httpcache

httpcache

httpcache is a Go package that provides a standards-compliant http.RoundTripper for transparent HTTP response caching, following RFC 9111 (HTTP Caching).

Note: This package is intended for use as a private (client-side) cache. It is not a shared or proxy cache. It is designed to be used with an HTTP client to cache responses from origin servers, improving performance and reducing load on those servers.

Features

• Plug-and-Play: Just swap in as your HTTP client's transport; no extra configuration needed. [^1]
• RFC 9111 Compliance: Handles validation, expiration, and revalidation (see details).
• Cache Control: Supports all required HTTP cache control directives, as well as extensions like stale-while-revalidate, stale-if-error, and immutable (see details).
• Cache Backends: Built-in support for file system and memory caches, with the ability to implement custom backends (see Cache Backends).
• Cache Maintenance API: Optional REST endpoints for listing, retrieving, and deleting cache entries (see Cache Maintenance API).
• Extensible: Options for logging, transport and timeouts (see Options).
• Debuggable: Adds a cache status header to every response (see Cache Status Headers).
• Zero Dependencies: No external dependencies, pure Go implementation.

Demonstration of HTTP caching in action. See _examples/app for code.

Installation

To install the package, run:

go get github.com/bartventer/httpcache

Quick Start

To get started, create a new HTTP client with the httpcache transport, specifying a cache backend DSN. You'll need to register the desired cache backend before using it. Here's an example using the built-in file system cache:

package main

import (
    "log/slog"
    "net/http"
    "time"

    "github.com/bartventer/httpcache"
    // Register the file system cache backend
    _ "github.com/bartventer/httpcache/store/fscache"
)

func main() {
    // Example DSN for the file system cache backend
    dsn := "fscache://?appname=myapp"
    client := &http.Client{
        Transport: httpcache.NewTransport(
            dsn,
            httpcache.WithSWRTimeout(10*time.Second),
            httpcache.WithLogger(slog.Default()),
        ),
    }
    // ... Use the client as usual
}

Note: The DSN format and options depend on the cache backend you choose. Refer to the Cache Backends section for details on available backends and their DSN formats.

Cache Backends

The following built-in cache backends are available:

Consult the documentation for each backend for specific configuration options and usage details.

Custom Cache Backends

To implement a custom cache backend, create a type that satisfies the store/driver.Conn interface, then register it using the store.Register function. Refer to the built-in backends for examples of how to implement this interface.

Cache Maintenance API (Debug Only)

A REST API is available for cache inspection and maintenance, intended for debugging and development use only. Do not expose these endpoints in production.

Endpoints:

• GET /debug/httpcache — List cache keys (if supported)
• GET /debug/httpcache/{key} — Retrieve a cache entry
• DELETE /debug/httpcache/{key} — Delete a cache entry

All endpoints require a dsn query parameter to select the cache backend.

Usage Example:

import (
    "net/http"
    "github.com/bartventer/httpcache/store/expapi"
)

func main() {
    expapi.Register()
    http.ListenAndServe(":8080", nil)
}

To use a custom ServeMux, pass expapi.WithServeMux(mux) to expapi.Register().

Options

Cache Status Headers

This package sets a cache status header on every response:

• X-Httpcache-Status: The primary, detailed cache status header (always set).
• X-From-Cache: (Legacy) Provided for compatibility with gregjones/httpcache. Only set for cache hits/stale/revalidated responses.

Header Value Mapping

Example: Stale cache hit

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-Httpcache-Status: STALE
X-From-Cache: 1
Content-Type: application/json

Limitations

• Range Requests & Partial Content: This cache does not support HTTP range requests or partial/incomplete responses (e.g., status code 206, Range/Content-Range headers). All requests with a Range header are bypassed, and 206 responses are not cached. For example:

  GET /example.txt HTTP/1.1
  Host: example.com
  Range: bytes=0-99
  

  The above request will bypass the cache and fetch the response directly from the origin server. See RFC 9111 §3.3-3.4 for details.

RFC 9111 Compliance Matrix

Legend for Requirements:

Content Transformation Compliance

This implementation maintains RFC 9111 compliance regarding the no-transform directive by enforcing a storage-only architecture:

type Conn interface {
    Get(key string) ([]byte, error)    // Returns byte-identical data
    Set(key string, data []byte) error // Stores byte-identical data  
    Delete(key string) error           // Simple deletion
}

Storage optimizations (compression, encryption, serialization) are allowed because they return byte-identical HTTP responses. This differs from transformations mentioned in RFC 9110 §7.7, like image format conversion which change actual response content.

Custom backends: Must return byte-identical responses. Use the store/acceptance test suite to verify compliance.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

Notes

[^1]: No configuration is needed beyond the cache backend DSN. Caching is handled automatically based on HTTP headers and directives. To use a custom upstream transport, pass it with the WithUpstream option. This lets you add httpcache to your existing HTTP client with minimal changes. See Options for details.