Next Cache Components

Goal: cache the right data at the right granularity and invalidate cleanly.

Use for:

• choosing a caching strategy per route or data source
• stale or over-cached pages after deploys
• mixing static and dynamic content on one route

Workflow:

1. Classify each data source: static, revalidated, or dynamic.
2. Wrap cacheable work with the use cache directive.
3. Set freshness with cacheLife profiles per data type.
4. Tag cached entries with cacheTag for targeted invalidation.
5. Invalidate with revalidateTag/revalidatePath on writes.
6. Use Partial Prerendering to serve a static shell with dynamic holes.

Decisions:

• static content: cache aggressively, long cacheLife
• frequently changing: short cacheLife or tag-based revalidation
• per-request/user data: keep dynamic, do not cache
• mixed pages: PPR with Suspense boundaries

Rules:

• tag anything you may need to invalidate later
• revalidate by tag on the mutation that changes the data
• never cache user-specific or secret-bearing responses
• verify freshness after deploy, not just locally