SYSTEM Cited by 1 source

Cloudflare Cache

Cloudflare Cache is the HTTP cache layer embedded in every Cloudflare POP (point-of-presence) that sits between client requests and customer origins. It is the primary substrate on which Cloudflare delivers its CDN, DDoS, and compression value, and the cache layer where dictionary-variant storage lives for Cloudflare Shared Dictionaries.

Minimal stub page — deeper treatment pending a dedicated post on the cache's internals.

Cache-key mechanics (scope: shared-dictionaries launch)

For systems/cloudflare-shared-dictionaries Phase 1 passthrough, the cache key is extended to vary on both:

• Accept-Encoding — whether the client supports gzip / br / zstd / dcb (delta-Brotli) / dcz (delta-Zstandard).
• Available-Dictionary — which dictionary hash (if any) the client has cached.

Consequence: mid-deploy, the edge can hold multiple cache variants of the same URL — gzip, Brotli, Zstd, dcz-against-v1, dcz-against-v2, raw — each served to the client whose cached dictionary + Accept-Encoding match. Storage pressure grows with the dictionary-variant cardinality; named cache-variant explosion.

See also

• companies/cloudflare
• systems/cloudflare-fl2-proxy — the Rust proxy that front-ends the cache.
• systems/cloudflare-shared-dictionaries — new cache-key dimensions for dictionary transport.
• concepts/cache-variant-explosion — cartesian-product variant storage cost.

Seen in

• sources/2026-04-17-cloudflare-shared-dictionaries-compression-that-keeps-up-with-the-agent — "The Cache keys are extended to vary on Available-Dictionary and Accept-Encoding so dictionary-compressed responses are cached correctly."