drep/llm/cache.rs
1//! Content-addressed cache for LLM responses.
2//!
3//! Two choices make cache hits follow the call paths the gate actually takes:
4//!
5//! - **The key is content-only, never commit-aware.** Hashing content
6//! invalidates precisely when the content changes; including the commit SHA
7//! would force a miss on unchanged files after every commit, which is the
8//! exact case the cache exists to serve.
9//! - **One file per entry, the value is the JSON.** No sidecar metadata file.
10//! The key is the filename, so nothing has to be re-validated on read except
11//! age. If the entry is corrupt, unreadable, or expired, the read returns
12//! `None` and the caller re-queries and overwrites. A cache is an
13//! optimisation; it must not be able to take the gate down.
14//!
15//! ## Storage layout
16//!
17//! `root/<first two hex chars>/<full hex>.json`. Sharding keeps directories
18//! from growing to tens of thousands of entries (a flat `root/<hex>.json`
19//! layout would do the same for `readdir`, but `ls`-ing the cache to debug
20//! it would take seconds).
21//!
22//! ## Key composition
23//!
24//! `blake3` over the six inputs, each length-prefixed with an 8-byte
25//! big-endian length. Length prefixing rules out the
26//! `key("ab", "c", ...)` vs `key("a", "bc", ...)` collision that a separator
27//! byte cannot guarantee once `content` or `system_prompt` is allowed to
28//! contain that byte. `temperature` uses Rust's shortest round-tripping
29//! representation, so equal values hash alike without collapsing neighboring
30//! `f32` values.
31//!
32//! **The request identity is conservative.** It contains the wire protocol,
33//! `max_tokens`, and the effective header set. Header names are lower-cased and
34//! sorted before they reach the hash, because spelling does not change an HTTP
35//! request; values remain exact because an arbitrary header can select a tenant,
36//! model route or feature variant and drep cannot infer that from its name. A
37//! token rotation therefore cold-starts that provider's cache. That cost is the
38//! safe default: reusing an answer from a different route is a false claim about
39//! which model reviewed the file. Values are hash input only and are never
40//! written into the cache entry or its path as text.
41//!
42//! **The backend identity is part of the key, not just the model.** A model name is
43//! not a globally unique identity: the canonical failover pair is one open
44//! model served from a local runtime and from a cloud provider, which name it
45//! identically. Keyed on the model alone, the fallback's answer lands where the
46//! head would look for its own - so a later run with the head restored is
47//! served a response it never produced, which is the exact defect the
48//! per-provider key exists to prevent.
49//!
50//! ## Defaults
51//!
52//! 30 days TTL, 256 MiB max bytes.
53
54use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
55use std::time::{Duration, SystemTime};
56use std::{fs, io::Write};
57
58use serde_json::Value;
59use thiserror::Error;
60
61/// A cache key: the blake3 hex digest of the six key inputs.
62///
63/// The inner `String` is exactly 64 lower-case ASCII hex characters because
64/// `blake3::Hash::to_hex` always emits 64 hex chars. Tests rely on this to
65/// compute the on-disk path by hand.
66#[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Eq, Hash)]
67pub struct CacheKey(String);
68
69impl CacheKey {
70 /// The hex digest. Test-only path construction uses this.
71 pub(crate) fn as_hex(&self) -> &str {
72 &self.0
73 }
74}
75
76/// What can go wrong at write time.
77///
78/// Reads are infallible by design: a corrupt or missing entry is a miss, not
79/// an error, so `get` returns `Option<Value>`. The caller treats write
80/// failures as non-fatal (log and continue); only the path to disk, the
81/// serialisation, the directory creation, and eviction need error variants.
82#[derive(Debug, Error)]
83pub enum CacheError {
84 /// The shard directory could not be created on `put`.
85 #[error("could not create cache shard {0}: {1}")]
86 CreateShard(PathBuf, std::io::Error),
87 /// Serialising the value to JSON failed. Should be unreachable for
88 /// values produced by `serde_json` itself, but the type permits any
89 /// `Value`, so the error path exists.
90 #[error("could not serialise cache entry {0}: {1}")]
91 Serialize(String, serde_json::Error),
92 /// Writing the JSON file failed (disk full, permissions, race with
93 /// concurrent eviction).
94 #[error("could not write cache entry {0}: {1}")]
95 Write(PathBuf, std::io::Error),
96 /// Reading the cache directory during eviction failed.
97 #[error("could not read cache directory: {0}")]
98 Walk(std::io::Error),
99 /// Removing an entry during eviction failed.
