cachem

CacheM is an open-source caching framework designed to reduce latency and load on back-end systems by storing frequently accessed data in fast storage. It provides a consistent API across multiple caching backends and supports both in-process caching and distributed caches.

Key features include pluggable backends (in-memory, on-disk, and remote caches), multiple eviction policies (LRU, LFU, FIFO, and custom), per-item TTLs and expiration, and configurable invalidation strategies. Cache coherence can be maintained through push-based invalidation, pub/sub messaging, or explicit refresh operations. Observability is supported via metrics, logging, and tracing hooks. Client libraries exist for several programming languages to provide a uniform API.

CacheM is designed with a two-level approach: a fast local cache per application instance and a distributed cache layer that can be scaled horizontally. A coordination layer handles cache misses and updates, while data can be loaded from a backing data store or recomputed via user-defined fetchers. Security options include encrypted transport for remote caches and optional authentication.

Typical use cases include web session caching, API response caching, database query results, and page or fragment caching in content delivery scenarios. It is commonly deployed in cloud-native environments and supports containerization and orchestration with Kubernetes.

CacheM is maintained by an open-source community with contributions from individuals and organizations. Documentation, source code, and example configurations are available in the project repository. The project emphasizes portability, gradual migration from legacy caches, and compatibility with existing caching paradigms.