How do timeout, KEY_PREFIX, and VERSION shape Django cache behavior?

Uses Django cache configuration to control freshness, namespace sharing, and safe cache migrations.

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Django's cache timeout controls how long a value may remain before expiry; None can mean no expiry and zero means do not cache. KEY_PREFIX namespaces keys when several applications or environments share a backend. VERSION adds a cache version so code can move to a new key space without deleting every old entry first. These settings prevent collisions, but they do not decide whether the cached data is safe for this user.

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Uses Django cache configuration to control freshness, namespace sharing, and safe cache migrations.

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Uses Django cache configuration to control freshness, namespace sharing, and safe cache migrations.
Django's cache timeout controls how long a value may remain before expiry; None can mean no expiry and zero means do not cache. KEY_PREFIX namespaces keys when several applications or environments share a backend. VERSION adds a cache version so code can move to a new key space without deleting every old entry first. These settings prevent collisions, but they do not decide whether the cached data is safe for this user.
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I still design the logical key from every input that changes the result, including tenant, locale, permission scope, and representation version where relevant. A deployment can bump a version to avoid reading incompatible serialized values, then let old entries expire. Per-view and low-level cache APIs may have different key composition, so I verify the final backend key when debugging. Timeouts follow the data's tolerated staleness rather than one global default.

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Using one global timeout for all data
Omitting tenant or permission scope from a key
Bumping VERSION without capacity planning

How do timeout, KEY_PREFIX, and VERSION shape Django cache behavior?

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