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Control HTTP caching of static assets served by client() #8
Description
challenge / use case
client() (src/handlers/client.ts) serves the application bundle through express.static with default options,
so every file, including content-hashed bundles, is served with Cache-Control: public, max-age=0. Observed on
@metreeca/gate 0.13.0:
| Resource | Cache-Control |
|---|---|
index.html / SPA navigation |
public, max-age=0 |
hashed bundles (index-*.js/css) |
public, max-age=0 |
| unhashed public files (docs, images) | public, max-age=0 |
Every page load revalidates every bundle, and downstream caches (Cloud CDN, Firebase Hosting) store nothing.
proposal
Let client() apply a cache policy per resource class:
index.html:no-cache, so deploys are picked up immediately- content-hashed files:
public, max-age=31536000, immutable - other static files: a short, configurable
max-age
Hashed files are identified by an application-declared path prefix, e.g. client(path, { immutable: "/_/" }),
matched to the build's assetsDir, rather than guessed from file names.
alternatives
- Detecting hashed files by matching the bundler's hash suffix in file names: needs no application change, but is
fragile across bundler versions and naming configurations. - Setting headers in each application ahead of
client(): works, but duplicates the policy in every consumer.
notes
Downstream, ec2u/pipe would switch assetsDir in packages/client/vite.config.ts to a dedicated directory to adopt it.
Activity