headless-caching-strategy

A headless VTEX caching strategy classifies API responses by cacheability to assign TTLs and invalidation rules, separating public data cached at the CDN edge and BFF from fresh transactional endpoints.

Headless storefronts hit VTEX API rate limits when lacking a defined caching strategy, causing calls to hit origin services too frequently and increasing latency, costs, and rate-limit issues.

Configure stale-while-revalidate in your VTEX BFF cache by classifying API responses, defining TTL ranges for cacheable public data, and serving stale content while asynchronously revalidating from the origin.

The best way to invalidate cached data in a headless VTEX app is an event-driven framework using webhooks, events, and manual purges to ensure non-cacheable endpoints remain fresh.

Transactional VTEX API responses are non-cacheable and should remain fresh by bypassing CDN edge caching, reserving edge cache storage for cacheable public data with defined TTL ranges.

A BFF is needed to separate cacheable public data from non-cacheable transactional VTEX data, guiding architecture decisions that apply appropriate TTLs and stale-while-revalidate patterns across edge caches.