100 #[error("could not remove cache entry {0}: {1}")]
101 Remove(PathBuf, std::io::Error),
102}
103
104/// The cache: a directory tree of one JSON file per entry, keyed by blake3
105/// digest of the six prompt and backend inputs.
106///
107/// Built once per process and shared across the analyzer; every method takes
108/// `&self` so `Cache` can live behind an `Arc` if a future caller needs it.
109#[derive(Debug, Clone)]
110pub struct Cache {
111 root: PathBuf,
112 ttl: Duration,
113 max_bytes: u64,
114}
115
116impl Cache {
117 /// Build a cache rooted at `root` without touching the filesystem.
118 ///
119 /// `put` creates its shard on demand. Keeping construction lazy lets site
120 /// policy decide whether a semantic layer exists before that layer acquires
121 /// any on-disk state.
122 pub fn new(root: PathBuf, ttl_days: u64, max_bytes: u64) -> Self {
123 Self {
124 root,
125 ttl: Duration::from_secs(ttl_days.saturating_mul(86_400)),
126 max_bytes,
127 }
128 }
129
130 /// The conventional location: `directories::ProjectDirs::cache_dir()`,
131 /// falling back to `.drep-cache` in the cwd when the platform has no
132 /// cache directory. Returned as a relative path on the fallback branch
133 /// so the caller can resolve it against whatever cwd they choose.
134 pub fn default_root() -> PathBuf {
135 if let Some(dirs) = directories::ProjectDirs::from("dev", "slb350", "drep") {
136 return dirs.cache_dir().to_path_buf();
137 }
138 PathBuf::from(".drep-cache")
139 }
140
141 /// Compute the key for
142 /// `(system_prompt, content, backend, model, request_identity, temperature)`.
143 ///
144 /// Deliberately does NOT consult `self`: the key is content-only, so two
145 /// `Cache` instances at different roots produce the same key for the
146 /// same inputs. That is what criterion 7 asserts and what makes the
147 /// cache portable across CI runs.
148 ///
149 /// `request_identity` is in the key because one endpoint can serve the same
150 /// model through different protocol, token-ceiling and header-selected
151 /// routes. Keying without it files one request's answer where another looks
152 /// for its own, which is the same defect that put `endpoint` in the key.
153 pub fn key(
154 &self,
155 system_prompt: &str,
156 content: &str,
157 backend: &str,
158 model: &str,
159 request_identity: &str,
160 temperature: Option<f32>,
161 ) -> CacheKey {
162 let mut hasher = blake3::Hasher::new();
163 write_field(&mut hasher, system_prompt.as_bytes());
164 write_field(&mut hasher, content.as_bytes());
165 write_field(&mut hasher, backend.as_bytes());
166 write_field(&mut hasher, model.as_bytes());
167 write_field(&mut hasher, request_identity.as_bytes());
168 // `{:?}` on an ordinary finite `f32` is the shortest string that
169 // round-trips, so values such as `0.2` and `0.20` share a key while
170 // neighboring finite values do not. Config validation excludes NaN;
171 // signed zero is harmlessly allowed to retain its distinct spelling.
172 //
173 // This replaced `{:.6}`, whose comment claimed six decimal places were
174 // finer than `f32`'s resolution. They are not: `f32` has ~7 significant
175 // digits, not 7 decimal places, so near 1.0 its ulp is ~1.2e-7 while
176 // six decimals steps by 1e-6 - coarser, and able to collapse two
177 // genuinely different temperatures onto one key.
178 //
179 // An unset temperature is a *different request* from any set one - the
180 // field is absent and the server picks - so it gets a sentinel that no
181 // formatted float can collide with, rather than being folded onto some
182 // stand-in value.
183 let temp_str = match temperature {
184 Some(value) => format!("{value:?}"),
185 None => "unset".to_string(),
186 };
187 write_field(&mut hasher, temp_str.as_bytes());
188 CacheKey(hasher.finalize().to_hex().to_string())
189 }
190
191 /// Read the entry at `key`, or `None` if absent, expired, unreadable, or
192 /// unparseable. Reads never fail.
193 ///
194 /// An expired entry is removed opportunistically; a corrupt or
195 /// unreadable entry is left in place so the next read has another chance
196 /// (transient I/O is more likely than persistent corruption, and a
197 /// half-deleted cache is worse than a slightly redundant one).
