crawl4ai/docs/llm.txt/9_cache_modes.md

Crawl4AI Cache System and Migration Guide

Overview

Starting from version 0.5.0, Crawl4AI introduces a new caching system that replaces the old boolean flags with a more intuitive CacheMode enum. This change simplifies cache control and makes the behavior more predictable.

Old vs New Approach

Old Way (Deprecated)

The old system used multiple boolean flags:

• bypass_cache: Skip cache entirely
• disable_cache: Disable all caching
• no_cache_read: Don't read from cache
• no_cache_write: Don't write to cache

New Way (Recommended)

The new system uses a single CacheMode enum:

• CacheMode.ENABLED: Normal caching (read/write)
• CacheMode.DISABLED: No caching at all
• CacheMode.READ_ONLY: Only read from cache
• CacheMode.WRITE_ONLY: Only write to cache
• CacheMode.BYPASS: Skip cache for this operation

Migration Example

Old Code (Deprecated)

import asyncio
from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler

async def use_proxy():
    async with AsyncWebCrawler(verbose=True) as crawler:
        result = await crawler.arun(
            url="https://www.nbcnews.com/business",
            bypass_cache=True  # Old way
        )
        print(len(result.markdown))

async def main():
    await use_proxy()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

New Code (Recommended)

import asyncio
from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler, CacheMode
from crawl4ai.async_configs import CrawlerRunConfig

async def use_proxy():
    config = CrawlerRunConfig(cache_mode=CacheMode.BYPASS)  # Use CacheMode in CrawlerRunConfig
    async with AsyncWebCrawler(verbose=True) as crawler:
        result = await crawler.arun(
            url="https://www.nbcnews.com/business",
            config=config  # Pass the configuration object
        )
        print(len(result.markdown))

async def main():
    await use_proxy()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Common Migration Patterns

Old Flag	New Mode
bypass_cache=True	cache_mode=CacheMode.BYPASS
disable_cache=True	cache_mode=CacheMode.DISABLED
no_cache_read=True	cache_mode=CacheMode.WRITE_ONLY
no_cache_write=True	cache_mode=CacheMode.READ_ONLY

Suppressing Deprecation Warnings

If you need time to migrate, you can temporarily suppress deprecation warnings:

# In your config.py
SHOW_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS = False