Cache Types

Magento does not have one cache. It has roughly fifteen separate cache types, each a named slice holding one kind of derived data. config holds the merged XML configuration. layout holds merged page structure. block_html holds HTML fragments produced by individual blocks. full_page holds whole rendered pages. Others hold table definitions (db_ddl), attribute metadata (eav), collection results (collections), translations (translate), web API configuration (config_webservice) and GraphQL resolver output (graphql_query_resolver_result, from the Magento_GraphQlResolverCache module). A target_rule type appears only on Adobe Commerce, which ships the related-product rule engine.

Seeing the state

bin/magento cache:status prints each type with 1 for enabled and 0 for disabled. A type can also be invalidated: still enabled, but holding data Magento knows is stale. The admin shows that as INVALIDATED. bin/magento cache:enable config and cache:disable config change the first state; cache:clean config clears the second.

Clean is not flush

cache:clean removes Magento's own tagged entries for the types you name. cache:flush empties the entire storage behind them. The long and short forms of a command are the same thing: bin/magento cache:clean config and bin/magento c:c config run identical code, because the CLI accepts any unambiguous abbreviation.

What trips people up

Flushing everything after every edit hides which type was stale, so you never learn the mapping: a changed di.xml needs config, a changed template needs block_html and full_page. Name the type.

<?php
// app/code/Vendor/CacheTools/Console/Command/InvalidateCommand.php
declare(strict_types=1);

namespace Vendor\CacheTools\Console\Command;

use Magento\Framework\App\Cache\TypeListInterface;
use Magento\Framework\Console\Cli;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputArgument;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;

class InvalidateCommand extends Command
{
    public function __construct(
        private readonly TypeListInterface $typeList,
        ?string $name = null
    ) {
        parent::__construct($name);
    }

    protected function configure(): void
    {
        $this->setName('vendor:cache:invalidate');
        $this->setDescription('Marks the named cache types as invalidated');
        $this->addArgument(
            'types',
            InputArgument::IS_ARRAY | InputArgument::REQUIRED,
            'Cache type codes, for example config layout'
        );
        parent::configure();
    }

    protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output): int
    {
        $types = $input->getArgument('types');
        $this->typeList->invalidate($types);
        $output->writeln('Invalidated: ' . implode(', ', $types));

        return Cli::RETURN_SUCCESS;
    }
}

// $ bin/magento vendor:cache:invalidate config layout
// Invalidated: config, layout

<!-- app/code/Vendor/CacheTools/etc/di.xml -->
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:ObjectManager/etc/config.xsd">
    <type name="Magento\Framework\Console\CommandList">
        <arguments>
            <argument name="commands" xsi:type="array">
                <item name="vendorCacheInvalidate" xsi:type="object">
                    Vendor\CacheTools\Console\Command\InvalidateCommand
                </item>
            </argument>
        </arguments>
    </type>
</config>

$ bin/magento cache:status
Current status:
                        config: 1
                        layout: 1
                    block_html: 1
                   collections: 1
                     full_page: 1
                     translate: 1

$ bin/magento cache:clean layout block_html
Cleaned cache types:
layout
block_html

// Vendor\CacheTools\Model\StaleReport (constructor body shown longhand)
private TypeListInterface $typeList;

public function __construct(TypeListInterface $typeList)
{
    $this->typeList = $typeList;
}

public function getStaleCodes(): array
{
    // getInvalidated() returns the types Magento has marked stale,
    // keyed by type code, with label and description for each.
    return array_keys($this->typeList->getInvalidated());
}