198 pub fn get(&self, key: &CacheKey) -> Option<Value> {
199 let path = self.entry_path(key);
200 let meta = std::fs::metadata(&path).ok()?;
201 let mtime = meta.modified().ok()?;
202 // A future mtime (clock skew, manual planting) makes
203 // `duration_since` return `Err`. Treat that as age zero rather
204 // than propagating the error: the entry is well within TTL,
205 // and the alternative would silently turn every clock-skewed
206 // cache into a miss.
207 let age = SystemTime::now()
208 .duration_since(mtime)
209 .unwrap_or(Duration::ZERO);
210 if age > self.ttl {
211 // Expired. Removing is best-effort: a stale entry is no worse
212 // than a missing one, but failing to remove is not worth a Result.
213 let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&path);
214 return None;
215 }
216 let bytes = std::fs::read(&path).ok()?;
217 serde_json::from_slice(&bytes).ok()
218 }
219
220 /// Write `value` to disk under `key`.
221 ///
222 /// Creates the shard directory on demand so the very first `put` into a
223 /// fresh cache does not need a separate bootstrap step.
224 pub fn put(&self, key: &CacheKey, value: &Value) -> Result<(), CacheError> {
225 let path = self.entry_path(key);
226 let parent = path.parent().ok_or_else(|| {
227 CacheError::Write(
228 path.clone(),
229 std::io::Error::new(
230 std::io::ErrorKind::InvalidInput,
231 "cache entry path has no shard directory",
232 ),
233 )
234 })?;
235 fs::create_dir_all(parent).map_err(|e| CacheError::CreateShard(parent.to_path_buf(), e))?;
236 let bytes = serde_json::to_vec(value)
237 .map_err(|e| CacheError::Serialize(key.as_hex().to_owned(), e))?;
238 let mut temporary = tempfile::NamedTempFile::new_in(parent)
239 .map_err(|e| CacheError::Write(path.clone(), e))?;
240 temporary
241 .write_all(&bytes)
242 .map_err(|e| CacheError::Write(path.clone(), e))?;
243 temporary
244 .persist(&path)
245 .map_err(|e| CacheError::Write(path.clone(), e.error))?;
246 Ok(())
247 }
248
249 /// Walk the tree, evicting the oldest entries (by mtime) until the
250 /// total size is at or under `max_bytes`. Returns the number of bytes
251 /// freed; `0` when no eviction was needed.
252 pub fn evict_if_needed(&self) -> Result<u64, CacheError> {
253 let mut entries = self.collect_entries()?;
254 let total: u64 = entries.iter().map(|e| e.size).sum();
255 if total <= self.max_bytes {
256 return Ok(0);
257 }
258 entries.sort_by_key(|e| e.mtime);
259 let mut current = total;
260 let mut freed = 0u64;
261 for entry in entries {
262 if current <= self.max_bytes {
263 break;
264 }
265 std::fs::remove_file(&entry.path)
266 .map_err(|e| CacheError::Remove(entry.path.clone(), e))?;
267 current = current.saturating_sub(entry.size);
268 freed = freed.saturating_add(entry.size);
269 }
270 Ok(freed)
271 }
272
273 /// Compute the on-disk path for `key`.
274 ///
275 /// `pub(crate)` so the test suite can construct the same path to plant
276 /// an expired mtime or to write a corrupt body for the miss-on-bad-data
277 /// criterion.
278 pub(crate) fn entry_path(&self, key: &CacheKey) -> PathBuf {
279 let hex = key.as_hex();
280 // blake3::Hash::to_hex always produces 64 ASCII hex chars, so the
281 // `..2` slice is safe by construction.
282 let shard = &hex[..2];
283 self.root.join(shard).join(format!("{hex}.json"))
284 }
285
286 /// Walk every entry under `root` and return `(path, mtime, size)`.
287 ///
288 /// Skips the shard-directories' own metadata (no file under them, no
289 /// entry). Entries we cannot stat are skipped silently: a transient
290 /// stat failure should not abort eviction when the tree still has
291 /// deletable members.
292 fn collect_entries(&self) -> Result<Vec<CacheEntry>, CacheError> {
293 let mut out = Vec::new();
294 let shards = match std::fs::read_dir(&self.root) {
295 Ok(shards) => shards,
296 Err(err) if err.kind() == std::io::ErrorKind::NotFound => return Ok(out),
297 Err(err) => return Err(CacheError::Walk(err)),
298 };
299 for shard in shards {
300 let Ok(shard) = shard else { continue };
301 // Only descend into the two-hex-char directories. Anything else -
302 // a stray file the user dropped in the cache root, or a directory
303 // that is not one of ours - is ignored, so nothing outside the
304 // layout this module writes can be evicted.
