Cachex Caching

Cachex Caching

Canonical FP bar: docs/fcis-engineering-rules.md — Functional Core, Imperative Shell: pure domain modules; side effects at edges. Workers and pipelines are edges: fetch IDs, call pure core, return tagged tuples.

RULES — Follow these with no exceptions

1. Set a TTL on every cached entry — never cache indefinitely unless the data is truly immutable 2. Enable stats: true — required to measure cache effectiveness via hit_rate 3. Use cache warmers for startup — pre-populate expensive data when the application starts 4. Use Cachex.fetch/3 for get-or-set — atomic cache-aside avoids the dogpile/race on concurrent misses 5. Invalidate with Cachex.del/2 after every mutation — stale entries outlive the source of truth otherwise 6. Handle the {:error, reason} tuple from every Cachex call — fall back to the database; a cache failure must never break the request 7. Bound the cache with :limit and an eviction policy — unbounded caches leak memory

End-to-End Workflow

Follow this sequence when adding caching to a feature:

1. Add dependency — add {:cachex, "~> 3.6"} to mix.exs and run mix deps.get
2. Configure cache — start a named Cachex instance in your application supervisor
3. Implement get-or-set — use Cachex.fetch/3 for atomic cache-aside pattern
4. Add invalidation — call Cachex.del/2 after mutating data
5. Enable stats — configure stats: true in cache options
6. Add cache warmer — for expensive data, pre-populate on startup
7. Verify hit rate — call Cachex.stats/1 and confirm hit_rate is non-zero; see Monitoring Cache Stats for interpretation thresholds and remediation guidance
8. Monitor in production — emit telemetry events for cache operations

Setup

# mix.exs
defp deps do
  [
    {:cachex, "~> 3.6"}
  ]
end

In your application supervisor:

# lib/my_app/application.ex
defmodule MyApp.Application do
  use Application

  @impl true
  def start(_type, _args) do
    children = [
      # Basic cache with 1000 entry limit
      {Cachex, name: :my_cache, limit: 1000},
      
      # Cache with stats enabled for monitoring
      {Cachex, name: :stats_cache, limit: 5000, stats: true},
      
      # Cache with TTL, LRW eviction policy, stats, and hooks
      {Cachex,
       name: :ttl_cache,
       limit: 10_000,
       ttl: :timer.minutes(10),
       policy: Cachex.Policy.LRW,
       stats: true,
       hooks: [
         %Cachex.Hook{module: MyApp.CacheLogger}
       ]}
    ]

    Supervisor.start_link(children, strategy: :one_for_one)
  end
end

Basic Operations

case Cachex.get(:my_cache, "user:123") do
  {:ok, nil} -> :miss
  {:ok, value} -> {:hit, value}
end

# put with explicit TTL (overrides cache-level default)
Cachex.put(:my_cache, "session:abc", data, ttl: :timer.minutes(30))

Cachex.del(:my_cache, "user:123")
Cachex.clear(:my_cache)

Get-or-Set Pattern

# Cachex.fetch/3 — atomic cache-aside, avoids race conditions
{status, value} =
  Cachex.fetch(:my_cache, "user:123", fn key ->
    user = MyApp.Accounts.get_user(123)
    {:commit, user, ttl: :timer.minutes(5)}
  end)

case status do
  :ok -> IO.puts("Cache hit")
  :commit -> IO.puts("Cache miss - computed and cached")
end

Cache Warmers

defmodule MyApp.CacheWarmer do
  use Cachex.Warmer

  def execute(state) do
    users = MyApp.Accounts.list_active_users()

    actions =
      Enum.map(users, fn user ->
        {:put, "user:#{user.id}", user, ttl: :timer.hours(1)}
      end)

    {:ok, actions}
  end
end

children = [
  {Cachex,
   name: :my_cache,
   warmers: [
     %Cachex.Warmer{module: MyApp.CacheWarmer, interval: :timer.minutes(5)}
   ]}
]

Cache Invalidation

# All Cachex operations return {:ok, result} or {:error, reason}; fall back to DB on failure
defmodule MyApp.Accounts do
  def update_user(user, attrs) do
    with {:ok, updated_user} <- Repo.update(User.changeset(user, attrs)) do
      case Cachex.del(:my_cache, "user:#{user.id}") do
        {:ok, _} ->
          :ok

        {:error, reason} ->
          Logger.warning("Cache invalidation failed for user:#{user.id}: #{inspect(reason)}")
      end

      {:ok, updated_user}
    end
  end

  def get_user(id) do
    case Cachex.fetch(:my_cache, "user:#{id}", fn _ ->
      {:commit, Repo.get(User, id), ttl: :timer.minutes(5)}
    end) do
      {:ok, user} -> user
      {:error, _} -> Repo.get(User, id)  # Fallback to database
    end
  end
end

Monitoring Cache Stats

{Cachex, name: :my_cache, stats: true}

{:ok, stats} = Cachex.stats(:my_cache)
# %{hit_rate: 85.5, hits: 8550, misses: 1450, gets: 10000, sets: 1200, evictions: 100}

Interpret hit rate:

• > 80% — excellent, cache is very effective
• 60-80% — good, normal for read-heavy workloads
• < 60% — investigate TTL values and check for over-invalidation
• < 20% — cache may be ineffective; revisit TTL strategy and key design before deploying to production

Telemetry Integration

Emit telemetry events for cache operations to monitor in production:

def get_user(id) do
  case Cachex.fetch(:my_cache, "user:#{id}", fn _ ->
    {:commit, Repo.get(User, id)}
  end) do
    {:ok, user} ->
      :telemetry.execute([:my_app, :cache, :my_cache], %{hits: 1}, %{key: "user:#{id}"})
      user
    {:error, _} ->
      :telemetry.execute([:my_app, :cache, :my_cache], %{misses: 1}, %{key: "user:#{id}"})
      Repo.get(User, id)
  end
end

Distributed Caching

Broadcast-based invalidation across nodes:

defmodule MyApp.CacheSync do
  @topic "cache:invalidate"

  def broadcast_delete(key) do
    Phoenix.PubSub.broadcast(MyApp.PubSub, @topic, {:invalidate, key})
  end

  def handle_info({:invalidate, key}, state) do
    Cachex.del(:my_cache, key)
    {:noreply, state}
  end
end

# Subscribe in your GenServer or LiveView
Phoenix.PubSub.subscribe(MyApp.PubSub, "cache:invalidate")

Remote reads via RPC (single authoritative node pattern):

def get_user_distributed(id) do
  case Cachex.get(:my_cache, "user:#{id}") do
    {:ok, nil} ->
      :rpc.call(primary_node(), Cachex, :get, [:my_cache, "user:#{id}"])
      |> case do
        {:ok, nil} -> fetch_from_db(id)
        {:ok, value} -> value
      end

    {:ok, value} ->
      value
  end
end

defp primary_node, do: Application.fetch_env!(:my_app, :primary_cache_node)

Common Pitfalls

Integration

Companion skills:

• telemetry-essentials — emit and monitor cache hit/miss events in production
• phoenix-pubsub-patterns — broadcast cross-node cache invalidation