The Cache Rules section provides fine-grained control over what content RunCache caches. While the default settings are optimized for the vast majority of WordPress sites, these rules let you customize caching behavior to suit your unique needs, such as e-commerce, membership sites, or highly dynamic content.

URL Path Exclusion

  • Exclude URL Path
    This is one of the most common and powerful rules. It lets you prevent caching for specific pages or entire sections of your site based on their URL paths. The default list includes common paths that should never be cached to ensure your site functions correctly.
    Default Exclusions Explained:
    • /.well-known.*: Used for server verification files, like SSL certificates. These must always be served dynamically.
    • /wp-admin/, wp-.*.php, index.php: Prevents caching of the WordPress backend and core login/script files.
    • /wp-json/: Excludes the WordPress REST API, which is used for real-time data communication.
    • /feed/, sitemap.*.xml: Ensures that RSS feeds and sitemaps are always generated fresh.
    • /login.*, /cart.*, /checkout.*, /my-account.*: Critical exclusions for e-commerce and membership sites to protect user-specific data.

These rules allow you to bypass the cache for visitors with specific cookies enabled in their browsers. This is essential for serving personalized content.

  • Exclude Cookie
    If a visitor’s browser sends a cookie with a name matching one in this list, RunCache will not serve them a cached page. This is the primary mechanism for ensuring logged-in users or customers with items in their cart see dynamic, personalized content.
  • Exclude the DONOTCACHEPAGE constant
    This is a developer-friendly feature. RunCache will automatically bypass the cache for any page where a plugin or theme has programmatically defined the standard WordPress DO_NOT_CACHE_PAGE constant. This allows developers to enforce no-cache rules directly from their code.

Browser & IP Rules

These rules allow you to control caching based on the visitor’s identity, such as their browser or IP address.

  • Exclude Browser User-Agent
    This option prevents caching for visitors whose browser user-agent matches a term in the list. The default values exclude common search engine crawlers and bots, which sometimes benefit from receiving fresh, uncached content.
  • Exclude Visitor IP Address
    Use this field to specify individual IP addresses that should always bypass the cache. This is useful for developers, content editors, and external services that need to see the live, uncached version of your site for testing or integration.

Query String Rules

By default, RunCache does not cache URLs that contain a query string (e.g., example.com/?some_parameter=value). This is a safe default, as query strings often indicate a dynamic action. These rules let you customize that behavior.

  • Ignore Cache Query String
    List query strings here that should be ignored by the cache engine. For example, if you add utm_source, a visit to example.com/?utm_source=google will be served the same cached page as a visit to example.com.
  • Include Cache Query String
    Use this to create separate cached versions of a page based on a specific query string. This is useful for features like language switchers (?lang=fr) or store filters (?filter_color=blue), where you want each variation to be cached independently.
  • Exclude Cache Query String
    This rule prevents a page from being cached if the URL contains a matching query string. 

Additional Cache Key

This is an advanced feature for developers who need to create different cached versions of a page based on server variables.

  • Set Additional Cache Key
    The cache key is the unique identifier for a cached page, typically just the URL. This option allows you to add additional NGINX variables (such as a visitor’s country code from GeoIP) to the key. This would create separate, distinct cached versions of the same URL for visitors from different locations, allowing you to serve geographically-specific content. 

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