redis_skill

Overview

This skill teaches Redis data structures and commands for high-performance caching and real-time applications. It covers strings, lists, hashes, sets, sorted sets, streams, transactions, pub/sub, key management, and server operations. The material is practical and focused on common patterns you will use in production.

How this skill works

The skill explains core Redis primitives and CLI commands so you can read and run examples immediately. It shows how to manipulate values, manage keys and TTLs, run atomic transactions, use pub/sub for messaging, and perform server maintenance. Each section highlights common options and caveats for predictable behavior in distributed systems.

When to use it

• Implementing low-latency caching for web apps and APIs
• Storing session data, feature flags, or user state with fast reads/writes
• Building real-time features like leaderboards, activity feeds, and chat
• Coordinating distributed tasks using pub/sub, streams, or locks
• Performing atomic updates and simple transactions on lightweight data

Best practices

• Prefer appropriate data types: strings for values, hashes for objects, lists for queues, sets for unique collections, sorted sets for ranked data
• Use expirations (EX, PX) for cache and session keys to avoid stale data
• Watch and MULTI/EXEC for conditional multi-command updates; use Lua scripts for stronger atomic guarantees
• Avoid KEYS in production; use SCAN for safe key iteration to prevent blocking
• Choose UNLINK for large deletes to offload cost, and monitor TTLs with TTL/PTTL

Example use cases

• Caching API responses with SET EX and cache-aside pattern using GET/SET
• Rate limiting by incrementing counters (INCR/INCRBY) with expirations per window
• Realtime leaderboard: ZADD to update scores, ZREVRANGE to fetch top N
• Task queue: RPUSH/LPUSH producers and BLPOP consumers for reliable work distribution
• Pub/Sub chat: PUBLISH messages to channels and SUBSCRIBE clients for live updates