Cache Control

Views implement a caching system that stores query results in dedicated database tables for fast retrieval and extra filtering. You can control cache behavior through both view configuration and HTTP headers.

How View Caching Works

Views work like materialized views in traditional databases:

1. User requests view data
2. System looks for cached data in the view's database table
3. If data exists and hasn't expired, return immediately
   • Cache Miss/Expired: Execute view queries and wait up to refreshTimeout
4. Timeout Handling: If refresh exceeds timeout:
   • Return stale data if available
   • Return error if no cached data exists
5. Hard Timeout Limit: Refresh operations have a hard limit of 1 minute regardless of configuration

Cache Configuration

View-Level Settings

Configure cache behavior in your view specification:

apiVersion: mission-control.flanksource.com/v1
kind: View
metadata:
  name: my-view
spec:
  cache:
    maxAge: '30m' # Maximum cache age before refresh (default: 15m)
    minAge: '30s' # Minimum age clients can request (default: 10s)
    refreshTimeout: '10s' # How long to wait for refresh (default: 5s)
  queries:
    # ... your queries

Default Values

Setting	Default	Description
maxAge	15 minutes	Cache expires after this duration
minAge	10 seconds	Minimum cache age that clients can request
refreshTimeout	5 seconds	Timeout for background refresh operations

Hard Timeout Limit

Regardless of the configured refreshTimeout, view refresh operations have a hard limit of 1 minute. This prevents long-running queries from blocking the system.