Overview
OWASP Nest uses django-redis to cache REST API responses in Redis. Caching reduces database load and speeds up responses for high-traffic list and detail endpoints.
Cache configuration
The cache backend is configured in settings/base.py:
CACHES = {
"default": {
"BACKEND": "django_redis.cache.RedisCache",
"LOCATION": "redis://<REDIS_HOST>:6379",
"OPTIONS": {
"CLIENT_CLASS": "django_redis.client.DefaultClient",
},
"TIMEOUT": 300, # 5 minutes (default)
}
}
API_CACHE_TIME_SECONDS:
API_CACHE_PREFIX = "api-response"
API_CACHE_TIME_SECONDS = 86400 # 24 hours
api-response prefix.
What gets cached
REST API responses
Every REST v0 endpoint is wrapped with the @cache_response() decorator from apps/api/decorators/cache.py. Responses are cached for 24 hours and keyed by the full request URL including query parameters.
This means the following are all cached independently:
GET /api/v0/projects/ — first pageGET /api/v0/projects/?page=2 — second pageGET /api/v0/projects/Nest — project detailGET /api/v0/chapters/?country=US — filtered list
GraphQL responses
GraphQL queries are not cached at the transport layer. The DjangoOptimizerExtension from strawberry-graphql-django optimizes SQL queries to reduce database round-trips, but response-level caching is handled by the Next.js frontend (Apollo Client).
Cache invalidation
The cache is not automatically invalidated when data changes. To clear the cache manually:
This runs python manage.py clear_cache inside the nest-backend container.
Because API responses are cached for 24 hours, newly synced data may not be visible to REST API consumers until the cache expires or is cleared manually.
Redis configuration
Redis is shared between the cache layer and the Django RQ task queue (on a separate Redis database index). Configure the Redis connection using these environment variables:
| Variable | Description |
|---|
DJANGO_REDIS_HOST | Hostname of the Redis server |
DJANGO_REDIS_PASSWORD | Redis authentication password |
DJANGO_REDIS_AUTH_ENABLED | Whether Redis requires authentication (True/False) |
