Route Caching

Astro 7 makes route caching stable for on-demand rendered pages and endpoints.

The core idea: route code says how cacheable a response is, and a cache provider decides how that becomes runtime behavior or host-specific headers.

Mental Model

flowchart LR
    route["Page or endpoint"] --> cacheCall["Astro.cache.set"]
    middleware[Middleware] --> contextCache["context.cache.set"]
    rules[routeRules] --> options["Cache options"]
    cacheCall --> options
    contextCache --> options
    options --> provider{Provider}
    provider --> memory["memoryCache runtime cache"]
    provider --> cdn["CDN headers and purges"]

API Surface

API	Use It For
`cache.provider`	Enable caching by choosing a provider
`memoryCache()`	Built-in in-memory LRU provider for simple single-instance SSR
`Astro.cache.set()`	Set cache behavior inside `.astro` pages
`context.cache.set()`	Set cache behavior in API routes and middleware
`routeRules`	Configure defaults for route patterns
`cache.invalidate()`	Purge by tag or exact path

Example

import { defineConfig, memoryCache } from 'astro/config';
import node from '@astrojs/node';

export default defineConfig({
  adapter: node({ mode: 'standalone' }),
  cache: {
    provider: memoryCache(),
  },
  routeRules: {
    '/api/[...path]': { swr: 600 },
    '/blog/[...slug]': { maxAge: 300, swr: 60, tags: ['blog'] },
  },
});

In a page:

---
export const prerender = false;

Astro.cache.set({
  maxAge: 120,
  swr: 60,
  tags: ['home'],
});
---

<h1>Cached page</h1>

Provider Status

Provider	Status	Best For
`memoryCache()`	stable built-in	local preview, small single-instance Node deployments, learning the API
Netlify CDN provider	experimental	Netlify SSR projects that accept provider churn
Vercel CDN provider	experimental	Vercel SSR projects that accept provider churn
Cloudflare CDN provider	experimental/private beta dependency	only projects with the required Workers Cache beta access

Warning: The Astro route caching API is stable, but the CDN providers are not the same maturity level. Do not promise portable CDN invalidation unless you have verified your host provider.

When Not To Use It

Prefer simple HTTP headers when:

you only need browser/CDN freshness headers
your deployment has one CDN with existing purge tooling
you do not need tag/path invalidation from Astro code
the page is static and should just be prerendered