305 //
306 // The name check is load-bearing, not decorative. `is_dir()` alone
307 // was what the code did while this comment claimed otherwise, which
308 // meant `evict_if_needed` - the one destructive path here - would
309 // happily delete files out of *any* directory someone had placed
310 // under the cache root.
311 let file_type = match shard.file_type() {
312 Ok(ft) => ft,
313 Err(_) => continue,
314 };
315 if !file_type.is_dir() {
316 continue;
317 }
318 if !is_shard_name(&shard.file_name()) {
319 continue;
320 }
321 let shard_path = shard.path();
322 let shard_name = shard.file_name();
323 let entries = match std::fs::read_dir(&shard_path) {
324 Ok(e) => e,
325 Err(_) => continue,
326 };
327 for entry in entries {
328 let entry = match entry {
329 Ok(e) => e,
330 Err(_) => continue,
331 };
332 if !is_entry_name(&shard_name, &entry.file_name()) {
333 continue;
334 }
335 let path = entry.path();
336 let file_type = match entry.file_type() {
337 Ok(file_type) => file_type,
338 Err(_) => continue,
339 };
340 if !file_type.is_file() {
341 continue;
342 }
343 let meta = match entry.metadata() {
344 Ok(m) => m,
345 Err(_) => continue,
346 };
347 if !meta.is_file() {
348 continue;
349 }
350 // Falling back to UNIX_EPOCH on a failed `modified()` means
351 // the entry sorts first in eviction - i.e., it would be
352 // evicted first. That is the safe direction: a cache that
353 // evicts an unreadable entry loses a redundant file, not
354 // correctness.
355 let mtime = meta.modified().unwrap_or(SystemTime::UNIX_EPOCH);
356 let size = meta.len();
357 out.push(CacheEntry { path, mtime, size });
358 }
359 }
360 Ok(out)
361 }
362}
363
364impl Cache {
365 /// The cache root directory. `pub(crate)` for tests that need to assert
366 /// sharding / shard creation.
367 #[allow(dead_code)]
368 pub(crate) fn root(&self) -> &Path {
369 &self.root
370 }
371}
372
373/// One entry on disk, pre-computed for the eviction walk.
374struct CacheEntry {
375 path: PathBuf,
376 mtime: SystemTime,
377 size: u64,
378}
379
380/// Whether `name` is one of this module's shard directories.
381///
382/// Exactly two lower-case hex characters, which is what [`Cache::entry_path`]
383/// produces from a blake3 digest. Written against the same alphabet rather than
384/// a looser "two characters" check, so a directory named `ab` is a shard and
385/// one named `zz` or `AB` is not.
386fn is_shard_name(name: &std::ffi::OsStr) -> bool {
387 name.to_str().is_some_and(|name| is_lower_hex(name, 2))
388}
389
390/// Whether `name` has the exact form written by [`Cache::entry_path`] for
391/// `shard`: 64 lower-case hexadecimal digest characters plus `.json`, with
392/// the digest beginning with the parent shard name.
393fn is_entry_name(shard: &std::ffi::OsStr, name: &std::ffi::OsStr) -> bool {
394 let (Some(shard), Some(name)) = (shard.to_str(), name.to_str()) else {
395 return false;
396 };
397 let Some(digest) = name.strip_suffix(".json") else {
398 return false;
399 };
400 digest.starts_with(shard) && is_lower_hex(digest, 64)
401}
402
403fn is_lower_hex(value: &str, expected_len: usize) -> bool {
404 value.len() == expected_len
405 && value
406 .bytes()
407 .all(|byte| byte.is_ascii_digit() || (b'a'..=b'f').contains(&byte))
408}
409
410/// Write a length-prefixed field to the hasher.
411///
412/// Length-prefixing rules out boundary collisions (`("ab","c")` vs
413/// `("a","bc")`) without depending on any byte that cannot appear in the
414/// payload. The length is a fixed 8-byte big-endian `u64`, so a single
415/// field can be at most `u64::MAX` bytes long - far longer than any real
416/// input.
417pub(crate) fn write_field(hasher: &mut blake3::Hasher, bytes: &[u8]) {
418 let len = u64::try_from(bytes.len()).expect("cache field longer than u64::MAX bytes");
419 hasher.update(&len.to_be_bytes());
420 hasher.update(bytes);
421}
422
423#[cfg(test)]
424mod tests;