15 checks clean

0 critical · 0 warning · 0 info — scanner v4 — 8/3/2026

View 15 scanner checks

live_secretremote_code_executionreverse_shelldata_exfiltrationssrf_metadataagent_snoopinganti_refusaldestructive_commandsobfuscated_unicodeunicode_homoglyphopaque_blobsuspicious_urltool_overreachtrigger_abuseprompt_injection_phrasing

IntentSafe

LLM judge · does the skill do what it claims

ContentClean

LLM judge · policy & harmful-content review

Source

Imported

zebbern / claude-code-guide

skills/caching/SKILL.md

View on GitHub ↗

License MITImported 8/3/2026Version v1

More skills from the same source and nearby in the registry, with their headline benchmark lift.