redis-cache-tests
Wraps Redis cache testing: EXPIRE / PEXPIRE / TTL verification (Redis 7+ NX/XX/GT/LT flags), cache-aside write-then-invalidate (write source → DEL key → assert fresh read), eviction under memory pressure (maxmemory + allkeys-lru), pub/sub invalidation across nodes, and tenant key-namespacing. Use when Redis is the app's primary cache. For the CDN/browser HTTP tier use cdn-cache-purge-tests; a runnable test, not the cache-coherence-patterns-reference catalog (which owns the stampede + stale-while-revalidate references).
Install with skills.sh (any agent)
npx skills add testland/qa --skill redis-cache-testsredis-cache-tests
Overview
Redis is the dominant application-tier cache. Per redis.io/docs/latest/commands/expire/ (opens in new window), keys get TTLs via EXPIRE, PEXPIRE, or EXPIREAT - with Redis 7+ flags NX / XX / GT / LT controlling conditional expiry.
This skill wraps test patterns against a real Redis instance (via testcontainers or a dedicated test cluster) - not a mock. Mocks lose the eviction-policy + TTL-tick + pub-sub behaviours that real bugs hide in.
When to use
Authoring
Install
pip install redis testcontainers # Python
npm install --save-dev ioredis testcontainers # NodeReal-Redis test fixture (Python)
import pytest
import redis
from testcontainers.redis import RedisContainer
@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
def redis_url():
with RedisContainer("redis:7-alpine") as r:
yield r.get_connection_url()
@pytest.fixture
def r(redis_url):
client = redis.from_url(redis_url, decode_responses=True)
yield client
client.flushdb() # Reset between testsBasic TTL tests
Per redis.io (opens in new window):
def test_expire_sets_ttl(r):
r.set("k", "v")
assert r.expire("k", 60) == 1
ttl = r.ttl("k")
assert 58 <= ttl <= 60
def test_ttl_minus_2_when_key_absent(r):
assert r.ttl("nonexistent") == -2 # per redis docs
def test_ttl_minus_1_when_no_expiry(r):
r.set("k", "v")
assert r.ttl("k") == -1 # exists, no TTL
def test_set_clears_existing_ttl(r):
r.set("k", "v", ex=60)
assert r.ttl("k") > 0
r.set("k", "v2") # overwrite clears TTL per redis docs
assert r.ttl("k") == -1Conditional expire (NX / XX / GT / LT)
def test_expire_nx_only_when_no_ttl(r):
r.set("k", "v")
assert r.expire("k", 60, nx=True) == 1
assert r.expire("k", 120, nx=True) == 0 # already has TTL
assert r.ttl("k") <= 60
def test_expire_gt_only_extends(r):
r.set("k", "v", ex=60)
assert r.expire("k", 120, gt=True) == 1 # 120 > 60
assert r.expire("k", 30, gt=True) == 0 # 30 < 120Cache-aside write-then-invalidate
Per cache-coherence-patterns-reference cache-aside pattern:
def test_write_invalidates_cache(r, db):
db.users.insert({"id": "u1", "name": "alice"})
r.set("user:u1", '{"id":"u1","name":"alice"}', ex=300)
# Update via the app's write path
update_user_via_app("u1", name="bob") # must DEL cache
cached = r.get("user:u1")
assert cached is None, "App should have invalidated cache on write"Eviction-policy tests
Under memory pressure with maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru:
def test_lru_evicts_oldest_under_pressure(r):
r.config_set("maxmemory", "1mb")
r.config_set("maxmemory-policy", "allkeys-lru")
big_value = "x" * 100_000 # 100 KB
# Fill cache
for i in range(20):
r.set(f"key:{i}", big_value)
# Touch key:0 to make it recently-used
r.get("key:0")
# Add more → should evict middle keys, not key:0
for i in range(20, 30):
r.set(f"key:{i}", big_value)
assert r.exists("key:0") # Recently touched → kept
assert not r.exists("key:5") # Not touched → evictedCache stampede mitigation
Per cache-coherence-patterns-reference references/stampede.md:
import concurrent.futures, threading
def test_lock_prevents_stampede(r):
call_count = threading.Lock()
counter = [0]
def recompute_once():
with call_count: counter[0] += 1
return "computed"
def cached_get(key):
val = r.get(key)
if val: return val
lock_acquired = r.set(f"lock:{key}", "1", nx=True, ex=30)
if lock_acquired:
val = recompute_once()
r.set(key, val, ex=300)
r.delete(f"lock:{key}")
return val
# Wait for the lock holder (simplified)
for _ in range(50):
val = r.get(key)
if val: return val
__import__("time").sleep(0.01)
return None
with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=100) as ex:
results = list(ex.map(lambda _: cached_get("hot"), range(100)))
assert counter[0] == 1, f"Stampede: recomputed {counter[0]} times"
assert all(r == "computed" for r in results)Tenant-namespacing tests
Per cross-tenant-data-leak-tests Test 10:
def test_tenant_namespaced_keys(r, cache):
cache.set("user:1", "tenant_a_data", tenant_id="A")
cache.set("user:1", "tenant_b_data", tenant_id="B")
# Real Redis state should have separate keys
assert r.get("tenant:A:user:1") == "tenant_a_data"
assert r.get("tenant:B:user:1") == "tenant_b_data"
# The application-layer get must respect tenant
assert cache.get("user:1", tenant_id="A") == "tenant_a_data"
assert cache.get("user:1", tenant_id="B") == "tenant_b_data"Running
pytest tests/redis/ -vtestcontainers boots Redis per session; per-test flushdb resets state.
