Drivers and Tags

A driver is the backend behind the Cache facade. Which one runs is a line of configuration, and the API you write does not change.

The stores

config/cache.php holds a stores array and a default key read from CACHE_STORE. In Laravel 13 the default is database: values are serialized into a cache table, which ships in the default 0001_01_01_000001_create_cache_table.php migration and can otherwise be generated with php artisan make:cache-table. It needs no extra service and works across several web servers, at the cost of a query per read.

file writes serialized values under storage/framework/cache/data. Fine on one machine, invisible to the next machine behind a load balancer. redis and memcached hold values in memory and are the fastest option; they also support tags and atomic locks. array keeps values in PHP memory for the current process only, so nothing survives the test that wrote it, and null discards every write.

Reach a store by name with Cache::store('redis')->get($key), which is the same call as cache()->store('redis')->get($key).

Tags

Tags group keys so you can drop the group: Cache::tags(['reports'])->put($key, $value, 600), then Cache::tags(['reports'])->flush(). The redis, memcached and array stores support tags; file, database, dynamodb and storage do not and throw a BadMethodCallException. Tags cost bookkeeping on every write, and a flush walks the tag's members instead of deleting one key.

<?php
// config/cache.php

return [

    'default' => env('CACHE_STORE', 'database'),

    'stores' => [

        // Nothing persists past the current process. Used by tests.
        'array' => [
            'driver' => 'array',
            'serialize' => false,
        ],

        // The Laravel 13 default: one row per key in the 'cache' table.
        'database' => [
            'driver' => 'database',
            'connection' => env('DB_CACHE_CONNECTION'),
            'table' => env('DB_CACHE_TABLE', 'cache'),
        ],

        // One file per key, on this machine only.
        'file' => [
            'driver' => 'file',
            'path' => storage_path('framework/cache/data'),
        ],

        // In memory, and the store to pick if you want tags or locks.
        'redis' => [
            'driver' => 'redis',
            'connection' => env('REDIS_CACHE_CONNECTION', 'cache'),
            'lock_connection' => env('REDIS_CACHE_LOCK_CONNECTION', 'default'),
        ],

        // Tries 'database' first and falls back to 'array' if it fails.
        'failover' => [
            'driver' => 'failover',
            'stores' => ['database', 'array'],
        ],

    ],

    // The shipped file also sets 'prefix' from CACHE_PREFIX.

];

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

$userTag = 'user:'.$user->id;

Cache::tags(['invoices', $userTag])
    ->put("invoices.{$user->id}.page.1", $page, 600);

// When that user's invoices change, drop every key tagged for them,
// without knowing what the keys were called.
Cache::tags([$userTag])->flush();

// Reading needs the same tags that wrote it.
$page = Cache::tags(['invoices', $userTag])->get("invoices.{$user->id}.page.1");

<!-- phpunit.xml -->
<php>
    <env name="CACHE_STORE" value="array"/>
    <env name="SESSION_DRIVER" value="array"/>
    <env name="QUEUE_CONNECTION" value="sync"/>
</php>

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

// Default store (database here): survives a Redis restart.
Cache::put('billing.last-sync', '2026-03-01 09:00:00', 86400);

// Named store, for a hot value that can be rebuilt.
Cache::store('redis')->put('home.featured', $ids, 300);

// Shorthand for the line above.
cache()->store('redis')->put('home.featured', $ids, 300);