Pub-sub invalidation across nodes
For multi-node cache invalidation (e.g., Redis Sentinel or a pub-sub fan-out):
def test_pubsub_invalidation(r):
pubsub = r.pubsub()
pubsub.subscribe("invalidate")
r.set("k", "v", ex=300)
r.publish("invalidate", "k")
msg = next(m for m in pubsub.listen() if m["type"] == "message")
assert msg["data"] == "k"
# Other nodes would now `r.delete(msg['data'])`Parsing results
Redis returns simple types: int (1/0 success codes), string (the value), or None (key absent). Assertions are direct.
For TTL: positive int = remaining seconds, -1 = no TTL, -2 = key absent (per redis.io docs).
CI integration
jobs:
redis-tests:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
services:
redis:
image: redis:7-alpine
options: --health-cmd "redis-cli ping" --health-interval 10s
ports: [6379]
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v5
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
- run: pip install -e ".[test]"
- run: pytest tests/redis/ --tb=short
env:
REDIS_URL: redis://localhost:6379Anti-patterns
| Anti-pattern | Why it fails | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Mocking the Redis client | Misses TTL-tick, eviction, pub-sub | Use testcontainers / real Redis |
Hardcoded test sleep time.sleep(60) to test TTL | Slow + flaky | Set tiny TTL (ms via pexpire) |
| Asserting on exact TTL value | Race vs Redis tick | Range assertion (e.g., 58 <= ttl <= 60) |
Tests don't FLUSHDB between | Cross-test pollution | Per-test or per-class flush |
SET k v EX 0 | Immediate deletion per redis docs | Use positive TTL or PERSIST |
| Cache-aside without explicit invalidation test | Logic bug merged | Cover write → cache-state |
| Tests skip eviction-policy | Memory-pressure bugs hide | Test maxmemory + policy explicitly |
KEYS * in test setup | O(N) blocks Redis; flakes under parallel test load | SCAN or per-test isolated DB |
Limitations
References
Related skills
cache-coherence-patterns-reference
Pure-reference catalog of cache-coherence patterns across the request path. Defines the five-tier cache stack (browser → CDN → reverse-proxy → application → data store), the per-tier cache-writing patterns (cache-aside, write-through, write-back, write-around, refresh-ahead), and the canonical invalidation strategies (TTL-only, event-driven purge, surrogate keys, version-tagged URLs, soft purge), plus an anti-pattern table and a worked multi-tenant coherence-test example. Deep detail lives in references/: RFC 9111 Cache-Control / Vary / ETag directive tables, the cross-tier test surface, cache-stampede (thundering-herd) mitigations incl. the XFetch formula, and RFC 5861 stale-while-revalidate / stale-if-error semantics. Use for pattern selection, Cache-Control header design, coherence audits, stampede-refresh strategy, and SWR/SIE window design; use a cache-key-collision check when the question is whether two concrete requests collide on a key scheme.
cache-key-discriminator-audit
Audits whether a cache key carries every discriminator the cached response actually depends on, so two requests that must not share a slot cannot collide. Ranks identity discriminators (tenant, user, authorization scope, plan tier) above presentation ones (locale, region, currency, feature flag), maps each missing discriminator to the data-exposure or wrong-content consequence it causes, classifies each key-and-value pair into a critical / high / medium severity band (including the Python lru_cache-on-an-instance-method trap), and writes the fix as a namespaced key builder plus the matching HTTP Vary header. Use when a cache key is being designed or changed, when a per-user or per-tenant response is about to be stored in a shared cache or CDN, or when investigating a report that one user or tenant saw another's data.
cdn-cache-purge-tests
Wraps CDN cache-purge testing patterns for Cloudflare (POST /zones/{zone_id}/purge_cache, single-file / everything / cache-tags / hostname / prefix), Fastly (POST purge-by-key / purge-all, surrogate-keys via Surrogate-Key header), and CloudFront (CreateInvalidation API + paths). Covers end-to-end test patterns (write origin → trigger purge → assert edge serves fresh), purge-propagation delay testing (typically 1-30s globally), surrogate-key + cache-tag patterns for group-purge, and Cache-Status header verification (cf-cache-status: HIT/MISS/BYPASS). Also owns the client tier: browser-side Cache-Control verification with Playwright (served-from-cache via CDP, ETag 304 round-trips, Workbox service-worker strategies, reload semantics) in references/browser-cache-control.md. Use when designing or auditing CDN cache-invalidation workflows or browser-tier caching behaviour in E2E tests.
varnish-test-vtc-syntax
Wraps the varnishtest CLI + VTC (Varnish Test Case) syntax for testing VCL configurations. Covers the VTC test-file format (varnishtest scripts with server { ... } + client { ... } + varnish v1 -vcl+backend { ... } blocks), the grace-mode + saint-mode behaviours (stale-while-revalidate + stale-if-error equivalents in VCL), the PURGE method handler pattern (vcl_purge subroutine + ACL guards), and surrogate-key invalidation via xkey vmod. Use when authoring or testing Varnish-based caching layers.